The beautiful thing about upcycled materials is that the end results often bear no resemblance to the original items. Such is the case with sculptor Kris Kuksi’s toy sculptures, which are constructed out of old toys, statues, and mechanical parts.
Upcycled Ottoman Made From Coffee Bags
by Dan Mendes, 11/11/09
This smart Upcycle Ottoman by Gus* Modern is made of repurposed jute bags that were once used to carry organic fair trade certified coffee. Produced in a limited quantity, each piece is unique and shows the branding and markings of the bags used in the process. No word if they still carry that wonderful coffee scent, but you can still identify which company produced the beans and where they came from.
Industrial design lab GR recently launched a clever new product called the ‘Aqua Jar’ that transforms any plastic bottle into an easy-pour pitcher. Formed from biodegradable and recyclable plastic, the attachment perfectly fits the universal coil of any plastic bottle, creating an attractive and sturdy mount allowing for water to be served anywhere with ease. Available in orange, graphite and frost, the Aqua Jar for Balvi was launched as part of the ZOCO exhibit at last month’s Valencia Design Week. Now if only they could come up with something for the orange juice carton!
When it comes to kicks, the rarer the better. And if you’re looking for originality, we guarantee you won’t find another pair quite like these upcycled junk-metal Jordans by artist Gabriel Dishaw. He whips metal and electronic scraps from old computers into crazy DIY shoe sculptures that will have any sneakerhead foaming at the mouth. We don’t advise wearing them due to the jagged edges, but they’re certain to be conversation starters when placed strategically on your coffee table.
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Tara St. James’ Upcycled Zipper Jewelry Adds Zip to Your Wardrobe
Self proclaimed pack-rat and the design mastermind behind the eco-fashion line Study Tara St. James knows how to make upcycling look good. So we weren’t surprised to see that her latest endeavor takes something as mundane as old zippers and transforms them into objects of desire fit for the pages of Vogue …
ANNOUNCING the Winners of the Inhabitat Green Halloween Costume Contest!
DRUMROLL PLEASE…
The results of our Green Halloween Costume Contest are finally in! Thank you to everyone who entered – we couldn’t be more psyched about the amazing homemade entries we got pouring in. It wasn’t easy, but we finally narrowed it down to 15 fabulous finalists and then left it up to YOU to choose your favorites. So with out further ado, here are the winners!
re:Use Canopy Upcycled from Plastic Cups by BIOS Design Collective
One of the main principles of permaculture is that “the problem is the solution.” Problem: tons of waste cups created by attendees of the OutsideLands concert in San Francisco. Solution: a fabulous recycled cup canopy. BIOS Design Collective tapped a keg and invited their friends over for a canopy party, building a gorgeous wave of concave color at Stable Cafe just in time for Architecture and the City.
Elwood Green: 6 Star Sustainably Built Apartment Complex
High Density green living is on the rise in Elwood, Australia with Crosby Architect’s new Elwood Green project. Living up to its name, the high-density apartment building will house 25 units that are expected to receive an average 6-star rating – the highest honor currently available from the Green Building Council of Australia. What comes as a bit of surprise is the lack of active systems assisting in the green rating, which just goes to show that old ingenuity and smart design can create buildings every bit as sustainable as the most high-tech structures.
Recycled Paperpulp Cabinet by Debbie Wijskamp
It never ceases to surprise us that much of good, sustainable design is also deliciously fun. Take Debbie Wijskamp’s paperpulp cabinets, for instance. They are what their name implies: drawers and shelves made out of pureed paper mache. And while I want to write sophisticated sentences with phrases like ‘materials reuse’ and ‘resource conservation,’ I just can’t help thinking about how glorious it must be, in a third-grade sort of way, to mash paper into furniture. Wijskamp’s process validates these daydreams.
Stunning Open Air Library Pops Up in East Germany
What began as an assemblage of 1,000 empty beer cartons pulled together by residents in East Germany has now evolved into an incredible open air public library. Designed by Karo Architekten in collaboration with local residents, the grassroots project revitalizes a post-industrial district in Magdeburg, Germany by creating a cultural center and pop-up library where books are free to take and leave 24 hours a day. Opened this past June, the project introduces plenty of green space and reuses the facade of an old warehouse to beautiful effect.
Bus Shelter Made From Salvaged School Buses
Decommissioned school buses get sent to the scrapyard every day, so sculptor Christopher Fennell created this brilliant yellow bus shelter to keep the spirit of these buses going round and round. Situated in Athens, Georgia, the shelter is composed of three iconic yellow school buses dating from the years ‘62, ‘72, and ‘77. To create it Chris carefully chose …
Freakish Taxidermy Accessories Much Less Disgusting Than Fur Coats
Is that the vampire dude from Twilight?
