Upcycling – Kristen Baumlier

Category: Upcycling

PP Capsule – Chairs filled with Upcycled Plastic Bottle Caps

Posted on November 1, 2013 by Kbaumlier

Each time I throw a plastic bottle into a recycle bin, I am unsure of what to do with the cap. I know that they are not recyclable, but it feels wrong to throw them in the garbage. The caps are made out of a different plastic than the bottles, the #5 plastic and usually are not taken by most recycling plants. I sometimes pocket them for a while, only to throw them out later.

The caps usually end up in landfills. A design agency based in Hong Kong called Kacama has created a new way to use plastic caps. Why not sit on them? Kacama’s chair designed, called PP Capsule is a beanbag chair that is made with recycled plastic fabrics, and is filled with over 4.000 plastic caps. The caps are ground up into small pieces, making a plastic confetti that is used as stuffing, and is comfortable to sit on.

The chairs have been made in various colors, and have a modern but warm look to them. The development of the chairs was supported by a community development program called Yan Oi Tong, and Kacama worked with a local recycling plant and local seamstresses who sewed the chairs.

Image Source and Links:

www.kacama.hk

www.designboom.com – PP Capsule Chairs

The Empire Drive-In – The Drive-In Theatre with Upcycled Cars

Posted on October 28, 2013October 28, 2013 by Kbaumlier

Drive in theaters, where you could sit and watch a movie in your car were popular in the late 1950s, and there were between 4000 and 5000 drive-ins. Today it is reported that there are about 422 that are open around the world. (1)

Brooklyn-based artists Jeff Stark and Todd Chandler have created a drive-in movie theater experience that mixes upcycling and drive-ins in a new way. Titled The Empire Drive-In, the project uses cars from local junk yards and repurposes them as the seats for an outdoor theater. The screen used to project the movie is 40 feet tall, and is made from salvaged wood. A Low-power radio transmits the movie’s stereo audio directly to each car.

The first Empire Drive-In was created for a viewing of one of the artist’s films and was located in San Jose, California in 2010. The project has now traveled, and has been a featured installation at a number of festivals and events, including the 2012 Abandon Normal Devices Festival in Manchester, United Kingdom.

During the Empire Drive-In experience, viewers are invited to change seat and switch cars, to check the glove compartments and to even sit on the cars. The cars selected are not flashy, but often are cars that we see every day (like Nissans and Fords.) The artists have included these familiar brands in an attempt to demonstrate the planned obsolescence of cars with so many people getting new cars every few years.

This past month, the Empire Drive-In showed a variety of movies at New York Hall of Science in Queens, New York between October 4-20^th that included a series of Bollywood films, Animation shorts, movies made by youth groups, and some movie shorts about transportation.

What to experience the Empire? The schedule of events and screenings are listed on the project website.

Image Source and Links:

empiredrivein.com

Sources:

(1) http://www.drive-ins.com/pressfaq.htm.

Make a Chair Out of a Washing Machine

Posted on August 6, 2013September 16, 2013 by Kbaumlier

Clothes washers are about 65% percent steel, in addition to the motor, oils, electrical components, hoses and other materials. Each year some 60,000,000 washing machines are sold around the world. Usually the steel is recycled, but designer Tony Grigorian created a design to create one or more chairs out of a single washing machine.

Griogorian created some simple directions to follow, which starts with the first step of disassembling the washing machine and mapping the parts. Using specific parts and some thick foam, you can assemble and cut the pieces to create a series of modern chairs for your house or studio. The chairs have a space-age, futuristic feel, and if you like modern décor, these pieces would work well.

The project is called “I Used to be a Washing Machine” and you can read more on Yanko Design or Tony Grigorian’s website. You also can watch the “I used to be a washing machine music video,” where you can see a washing machine be disassembled.

Image Sources and Links:

Yanko Design – Washing Machine Furniture

Tony Grigorian Website

I used to be a washing machine video

El Arbol – The Bike Tree

Posted on June 4, 2013June 10, 2013 by Kbaumlier

El Arbol, the Bike Tree, is a unique bike that looks like a large green tree on wheels (with two people pedaling on the structure.) The bike was made by Rock the Bike, a group which originates in Berkeley, CA and is comprised of bike users and advocates who create unique bikes and events in order to get people in touch with issues of climate change. The goal of the project is to spread “the spirit of the bike to others.” The group aims to inspire others to want to ride bikes by organizing, entertaining, inspiring, and inventing new ways to get others excited about books.

The tree is made of a hollow and see-through trunk, has lighting and speakers. At events, the bike is setup and hooked up to a fleet of other bicycles that together create power for the Bike Pedal Powered stage, a concert event where individuals ride the bike to power up the sound system. El Arbol provides the sound, with its 2500-Watt double-stack main speaker that is inside of the trunk, and aerialists can hang off the top branch and perform at shows.

The Bike Tree took over 4 years to make, and can be seen both at events, as well as being ridden in the street. The bike is a top/bottom tandem bike, which can be ridden on the street while pumping out music, and also has “roots” that can be used to swing out a lower speeds, to make it into a stable four wheeled structure. Images of the bike being built over time can be seen on the project can be seen online

What has 2-4 wheels, is tan or green, and makes loud sounds? El Arbol – the Bike Tree!

Image Source:
Rock the Bike

Links:

El Arbol – Construction Process Images

Rock the Bike

LightWall: An Upcycled Studio Space That is Up for Auction

Posted on May 26, 2013May 28, 2013 by Kbaumlier

ReSpace is a competition that aims to raise awareness of reuse materials while showcasing creative and successful space designs. For 2012, the challenge was to design a small flexible space that could be used as a workshop, studio space, shop, or community space that was made out of reused and upcycled materials.

There were over 30 entries, and the winning design was student entry created by Scott Hefner and Abe Drechsler who attend the NCSU College of Design in Raleigh, NC created the design Light Wall Pavilion.

The structure is 18.5′ long, 11.5′ wide and 11′ tall. It is made of many donated or salvaged materials that were came from the area of Wake County and various programs of Habitat Humanity of Wake County. The materials include salvaged lumber, maple flooring that came from Chapel Hill High School, old pallets, reused siding and roofing, and reused glass bottles from various restaurants and bars in downtown Raleigh.

In a period of 48 hours, volunteers worked to build the winning design, and the structure is up for auction, and closes on June 11th at 8pm.

I’m planning to check out the structure this weekend. The wall made of bottles and reused flooring and counters have texture and character, and I look forward to seeing the pavilion in person. (I don’t plan to put in a bid though, right now we are looking for a new house to live in, and I don’t think the one room pavilion will meet our needs.)

Want to see how it was built? There is a great short time-lapse video where you can see the structure built , with the 48 hours of work crunched into a 1 minute timelapse.

Image Source:
habitatonlineauction.com

Links:

www.youtube.com – LightWall Construction Video

habitatonlineauction.com

wakerestore.org/showcase/light-wall-pavilion