Upcycling – Page 4 – Kristen Baumlier

Category: Upcycling

Closet Swap: Sustainable Fashion in the Here and Now

Posted on March 28, 2012March 28, 2012 by Kbaumlier

When my friend Knut was at the Game Developer Conference a couple of weeks ago, he texted me a link to a new website and app called Closet Swap, where you can you exchange clothes with others. To use the site, you make a login and then make a virtual closet with pictures of your clothes that you own, so that you can lend out and eventually borrow from others.

The site is an initiative to promote sustainable fashion, upcyling, and sharing instead of purchasing. On Closet swap, there is a section that talks about the garment industry and the reasons behind why clothing is so cheap. Cheap labor, poor working conditions, and the global scale of most clothing manufacturing makes it so we can afford to get more clothes at cheaper prices.

Closet Swap is the intersection of fashion and sustainability. The project promotes the respect of people and the environment. It also aims to get others to think more about our clothes and how we wear, buy, and use them. The site is considered to be something to “play” like a game, and has promotions, contests, and other resources to promote awareness and playing closetswap.

Got a sweater you don’t wear often? Got your eye on someone else’s shoes? Make an account with Closet swap and see if you can be part of a community where sharing and swapping replace purchasing and buying. As the site reads, “ Don’t shop – swap!”

Image Source:
Closet Swap Website

Links:

Closet Swap Website

Closet Swap App for Iphone

Solar Bottle Bulbs – A Liter of Light

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Kbaumlier

Need more light? A solar bottle light bulb was designed by an engineer from Brazil in 2002 who wanted to find a cheap way to illuminate dark and small spaces in low-income areas in Brazil. The “solar bottle bulb” as it is called is made of an empty 1.5 liter soda bottle which is filled with purified water and liquid bleach, and is put into the roof of a home or shack so that it is half outside and half inside the structure. The result is a light source that during the day puts out as much light as a 50W incandescent bulb.

This simple solution to bring light to a dark space is easy to make. To make and install a bottle bulb, it takes about an hour. The design has been used by some MIT students and others in an effort to bring light to the Phillippines to homes that do not have access to daylight or electricity. Currently, millions of Filipinos live without any kind of light source in living spaces.

The project Liter of Light called Isang Litrong Liwanag, is a sustainable lighting project done by MIT students which aims to bring the Solar Bottle Bulb’ to communities nationwide. To date, the organization has installed 10,000 of these units throughout the city of Manila.

Image Source:
Isang Litrong Liwanag (A Liter of Light)

Links:

Use a 2-Liter Bottle a a 50 Watt Ligth Bulb lightbulb

Isang Litrong Liwanag (A Liter of Light)

Construction and Destruction: Marjan Teeuwen’s Abandoned Building Art

Posted on February 21, 2012February 20, 2012 by Kbaumlier

Dutch Artist Marjan Teeuwen changes abandoned buildings into art by working with debris and upcycled building materials. Her technique involves layering fragments of debris, then taking photographs and films of the final constructions.

Her project Destroyed House done in 2008, was created in a house that had an adjoining ice cream parlor. The work was done in close cooperation with a contractor in order to remove ceilings and floors, move walls, and to create viewing holes in the structure. She calls the works architectural sculptural installations. Many of the materials used in Destroyed House were from the house itself .

In writing about her work, Teeuwen writes, “The literal breaking away of parts of floors, walls and ceilings signals a further accentuation of the polarity between destruction and construction. There is a balance between order and chaos, balance and imbalance, aesthetics and anti-aesthetics, refinement and crudeness.

The photographs of her work emphasize the careful layered materials in contrast to the frame of the buildings, which appear to be on the verge of collapsing. The effect is an image of order and disorder and the relationship of construction to destruction.

Images of her projects can be seen on her website at http://www.kw14.nl/

Image Source:
Marjan Teeuwen Website

Links:

Marjan Teeuwen Website – http://www.kw14.nl/

Upcyling: A new Starbucks Built from Shipping Containers

Posted on February 2, 2012February 2, 2012 by Kbaumlier

A new Starbucks in Seattle was recently built from four old shipping containers. Located in Tukwila, WA the store is a drive-thru and walk-up coffee shop made of one 30-foot container and three 40-foot shipping containers. It is the first LEED-certified structure in town, and uses recycled metal for the exterior and has a rainwater collector system that collects water for the plants around the building’s exterior.

