Minimalist aesthetic lamp uses repurposed waste for circular production

Posted on 06/02/2024 by Ida Torres

According to most existing research, around 60% of discarded materials from homes and businesses in the U.S end up in landfills or are incinerated. Of course there are those who have started segregating their trash and have actually recycled them or sent materials to recycling centers. Of course that’s still a very small percentage compared to those who are just not conscious about their consumption and waste cycle. Fortunately for the earth, there are companies whose main purpose is to come up with products that can address these “waste and pollution challenges” by using circular production.

Designer: Enkei

One such company is a Swedish company called Enkei which refers to itself as a “circular startup” as they aim to change the way we create products from the materials used to how they are actually manufactured. Their very first product is the Reminder (001) Lamp which is both functional and aesthetic but more importantly is majorly made from repurposed waste. The movable textile shade is made from various repurposed materials including high-end fashion deadstock, scrap-based wire, recycled bio-plastics, and 3D-printed fossil-free steel.

The lamp design itself is made up of two contrasting shapes that fit into each other like puzzle pieces. The lamp shade itself can be adjusted as well. It gives off a minimalist vibe that can fit right into your space with its space gray, white and luminous colors. It can look like a simple art piece if not used as a lamp but it also gives off a smart speaker vibe reminding us of Google Home speakers. But of course the selling point of this product is how it is produced with all the circular materials while still maintaining quality and design since of course you’d want a lamp to function as a lamp.

Enkei has also developed its own alternative to the usual concrete materials used in construction. ReCeramix uses ceramic waste from construction sites instead of the sand that is used to create concrete. The Reminder (001) Lamp will be unveiled at the Stockholm Design Week this week although you can already sign up to be waitlisted to buy the lamp.

The post Minimalist aesthetic lamp uses repurposed waste for circular production first appeared on Yanko Design.

This micro hotel structured from repurposed sea freight containers is energy-efficient and modular for the modern traveler!

Posted on 04/12/2021 by Shawn McNulty-Kowal

My Home, from German architecture firm Containerwerk, is a line of temporary hotel living quarters constructed from recycled sea freight containers for an energy-efficient, affordable, and micro-sized escape for the modern traveler.

Modern design wears many faces. From smart micro-technology to DIY minimalist architecture, the design of tomorrow is changing. Shipping containers also seem to nod towards the future. Championing a new charge of contemporary hotel concepts and travel solutions, repurposed shipping containers have become the shell for travelers across the globe.

My Home, a solution-based hotel solution, was designed by Germany-based architecture firm Containerwerk to provide a line of temporary living quarters for the modern traveler. Comprising a line of 21 hotel modules in the guise of repurposed sea freight containers, My Home was conceptualized specifically to provide company employees with hotel accommodations that don’t skimp out on elevated design elements or maximal comfort.

Affordability and design elements that feel high-end are among today’s top criteria when it comes to hotels. Adding to that, the architects at Containerwerk note, “ Guests’ expectations in terms of design and comfort are rising, and at the same time, sustainable hotel concepts are in demand.”

Enter My Home–completed in February 2020, the energy-efficient modules that make up the line of repurposed shipping containers measure 26sqm and are kept warm during colder months through a patented, high-performance insulation method. Constructed to fit four people comfortably, each module contains enough room for a fully equipped kitchenette, private terrace, separate entrance, light-flooded dining, and working area.

Lined with solar panels and bolstered with locally-sourced timber building material, each module that makes up My Home is built on a commitment to sustainability and practicality.

The supplemental luxuries that outfit most hotels, such as daily room cleaning and freshening up of bed linens aren’t forgotten with My Home either. Containerwerk developer suggests, “It is important to me that every guest feels at home. The apartments offer a feel-good factor, privacy, and yet maximum flexibility.”

Designer: Containerwerk

In order to start and finish the My Home project from a sustainable vantage point, the shipping containers require little to no excavation during the construction process.

For their versatile geometric shape, each repurposed shipping container becomes a stackable module that doubles the interior living space when put together.

An alternative anchoring process that involves welding allows each module to station to the floor with little alteration to the terrain’s original state.

The post This micro hotel structured from repurposed sea freight containers is energy-efficient and modular for the modern traveler! first appeared on Yanko Design.

Two DIYers built this off-grid micro-cabin from repurposed steel and recycled building material for almost no cost!