Eeeeek! These taxidermied toppers and pigeon-wing pendants may get your gag reflex going, but they’re actually much more humane than the horrible and cruel mink coats and furs that we’ve been brainwashed to think of as “luxurious.” RP/Encore, with the taxidermy expertise of Reid Peppard, who happens to be vegetarian, makes their skin-crawling collection of jewelry …
Incredible LEGO Kitchen Renovation
A lot of us can recall spending hours upon hours of stacking colorful Legos into shapes and sizes that tickled our imagination as children. While some of us outgrew that phase, thankfully some of us didn’t forget the charm of the little Lego man’s smile or the amazingness contained within every little block. As Parisian designers Simon Pillard and Philippe Rosetti have proved with their chromatic Munchausen Lego Kitchen: you’re never to old to play with Legos!
World’s Tallest Treehouse Built From Reclaimed Wood
When God told Horace Burgess to build a treehouse, he promised that Burgess would never run out of materials. So far he hasn’t. Using tons of reclaimed wood, Burgess has built a 10 story treehouse in Crossville, Tennessee. Burgess claims it is the world’s largest treehouse and since no one has disputed him yet, his fantastic 100 foot tall structure continues its reign. Known as the Minister’s Treehouse, it should not be confused with the world’s tallest wooden building soon to be built, because its foundation is an 80-foot-tall white oak tree.
Bel & Bel Upcycles Vintage Vespas into Office Furniture
With so many slick electric motorcycles on the horizon, it’s getting increasingly difficult to justify the use of polluting, petroleum-powered older models. But instead of sending old Vespas to the trash pile, Spanish design studio Bel & Bel has a more creative solution: turn the stylish relics into snazzy pieces of furniture!
Hangeliers: Clothes Hanger Chandeliers by Organelle Design
Clothes hangers are clogging our landfills at a rate of nearly 8 billion per year. We’ve recently brought you designers who have been developing brilliant ways to tackle the problem through eco-friendly materials and innovative new designs. Now industrial designers Alex Witko and Courtney Hunt at Organelle Design have hit upon another great idea — Hangeliers, wonderful chandeliers made from off-the-shelf plastic and wood hangers.
8 Great Green Halloween Costumes
Halloween is undoubtedly one of the most fun holidays around, but it can also be stressful to try to come up with a clever costume that doesn’t require too much work. With all the awesome halloween contests and parties, finding that special costume with the perfect balance of intrigue and cleverness can really drive a person to their wit’s end! Don’t fret! Take a deep breath, and step away from the costume aisle at your local big box store, and let us inspire you with 8 awesomely green halloween costumes from Inhabitat Green Halloweens past.
Concrete Mushrooms: Transforming Abandoned Bunkers Into Eco Hostels
There are reportedly over 750,000 abandoned concrete bunkers scattered throughout Albania, remnants of Communist dictator Enver Hoxha and his policies of paranoid xenophobia. Now graduate students Gyler Mydyti & Elian Stefa have developed a plan called Concrete Mushrooms that would ‘invert the meaning’ of these structures by turning them into a network of habitable eco-hostels, cafés, gift shops and more.
Schoolhouse Rock Reaps Platinum Town Center
In California, one district’s fault is another town’s treasure. When the Portola Valley School District realized its mid-century single-room schoolhouse straddled the San Andreas Fault — known for its earthquakes — they sold off the site to the town. Today, that vintage property encompasses a super-eco $21-million Portola Valley Town Center that artfully balances seismic safety, community serenity and sustainable design.
Used Wine Crates Make Glowing Light Boxes
Wine makes the whole world more beautiful. Seriously, can you argue otherwise, given wine bottle cheese boards, used cork accoutrement — and now, these stunning light boxes from artist Tracey Johnson? They’re made out of used wine crates and a little bit of magic. Can’t tell? Read on.
Mikal Hameed Uses Trash to Make Music, Inspire Community
While transforming reclaimed office chairs and stereo equipment into fully functional sound systems – the ideas behind Mikal Hameed’s work could address the disconnect that many feel towards the current Green Movement. As he considers himself only to be “green out of necessity,” Hameed recognizes that the work he produces is reflective of the struggle and indifference experienced by much of society. He is passionate about bringing people together through the shared experience of music, and it is this passion that has led him to becoming our very own eco-friendly shaman of sound. Last week I had the chance to visit Mikal’s studio, and get to know more about where he find his materials, inspiration and his feelings about being called eco.
Shipping Containers Transform Warehouse Into Office Space
After finding an affordable and convenient warehouse space in the industrial section of Santa Ana, Orange County, local printing company MVP decided to turn part of their premises into an office space. The warehouse wasn’t equipped to accommodate private offices, and the company felt that keeping the whole space climate-controlled would be wasteful, so they decided to group 10 20-foot shipping containers inside the warehouse to act as offices. The warehouse’s new industrial-chic workspaces proved to be an affordable option that continues to save the company on energy bills.
Chartwell School Unveils Sustainably-Built Prefab Classrooms
Toby Long, principal architect of CleverHomes and tobylongdesign, recently led the effort to produce one of the first CHPS (Collaborative for High Performance Schools) certified relocatable classrooms in the United States. Working with the Chartwell School, Long and his San Francisco-based design/build/prefab company designed, prefabricated, and installed two green portable classroom structures, which were completed this summer in four weeks flat.