Since it is a walk-up/drive thru station, cars line up and go through the drive through window, with motors running, burning gas. (Not sure how this factors into the actual energy saving rating of the business.)

Shipping containers are on the rise as being used as usable livable spaces with recent uses being some restaurants in San Francisco, a grocery store in Seattle, for artist studios, and for living spaces. Most shipping containers become part of a landfill after 20 years, so in using the containers as living spaces –their use is considered upcyling. Got an idea that you could do in a used shipping container? I just looked online – and they are listed online starting at $2,399.

Images:
Tom Ackerman, Starbucks
Links:
Tukwila, WA Starbucks store

A Piece of Cleveland (APOC) – Upcycling Wood and Re-Making History

Posted on November 29, 2011November 29, 2011 by Kbaumlier

APOC – A Piece of Cleveland- is a design company that turns unwanted materials into furniture and other products. The materials they use are from deconstructed buildings in the Cleveland area. APOC partners with private owners and developers to professionally salvage Wood, glass, and metal from buildings that are being renovated or demolished. These materials are then used to make new items that include tables, counters, cabinets, furniture, and other items.

“Upcycling” is a term for the process of repurposing old materials in new ways to increase their value. APOC practices upcyling by using materials that would usually be thrown into a landfill, and give them a new purpose as furniture and other products. Behind APOC is the partnership and leadership of Chris Kious, the material recovery partner of the business and P.J. Doran, the designer/fabricator.

APOC uses environmentally-friendly stains, paints and finishes on all works, and also makes a “Re-birth certificate” for pieces that explains the history of the materials of pieces which is often displayed on-site at businesses that have APOC pieces.

I heard P.J. Doran present at the Designers Accord Cleveland event earlier this Fall, and I was interested in learning more about APOC. A couple of weeks ago, I went to two places that have APOC pieces – the Starbucks at Fairmount Blvd./Cedar Rd., and Nighttown on Cedar Rd.

At Starbucks, the counters and wooden tables were APOC pieces. The tables ranged in size, and fit 2 to 10 people. The tables looked like typical cafe tables, but the woodgrain and staining of the wood looked unique from other cafes. Each table was subtly branded with the woodburned APOC logo – either under the table, or on the edge.

The Re-birth certificate on the wall at Starbucks listed the materials source as being from 2036 E. 71^st St. and Stanard School. The certificate states, “ The Standard School buildings sat empty for 25 years fell into such disrepair that it could not be saved. In 2008, The City of Cleveland decided to deconstruct the structure and to recycle the historic buildings. APOC was asked to assist in the coordination and recycling of these structures…The lot where Stanard school once stood will return to its agricultural roots, and will become a farm with youth programming, local produce, and become a attractive looking property.”

I went to Nighttown, just down the road on Cedar Rd., and talked to the Brendan Ring, owner of Nighttown, about the APOC tables. He showed me an experimental piece in the back, an outdoor table, that APOC is trying out and is in the corner of the patio, to see how it will weather. The larger rooms at Nighttown have darker oak tables that have been there for a number of years. The Moose room has some newer tables made from heart pine in the Moose room.

The heart pine tables have a unique look to them since they are made of the actual heartwood of the pine tree. Since pine trees used to be quite large when it was logged some hundred years ago, the pine trees were able to grow large enough to develop heartwood. Now that is not the case, as pine trees do not grow as big because they are harvested at an earlier age.

The Re-birth certificate stated, “Antique Heart Pine Tables for Nighttown, Material Source: Stanard School, 5360 Stanard Ave. Cleveland. “ The re-birth certificate had some facts about the school which included, “On June 3^rd, 1964, Stanard School was hit by lighting and 350 students were evacuated from the building when the chimney fell. Kind neighbors invited entire classes into their homes.” The certificate also said that the school is reputed (but not confirmed) to be the site of the beginning of four-square. I did some search on the web – and did not find any confirmation of this.

Ring told me about how great it is to work with APOC, and that there was a deconstruction project by the City of Cleveland and APOC off of Euclid Avenue near Eddy Rd. I drove over to the location and watched as a truck pulled off the site filled with stacks of wood.

If you want to see some of APOC pieces – you can check out images of pieces on their site, or check out the interactive map on their blog, which indicates locations of their work around Cleveland. The map has been recently updated, and you can check out if a Piece of Cleveland is near you in Cleveland. It might be at the coffee shop that you visit regularly.

Links:

http://apieceofcleveland.com/

APOC Sitings – Interactive Map