Petko Tashev: sustainable design

Everyone has an #energystory #11

Q: What happens in the Home of Sustainable Things shop?

Each Energy Story interview is inspired by the questions local people ask Islington Faces about cutting carbon/tackling climate change. For this interview our question is all about sustainable design and innovative ways to reuse materials

Everyone has an energy story. “Design should not cost the Earth” is the founding principle of Islington’s most original shop, The Home of Sustainable Things. Here, founder and co-owner, Petko Tashev explains how in a circular economy what’s usually thought of as waste may be a material that can be turned into something beautiful and useful. This is the place to go to be part of a far less-wasteful design experience. Interview by Nicola Baird. Photos by Kimi Gill

Two years ago (2019) on the corner of Barnsbury Street and Liverpool Road a unique shop emerged which showcases sustainable home decor, The Home of Sustainable Things. Go in, or look through the window, and you’ll see cups and jewellery dishes made from egg shells, pendant lights made from pine needles, handles made from food waste and vases, mats and candle sticks made from hemp, mycelium and timber industry waste.

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Nothing is what it first seems: a ‘stone’ side table has been created from unrecyclable paper pulp waste and a desk lamp from horse manure. This desk lamp is so cool – and something that I also need – that I buy one.

“People can’t feel, sense or touch climate change. It’s not tangible for the people in the UK,” says Petko Tashev whose mission is to help promote the designers and artists on the cutting edge of the circular economy. “For decades we’ve been producing waste and now we need to rethink this – it’s the next big collective challenge. We should not be making things that are useless and degraded at the end of its life cycle.”

To illustrate his point Petko holds up a beautiful vase made from the glass elements in consumer items like fridges which used to be sent to landfill. “It’s the hardest thing to break through – that barrier people have about waste – and help them to rethink it.”

Team work
Working with his colleague and partner, Desislava Vangelova, who like Petko has a background in events, rethinking the potential of waste is exactly what the designs in their shop, The Home of Sustainable Things, makes you do in very tangible ways. “At first we used the shop to do marketing and pop-ups but we wanted to do something for ourselves. We wanted to show off new products and materials, and then we decided to do not new, but only sustainable materials. When I started to research I didn’t think it would be hard to find circular designs, but nothing like this was being done anywhere else, despite all the talk,” he says.

As you look around the shelves you can see that together Petko and Desislava have picked items from designers in the UK and Europe that transform the idea of what is waste. “Essentially we pick products made from so-called waste materials that are upcycled – or kept away from landfill – and made into fully functional or very styled products that can complement people’s houses.” You might find tiles made from pine needles and pendant lights fashioned from orange peel from juicers but there’s no DIY-feel to this shop: it’s all achingly cool high-end design with the focus on closing the loop so less stuff gets thrown away, or even composted.

Many of the items turn your thinking upside down. For instance, did you know that, “Paper can’t be recycled infinitely, maybe only four to six times before it is discarded and probably incinerated,” explains Petko. But this pulp can be surprisingly strong and is ideal for making a bench, or shelving. Agricultural waste also has huge potential says Petko pointing out a leather-like bag made from banana fibre and coconut water that has gone off. While egg shells can be moulded into all sorts of shapes cheaply, including egg cups, although the design that’s on sale at his shop isn’t yet dishwasher-safe.

Sometimes an item is more about protecting local distinctiveness and biodiversity than tackling waste, such as, “slippers and a rug from Italy produced to make a change. A lot of wool is left unused so now nine breeds of sheep are decreasing fast, so creating these products support the sheep farmers, is good for tourism [by keeping the sheep that are local to the place] and benefits a collective of women,” he says. Petko is also a big promoter of hemp because it is “a native [UK] plant which is strong and durable, and so stylish but also has the potential to be used for roofing. There’s no need to produce more plastic.”

