Best of HDW takes a closer look at some of the most exciting projects featured in Design Museum Holon's "Designers Plus Ten" exhibition.

Adital Ela founded her studio, S-Sense Design, after getting her Master's in Sustainable Design from Design Academy Eindhoven. She was a 2010 TED Fellow and consults the Israeli Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor in sustainability—none of which she told the design panel when she made her presentation during Holon Design Week.

Instead she focused on her work, like "WindyLight," a street light that's powered with wind energy. Each "WindyLight" looks like a cluster of pinwheels made of LED lights that can be illuminated with even very small gusts of wind. She also made "Waterfull," a water collector and filter than operates on a completely passive system.

Her most developed project is Terra, a collection of stools made from a special composite of compressed dirt and natural fibers. It's a direct result of a study she did about Middle Eastern ancient building methods and materials. On this process she learned from several people among them are Daphna Yalon, Tal Bashan, Um Ajaj and her own grandmother who used to build ovens from mud and straw.

"When I was studying for my Master's degree in sustainable design, I felt there was a very big gap between what we were being taught, and what people's life habits can be regarding sustainable design. I devoted my thesis to the question of "How can we learn from indigenous ways of living, to approach sustainable design in a deeper, more meaningful way?"

There are several kinds of Compressed Earth Blocks (CEB) already on the market. The commercial building varietals are typically made of non-expansive clay, silt powder and sand and small gravel. Adital's mixture, however, is equal parts soil, straw, horse manure and a touch of cane flower blooms, which means the material actually smells really nice. Adital's mission is to take her compression mold around to small, rural communities in developing countries and teach locals how to make furniture from free, readily available materials. As you can see in the images, the color of the stool varies depending on the kind of soil, straw and blooms or herbs on hand.