Posted on 09/10/2021 by Shawn McNulty-Kowal

Nathalie and Greg Kupfer’s micro-cabin is built from repurposed waste findings and secondhand furnishings, outfitted with rainwater collection sites and solar systems for off-grid living.

We each have our own budget shopping tricks. Some of us hit up department store sale racks, some hoard coupons and bring them out just in time for the holidays, and then a rare few know just the right dumpster where they’ll find the perfect lamp or photo frame to clean up and decorate the living room for free. Two select DIYers of that rare few found most of the structural and interior design elements for their new off-grid, micro-home in sidewalk waste piles and handoffs from friendly neighbors.

Retired industrial designer and former paramedic, Nathalie and Greg Kupfer began work on their off-grid micro-cabin in Canmore, Alberta after receiving a plot of ranch land and a decrepit shed from two neighbors. Following the cabin’s fortuitous beginnings, the Kupfer’s conceived a layout for their snug, solar-powered, 97-square-foot micro cabin built from recycled and repurposed outfittings, amounting to a total net cost of only $50.

During a summer spent collecting building material and constructing their new micro-home, the Kupfer’s found all they needed from neighborly help. Finding new purpose in discarded steel, the Kupfer’s cast the micro cabins siding in steel for an all-season, durable finish. Receiving a seemingly down-and-out garden shed from a neighbor, Nathalie and Greg scored insulation material and glazed windows to keep the home warm during colder months and to bring sweeping views inside the cabin’s domed 14-foot ceiling. Finally, by relocating gravel from the cabin’s driveway to the kitchen, the Kupfer’s designed and built a gabion wall behind the kitchen’s wood stove.

Before selling the materials that weren’t used for the cabin’s construction, the forested retreat cost the couple $2,109. Included in the project’s net cost, Nathalie and Greg put out an additional $20 to build and furnish an outhouse on the property. Once the cabin’s build reached completion, the DIYers got back almost all of the $2,109 they spent on construction by selling unneeded building material they bought through bartering.

Designers: Nathalie and Greg Kupfer

Built from repurposed roofing tiles, this exhibition space is inspired by natural cave dwellings and tree canopies!

Posted on 11/08/2021 by Shawn McNulty-Kowal

H&P Architects created entire facades out of tile waste found on Vietnam’s streets for Ngói Space, wrapping the city building in curtains of terracotta tile to produce a distinct look that uses light and shadows to challenge conventional architecture’s sense of space and give the building a microclimate quality unique to its framework.

Architects have felt inspired by natural dwellings for as long they’ve been building their own. Taking cues from the area’s surrounding landscape and proximate building material, architects are better able to integrate nature and its organic structure into their designs. Vietnam-based architecture firm, H&P Architects, found inspiration in the natural canopies and stratification of banyan fig trees as well as the assorted and multilayered chambers found in caves for Ngói Space, a new exhibition center built from repurposed tile construction waste.

The tile that constructs Ngói Space is familiar to Vietnam’s cityscape as it is more commonly used on roofs throughout urban provinces. H&P Architects created entire facades out of tile waste found on Vietnam’s streets for Ngói Space, wrapping the city building in curtains of terracotta tile to produce a distinct look that uses light and shadows to challenge conventional architecture’s sense of space and give the building a microclimate quality unique to its framework. A country known for tilework architecture, Vietnam’s crumbling tiled buildings are often demolished with little regard to the construction waste produced from the tile.

While the tiles are familiar to the roofs and ceilings of Vietnam, H&P gave discarded tiles new life by using them to build facades. Offering new life to Vietnamese tilework architecture and the building material itself, H&P Architects constructed Ngói Space’s frame entirely from concrete and wrapped it up with 2,000 ‘viglacera dong anh tiles’ that created beveled facades. The building is formed from concrete casting and glass windows, which are wrapped in tilework facades to create a unique exterior display.

A roof provides an outdoor seating area for guests to enjoy their drinks or just lounge around under the sun. The multi-story building functions as a large communal space, with different activity offerings on each level. Moving through the cavern-like halls cast from concrete, sunlight filters through the crisscrosses of tiled facades to brighten the building’s industrial interior. On the first floor, guests can gather and enjoy coffee or tea either indoors or out on the terrace before moving to the upper levels where seminar and exhibition spaces fill each floor. Then, the roof provides a space for people to gather outdoors and enjoy the full breadth of sunlight.