Plastic Concrete: Building Bricks Made From Landfill Waste
Recent RPI Masters of Architecture graduate Henry Miller has devised a way to reuse waste plastic as an aggregate in cement, circumventing the energy-intensive process of plastic recycling. By grinding up landfill-bound plastic and mixing it with portland cement, Miller was able to create a material just as strong as traditional concrete made with mined aggregate. The ingenious solution netted miller first place in the “Component Category” of the second annual Concrete Thinking for a Sustainable World competition.
Watershed: Recycled Bottle Eco Art Hits Age of Stupid Premier
Only 14% of plastic water bottles are recycled, and Americans add 30 million PET water bottles to landfills every day! Design firm MSLK has made its statement about plastic bottle use with Watershed, a series of bottle-droplets hanging in rain-like strings from a massive tree. The installation will be showcased at tonight’s Age of Stupid opening and will then travel to the D.U.M.B.O. Art Under the Bridge festival, carrying with it some hefty statistics about guilt and trash-making.
The Crate Man Cometh: Recycled Milk Crate Art
Holy leaping legos! This cratalicious creature may, at first glance, appear to be some kind of primitive transformer, but he actually deserves a lot more respect that. For this is none other than Crate Man! As his name implies, his mysterious erectors lovingly built him and a whole clan of crate peeps out of primary-colored crates – you know, the kind used to ship milk jugs in. As large and in charge as Crate Man may seem, he’s really a bit shy so not much is know about him. Read on to see the facts that we have gathered and ogle other personified crate creations.
Stunning Victorian Renovation Showcases Decades of SF History
One of our favorite projects from last weekend’s AIA Home Tours was a stunning historic victorian that was constructed in San Francisco’s Cole Valley in 1896, weathered the trippy 60’s and 70’s, and was recently renovated by Mork-Ulnes Design. The beautiful renovation tempers the warp and warble of the home’s eclectic past with pops of modern scandinavian design, the extensive use of salvaged materials reclaimed from the building, and skylights that suffuse the interior spaces in daylight.
Ames Cottage: A Small Space Marvel with Historic Roots
One trend we noticed in this year’s AIA Homes Tours in San Francisco was how the frugal use of floor space and an abundance of natural light can add volume to otherwise downsized floor plans. Boor Bridges Architects managed to do just this in the adaptive re-use of a 1940s tap dancing studio, formerly used by famed dancer Betty Mae, into a kind of urban luxury cottage marked by modern minimalism and subtle hints of years past.
StrawJet Transforms Straw Waste Into Building Beams
StrawJet, of Ashland, Oregon, has developed a unique process for the creation of structural building components from a variety of waste agricultural stalks. Essentially, they have created a machine that takes waste stalks and creates a tightly wrapped beam which can then be applied to many different facets of construction. The cables are made and wrapped without glues, resins or chemicals and are made completely from waste material. As long as we are growing food there will be straw, so why not use it creatively?
Found Cutlery Made from Recycled Plastic Bottles
Spanish designer Oscar Diaz has found a new way to rescue our Earth from discarded plastic bottles. In a series called “Found” the designer has cleverly produced a range of super-light flatware cut straight from the bottle. Each fork, knife and spoon assumes the bottles’ shapely angles and curves and feature an ergonomically designed grip that makes them as easy to pick up from the table as any other cutlery.
Odds & Ends Recycled Furniture Changes the Value of Trash
Odds & Ends, Bits & Pieces is a beautiful four-piece furniture set made entirely out of re-purposed materials. Designed by Inhabitat favorite Jo Meesters, the spring-colored furniture was crafted using a variation of upholstering and weaving techniques and is an amazing transformation of 34 discarded wooden beams and 16 leftover blankets.
Trash Temple Made from 100 Tons of Recycled Plastic Bottles
We generate so much trash on a daily basis that it wouldn’t be surprising if future generations mistakenly thought that we actually worshipped all the garbage we toss into landfills. That’s the idea behind Salzig Design’s Temple of Trash, a temporary structure built in a Rotterdam, Netherlands port area as part of the 2007 Follydock Festival. The waste-filled walls of the temple are constructed 100 tons of PET bottles pressed into bales!
Eco-Friendly Back to School Supply Kit
If this is your first week back in school-mode, you might have already done some shopping for supplies. But if you still need some essentials, why not pick up the ones made from recycled, salvaged and non-toxic materials like the ones in this handy and eco-friendly back to school kit? It has everything you need to green the inside of your backpack, all in one neat bundle!
Sonic Fabric Made of Recycled Cassette Tape Lets You Listen to Your Clothes
Now that our melody-holders of choice are CDs and MP3s, cassette tapes are clunky relics that serve little purpose other than treating us to an occasional hint of nostalgia. Luckily, internationally-exhibiting conceptual artist Alyce Santoro has come up with a way to transform the jumbly mess of tape that resides in old cassette tapes into beautiful and durable fabric! Called Sonic Fabric, Ms. Santoro’s invention has been spun into shimmery dresses, sparkly umbrellas and sleek ties. And Sonic Fabric isn’t just lovely to look at – it makes music too! Check out a video of the cloth actually being “played” after the jump.
LOTS MORE GREAT GREEN DESIGN STORIES HERE... KEEP READING!