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5 places Petko Tashev likes in Islington

• I’m living in Southgate now but I often prefer to walk for an hour or so rather than take the bus or train. It’s good for research!
• I like walking down the canal, especially when it’s not busy in the mornings.
• I enjoy the secluded walk along the New River that takes you to Stoke Newington. It’s a walk to clear your mind and thoughts. It’s wonderful and I very much cherish it.
• There are a couple of parks I enjoy visiting especially the community garden close to Sainsbury’s, Culpeper Community Garden on 1 Cloudsley Road. I like to spend time on the benches listening to the birds.
• Gibson Square Gardens is a beautiful place to sit down and have a sandwich looking at the birds and blossom. It’s nice to relax there for 10-15 minutes.
• Barnsbury is a wonderful place. It’s so enjoyable to walk beside the blossoming trees in the parks and houses’ gardens. It’s a really nice village feel. For food, Sunday café, 169 Hemingford Road is my favourite place to eat – I love their pancakes with fruit compote and also the courgette fritters. https://www.facebook.com/sundaybarnsbury

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The Home of Sustainable Things has pricey items – partly because many are one-offs – but Petko is sure that prices will fall, pointing out that “a few decades ago, plastic was expensive.”

“Sustainability should be inclusive not exclusive,” he says. “Obviously we can’t compete with big shops but everything here we know who made it.”

Petko is fascinating to talk to, hugely well-informed and passionate about the designs he’s showcasing and it all came about thanks to a test – “We began with a pop up in 2018 and were really encouraged when people said ‘you are the new William Morris of our time’. So we opened in August 2019.”

But even with that backing, opening a sustainable design shop is not as simple as running a coffee shop where people know exactly what you are selling, coffee! “People do need to be persuaded – anything this new is very difficult to promote as people have no awareness and so we are facing a lot of disbelief and questions – for example how long will door handles made from food waste or vases from takeaway cups last – but I find people are very interested and recently more architects and interior designers are coming here; they are people who are really nice, well-educated and have thought about the issues we face.”

“Sustainability and circular design are still hugely misunderstood and perhaps not even heard of. We show that these things are possible,” says Petko. It’s a good point, and for anyone reading this Islington Faces urges you to go and have a look at the Home of Sustainable Things and find out just how versatile things that at first seem only suitable for landfill actually can be.

In Islington
Petko really values a community feel which is partly why he has lived or worked in Islington for the past 20 years. He spent a long time at an Upper Street bar, Keston Lodge (now closed) – and still enjoys those wonderful moments of serendipity when he “sees people in the street who I haven’t seen for 10 years.”

“I like the vibrancy of Islington, and I really liked it especially before it became so expensive. Young people who contributed to the diversity and vibrancy are pushed out – but it’s still a wonderful place to live with independent shops.”

The past year of Covid lockdowns has convinced Petko that the council would do well promoting the many things you can do in the area, including promoting shops, businesses and cafes, almost as if it was a tourist hotspot. “Everyone has their own website so it’s very hard to find out what’s going on locally, when suppose you have a day off and are thinking what will I do or where can I bring the kids?” His suggestion is make use of Islingtonians ability to promote the best of their areas on a website or Islington app through adverts, events and even local festivals because “If people are happy they live in Islington they’ll be proud to speak about it and draw people to it.”

It was fascinating to meet Petko and find out more about the potential of sustainable design to make use of ‘waste’ materials. But also inspiring to see that he’s been trying to think of ways to help increase footfall locally. Cutting down on our carbon footprint looks set to include better exploring the places where we live and work, rather than hotfooting it to somewhere else on the days we have some time off. So do go and have a look and be sure to ask questions too.

• The Home of Sustainable Things, 53 Barnsbury Street N1, Open Tues-Fri, 11am -6.30pm and Sat, 11am – 5pm, thehost.store info@backstageboutique.com
• instagram   @thehost.store

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Over to you
Also if you’d like to nominate someone to be interviewed who grew up, lives or works in Islington, or suggest yourself, please let me know, via islingtonfaces@gmail.com If you enjoyed this post you might like to look at the A-Z  index, or search by interviewee’s roles or Meet Islingtonians to find friends, neighbours and inspiration. Thanks for stopping by. Nicola