AM: Material reuse examples

I started looking at material reuse examples on the internet. I steered clear of the 'arts and crafts' level material reuse projects, as I feel they have a limited value regarding this project, and have an almost temporary feel. I came across two excellent examples of material reuse; one local, and one from a foreign designer.

Formed by a collaboration with the initiative Mobilize Brazil and designer Mauricio Arruda, Mobiliario Politico is a group that takes discarded political advertisements and turns them into furniture. Creating useful items from the often hollow promises made by campaigning politicians has saved thousands of tons of waste from going into the landfill, and will save countless more due to the open source nature of the project.

Juliet Arnott, a contributor to the social enterprise Rekindle, constructs furniture from waste timber. Starting in Auckland, she moved her operation to Christchurch following the devastating earthquakes. She was able to utilise materials from demolished homes to create sellable furniture items. As the local economy recovered, and salvage timber once again became a commodity, she halted the project due to her source of materials no longer being considered ‘waste’ product.

Both of these projects have a sense of permanence, which is something I'll try and incorporate into my project. There is no sense in making a stop gap product, or a temporary product, as when it gets replaced, it ends up back in a land fill....the exact issue we were tasked with solving.