Terraces throughout the building are able to stay cool thanks to the microclimate quality the tiles create. Speaking on the building’s repurposed tilework, H&P Architects note, “The Ngói space was created as an inspiring solution to reusing these memory-filled tiles. On a larger scale, it orientates users towards a sustainable tomorrow, from the perspective of reaching back to the past to recognize and rediscover the core and hidden values of the original space and use those values to create spaces of the future.”

Designer: H&P Architects

The building’s concrete interior takes inspiration from natural caves to bring warmth to an otherwise industrial setting.

The triangles formed from repurposed tilework provide plenty of views of the surrounding area.

Sunlight that filters through the tilework creates mesmerizing puzzles of light on the building’s ceilings and floors.

Interior walls are more tightly packed with tiles to provide a dense, fuller feel.

At night, the golden light that pours out from Ngói Space helps it shine like a lantern in the dark.

These students designed a way of repurposing chewing gum to make skateboard wheels!

Posted on 04/04/2021 by Shawn McNulty-Kowal

The plastics used to build car tires are the same plastics used to make chewing gum. From the moment we spit our gum onto the ground, it will take upwards of 50 years for that one piece to even begin decomposition. Noticing the wasted potential of chewing gum and the harmful effects it poses on the environment, design students Hugo Maupetit and Vivian Fischer decided to collect wads of discarded chewing gum out of which they molded and constructed wheels for skateboards.

After noticing that discarded chewing gum, made from synthetic rubbers, could be repurposed to construct wheels for skateboards, Maupetit and Fischer visualized a future partnership with Mentos and Vans. In the imagined collaboration, they worked together to take the gum from the streets and bring the gum back to the streets in a sustainable way. “Our initiative is supposed to clean the streets in a sustainable way. That is why we invented a system that will transform used wheels and turn them into new ones,” Maupetit and Fischer explained. “No more waste is created and the material stays in use.”

Initiating the collaboration, Maupetit and Fischer suggested that ‘gum boards’ be installed throughout their university city of Nantes, where residents could tack their finished chewing gum. As the gum boards filled up, the individual pieces would be collected, cleaned, molded together with a stabilizing agent, and stained with natural dye to form the wheels’ bases. The vibrant color of chewing gum along with its rubbery texture makes it a playful, yet tough choice for tire production.

People have been chewing on gum since the 1860s, but it was only after World War II that manufacturers began using synthetic rubbers, like polyethylene and polyvinyl acetate to make chewing gum. Plastics, like synthetic rubber, are able to be molded, pressed, and hardened into different shapes, making the building material relatively durable and easy to work with. Plus, there’s no shortage of supply– it’s everywhere.

Designers: Hugo Maupetit and Vivian Fischer

In an imagined collaboration with Vans and Mentos, Maupetit and Fischer conceived a mode of operations for their “Off The Street” gum-wheel initiative, including gum collection and tire production.

Gum boards throughout the city designate a spot for passersby to tack their gum for future collection.

Once the gum boards are filled up, they’ll be collected for future cleaning, molding, and staining.

Finally, following the mold and stain manufacturing process, wheels can be made available in stores for skateboarders to purchase.

Invisible’s ‘The New Obsolete’ showcases self-constructed instruments, touts a typewriter-driven piano (video)

Posted on 28/10/2012 by Billy Steele

If you're hip to repurposing old tech for new inventions, Invisible is right up your alley. The Greensboro-based unit calls themselves a "mechanical music museum" and "a reverse engineered folk science daydream" when describing their elaborate set of sound-making contraptions and recycled video equipment. The outfit's effort The New Obsolete was part of the Moogfest happenings this weekend, and our curiosity was immediately piqued. This particular performance is labeled as "an exploded view of the strange romance between humans and technology."

Among all of the self-constructed instruments is the Selectric Piano: a typewriter that uses both computer and piano parts to control a keyboard. Each keystroke by the typist corresponds to a note added to collective soundscape and a mounted video camera allows the audience to keep tabs on the textual component. The project also showcases an object known as Elsewhere's Roof. The device controls a set of drum and percussion tools with water dropping into a few rather hi-tech Mason jars. In addition to arsenal of noise makers, multi-channel video and library of collected audio (via tape decks and turntables, of course) rounds out the lot. We were able to catch one of the stellar showings, so hit the gallery below for a look at the wares while a snippet of the action awaits beyond the break.

Gallery: Invisible: The New Obsolete