When launching our Poma/Olera series during the last Dutch Design Week (read all about it here) we had a lovely chat with journalist Jasmijn Missler of Dutch newspaper Trouw. 
Although this hasn't boiled down to a 'real' article in the newspaper yet, we're happy to get a little mention in this piece about food waste. 
Check it out here:

In the article the Poma/Olera is mentioned briefly and described as a fruit bowl making it possible to keep different kinds of fruit and vegetables in separate compartments to avoid them being subject to the ethylene gas emitted by ripening fruits like apples and bananas.
Which is, of course, very true.
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But the Poma/Olera series has more dimensions than just separating different fruits.

The fruitbowl also has multiple presentation platters for fruits that should be eaten first, while also serving as a lid  keeping the stock below in a dark and slightly cooler (due to evaporation cooling) space.

Also part of the series is ripening bowl Patera Maturus which uses ethylene gas emitted by certain fruits to speed up the ripening process of other varieties like avocado or mango.

The reason we're expanding a little on the subject, is because later on the article mentions a couple of things you can do to keep fruit and vegetables fresh for longer and Poma/Olera pretty much covers them all.

Happy to know our extensive homework during the research phase paid off ;-).

<Read all about Poma/Olera>

A month ago Today, Eindhoven was the worlds' epicenter of design, and slap bang in the main square of all Dutch Design Week festivities was a large white box stating "Design bepaalt de koers", Dutch for "Design sets the course".

​The box was a temporary building designed to represent a blank sheet ready for a the first draft of a new design, and was commissioned by Dutch bank ABN AMRO.
​For 9 days this pavilion was the home of 4 Game Changers: designs that can help us live more sustainably daily lives.

​One of those Game Changers: our Poma/Olera series.
Brandbase and ABN AMRO gave us the opportunity to come up with a solution for everyday fruit and vegetable storage. 
(More about the origins of Poma/Olera can be found here)

Our design was accompanied by the Transformer table (getting better with age), a candle using fat from a water sanitation plant and a filter that takes out the micro-plastics from your washing machine waste water.  

The ABN AMRO Game Changers exhibition was set up as an experience: up to 15 visitors accompanied by a host would be guided along the 4 different Game Changers with a professional voice-over and well timed lighting schedule.

This meant that as a visitor of the Game Changers Pavilion you really experienced design, rather than simply looking at it. Something very different to most other exhibitions and very professionaly executed.

Because of the voice-over directing the pace of the little tour, people didn't really have the time to linger around our work and take photographs to share online.
That's why we snuck in before the show started to get a few pics of the Poma/Olera presentation.

Having ABN AMRO backing our project meant that we reached audiences we probably would have missed otherwise.

We were very happy we got to tell about House of Thol to a professional audience during a Sustainable investment event and expanded our network tremendously.
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Apart from an interview with a journalist from a national newspaper that will hopefully be published in a few months, we had a lovely chat with Francis of Sublime radio, which let into our 60 seconds of radio fame that you can listen to here.

Not being able to stand next to our designs was new to us, and made for a refreshingly laid back Dutch Design Week.

It also meant we missed out on a lot of direct response to our Poma/Olera series, and that's kind of a shame.
We love getting into conversation about our designs, to clarify the decisions we made and brainstorm about future possibilities.
​Luckily a lot of people still managed to reach out to us and tell us what they thought about Poma/Olera via e-mail and social media

Most heard response was: "When will the series be for sale?" and "Where can i get a Poma/Olera fruit bowl?".

​With so many specific requests, we're happy to get a move on: We'll be producing a small Poma/Olera series in house meant for direct sales on the short term, while at the same time diving deeper into terracotta production possibilities as close to home as possible.
We're not in this alone: Fonds Kwadraat is helping us with the next step.

We've currently set the price of a large Poma/Olera bowl (Patera Magnus) at €195,-. 
Production will take approximately 4-6 weeks.

Interested in keeping your fresh food fresh?
Get in touch!​

Sublime is a Dutch radio station all about soul, funk and jazz. Aside from music, they feature a super cool side step into sustainable and social progress every hour called 'Nieuws van de vooruitgang' (news of progress).

Listen to the (Dutch) piece here >
Sander and Francis zoom in on the Dutch Design Week fairly quick, and the Poma Olera series is the first project  discussed.

More can be found on Sublimes website.

For more information about the Poma/Olera, click here.

It all started with a phonecall in June: ABN AMRO was looking for designers to come up with a sustainable solution for everyday situations, and if we could pitch an idea in July?

Since our House of Thol slogan is 'Durable products for easy green living' of course we had to participate!
We had a few ideas up our sleeve that could perhaps impact a marker like Earth Overshoot Day.

We took a close look at our own day-to-day and found plenty of things that we still can do better.
​One of the things that's a real problem, is food waste: with two young kids with fluctuating appetites in the house, we can't help but throw out food ever so often.
Such a waste! Not only because of the money, but also because of the resources we waste.

And this goes beyond our household: in the Netherlands we throw out 34 kilograms of food each per year, and globally one third of the food produced is wasted.
That's about 1.3 billion tons!
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If we could save only a quarter of that amount, we could feed every hungry mouth in the world (source). 

Bringing it back to our own small household: what can we do to avoid food waste in our daily lives?
We noticed we often have trouble with fruits and vegetables: what is the best way to store them, so they stay fresh for longest and we don't have to throw out wrinkled bell peppers?

Turns out not every fruit and vegetable plays nice with others, so keeping them all together in one large fruit bowl might not be such a great idea: the ethylene coming from fruits like apples can negatively impact the taste or ripeness of other fruits in the bowl.
Anyway, learning about the best way to store fresh food involved a whole lot of research (spreadsheets, seriously) that deserves its own blog post soon.

Back to the process: We presented our plans in Amsterdam in July and the day after our meeting with the jurors we drove off to the Schwarzwald in a 42°c heat and two eager little boys in a car without airconditioning.

We spent two blissful weeks of summer break, and got the phonecall with the final go for our Poma/Olera project while en route.

These past months, ever since returning home from our break, have been all about Poma/Olera. 

The design changed somewhat from the first drafts and we created a series of round vessels specifically designed to store fruits and vegetables in a better way.

The making process involved a lot of sketching,computer drawing, 3d printing, mold making, clay casting, finishing, failing, doing it again, changing the molds, recasting, firing the kiln, glazing tests, new glazing tests, production, production, production.
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Well, your typical design process, really.

We're super happy and proud to be able to showcase the first prototypes of our Poma/Olera series at the Game Changers Pavilion on the Ketelhuisplein during this Dutch Design Week.
We'd love to see you there!