CHRIS BURTON’s UPCYCLING: Repose Lounge
by Emily Pilloton
The next time you pass by a construction site, take a closer look… you may find designer and Savannah College of Art and Design MFA student Chris Burton scouring through the debris, hunting for material for his next chair or table. His recent exhibition at Savannah’s Red Kite Studio, entitled “Upcycle of Waste,” features clever designs that utilize construction waste, dumpster debris, and other urban detritus as raw material for some lovely pieces of furniture. His Repose Lounge chair, for example, is “designed to utilize all lengths of wood used in construction.” It combines plywood with PVC piping cut-offs, which form the slats of the seat and back. Despite the discarded materials, Burton is clever in his material applications, making the most of the PVC’s flexible nature to provide a surprisingly comfortable seat.
Taking recycling to the next level, “upcycling” is Burton’s shrewd interpretation of the trash-into-treasure techniques that many green-minded designers (and we at Inhabitat) love. An environmentally-conscious Californian and ex-construction worker, Burton is inspired by the cultivation of waste into furniture pieces and usable art. We all know how much waste the construction industry produces, and it’s great to see a young designer turning one man’s trash into another man’s comfortable chair. Stay tuned later in the day for more of Chris Burton’s pieces…
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Goooo Burton! By the way, Chris, if you read this, you can get lots of nifty free materials at the Georgetown (Savannah) dump on Saturdays. I furnished my house with some of the best Savannah trash. But that’s only because I’m a cheapskate. Still, way to go, man!