Junktion Breathes New Life into Trashed Furniture
June 14, 2009
We’ve all seen junky furniture on the curb and thought, could we salvage that? But the average person is more than a little intimidated by all the sanding and upholstering that most furniture rehab jobs require. Lucky for us, a company called Junktion does the hard work, turning flea market finds into fun, modern furniture and accessories.
From Inhabitat:
These designers take everyday objects out of their original context, like these funky lamps made from old rotary telephone heads and electrical parts. Their creative use of reclaimed materials challenges previous ideas of function and infuses them with a new narrative that re-addresses the value of discarded trash and its inherent nostalgia. In their own words, “People love seeing objects in new ways—stuff that makes us think; stuff that makes us act; stuff that makes us laugh.”
Inspired by items from the past, they get their materials from flea markets all over the world. Each piece is handmade and carefully finished to appear natural in their newfound state. These modern chairs made from old bicycle parts conjure fond memories of summer days and sticky vinyl banana seats, while evoking an elegant maturity far from our former adolescent taste.
Junktion is in Tel Aviv, Israel – but maybe these photos will inspire some creative recyclers closer to home to make some of their own whimsical recycled furniture.
Growing Chair: From the Forest to Your Living Room
May 28, 2009
Instead of cutting trees down to create chairs, why not create chairs made from living trees? That’s the idea behind the ‘Growing Chair’, an attempt to make trees and plants grow into chairs that can be harvested and brought straight from the ‘field’ to your living room.
Designer Michael Bussein describes his vision:
The Nature Manifesto
Having evolved from nature, we have gradually differentiated ourselves from it. Modern society has come to build itself on the perception that nature and man are separated. This differentiation has come to inhibit us and our way of creating. We have now reached the point when the way forward is going back.
We have to accept that we and everything we create are part of nature.
This mindset is essential for evolution as a whole. When applying this to our way of thinking we will liberate ourselves from stagnated conventions.
To move further we need to incorporate the living matter that surrounds us. Let us use the complexity of living nature and include it in our creations. These creations will then redefine the way we reconstruct nature. Only then will we truly move forward.
It is time for man and nature to reunite.
Fast-growing willow trees and a Russian vine are planted together and grown in a chair-shaped ‘greenhouse’ that trains them to retain the shape of a chair. Once the plants have grown strong, the greenhouse is removed and the chair is cut from its roots.
It would be interesting to see what the chair looks like once the greenery, including the vines holding the willow trees together, would look like once it died. It seems that keeping the trees and vines rooted in soil would make for a prettier final product. But, it’s a fascinating idea all the same!
Link [Erik Sjödin] via [Ecofriend]
From Beer and Wine Bottles to Recycled Glass Furniture
May 24, 2009
Glass makes such a beautiful recycled material for countertops and furniture – there’s just something about its sparkle that makes it stand out as an eco-friendly choice. And, there’s plenty of it out there – just think how many beer, wine and other glass bottles get thrown away all across the country where recycling facilities aren’t available (or people are just too lazy).
A company called Green Grove Design debuted a new type of recycled glass material International Contemporary Furniture Fair last week. Robal Glass is made of 100% recycled glass encased in clear, soy-based resin for a durable surface that’s also beautiful and modern.
Designer Scott Grove produces interior and exterior furnishings, art and accessories using Robal Glass as a primary material. Current available colors include Cobalt, Amber, Polar, Tundra, Caribbean, Prairie, Ocean, Forest and Jungle; custom colors can be created.
“I’ve always been intrigued by new materials, and Robal Glass sparkles with a three-dimensional aesthetic that draws you in,” said Grove. “To be a part of this new venture, creating and designing beautiful pieces from what would have been industrial and consumer castoff is particularly gratifying and adds an entirely new level of cultural responsibility to my work.”
Link [Green Grove Design] via [Earth 911]
Sweet Refurbished Vintage Furniture by Livin’ Pop
March 16, 2009
When it’s time to replace your saggy old couch and junky hand-me-down furniture – or you just want a fresh new look – secondhand is definitely the greenest way to go. But, as a few rounds of thrift store and garage sale shopping will show you firsthand that vintage goods are often a bit sad and worn, themselves.
That doesn’t mean you have to settle for faded, stained fabric or scuffed, scratched drawer faces that have seen better days. Buenos Aires design firm Livin’ Pop shows us how vintage furniture can be given a modern makeover that instantly turns these old treasures into sleek, beautiful pieces that look brand-new.
Treehugger got the inside scoop straight from the design firm:
These pieces are made by Livin’ Pop, a small design firm from Buenos Aires that follows the trend of mixing old with new, but in a sweeter, lighter way than the before mentioned brand. Check more of their pieces in the extended and get inspired to renew your own!
Livin Pop’s philosophy is to make old new, and their aesthetics are inspired in the ’50s and ’60s. The brand is ran by Lucila Nissen and Sofia Moreno, two local designers, and sells by request through their website.
For those outside Buenos Aires, their pieces offer great ideas to rejuvenate those old pieces you may find at a flea market. The red and gray sofa chairs and the stripped one are especially nice combinations.
Check out more photos at Treehugger and the Livin’ Pop website. I know I’m inspired to peruse my local secondhand shops with these design ideas in mind.
Link [Treehugger] + [Livin’ Pop]
Cradle to Cradle Design: 100% Biodegradable Furniture
June 12, 2008
In the last few decades, furniture has gotten incredibly wasteful. Think about how many crappy items you’ve purchased – tables, chairs, desks, bookshelves – that were made with such cheap materials in such a shoddy way that they fell apart after only a few years. Such throwaway furniture has increased the amount of crap that piles up in landfills day after day. You might think that going back to sturdier, more well-made furniture is the answer, but what if we could have 100% biodegradable furniture that could just be composted in your garden after you’re done with it?
Triplepundit has it:
A recently created design house by eight Dutch design students has embraced C2C fully. The company, called Artishok, has just completed its first designs after spending months researching the best 100% biodegradable materials for modern furniture.
The team was directly inspired by William McDonough, an architect, and the chemist Michael Braungart, the two inventors of C2C. The duo believes that another Industrial Revolution is at hand which is concentrated around ecological production methods.
The Artishok design studio embodies this perfectly, creating furniture from corn based plastics. Artishok’s products look no different than other designer stuff and the advantage of the Artishok items is that they virtually do not contribute to your carbon footprint. After use, you can safely throw the furniture on your garden’s compost heap without polluting the soil even 1%. That means that the eight students are about as close as any designers to replicating the natural cycle directly.
Because they’re made of 100% natural materials, they eliminate the garbage problem completely. Can you imagine, millions of people across the world never throwing another piece of furniture in the trash? That’s the direction we need to go in, for sure. I can’t wait to see more furniture designers embracing the cradle to cradle concept!
Link [Triplepundit]
Photo credit: Flickr user jetheriot
