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sad story in Delft
2008-05-14 01:09:00
tuesday 13th of may is a black day for architecture in holland as the faculty of architecture in Delft cought fire and could not ba saved. Parts of the building collapsed, burying years of research and beautiful works. Due to digitalisation some of the work could be saved but much of the cultural heritage that was inside the building has been lost forever. Although we feel very sorry that also the Miele Spacestation didn't survive more than a year as an espressobar, the loss of famous collections in the library and important models and furniture goes beyond any imagination. In this building thousands of architects found inspiration in their professional career. All The initiators of this website were educated amongst them, convinced of the power of perpetuating materials lives. A simple fire makes such efforts look silly sometimes. In recent years the faculty strongly moved towards the development of a sustainable future. We hope the staff finds the energy to reinvent the faculty ...
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Rifiu.ti.AMO!
2008-05-13 21:43:00
Napoli &amp; the Waste: local architects and artist will try to figure out how to think about the never ending problem of waste disposal in a new constructive way. A cycle of conferences and workshop organized by Archintorno from the 13/5 to 27/6 in the Faculty of Architecture of Napoli. 2012architecten will be there together with Santiago Chirugeda, Millegomme, Basurama, Husly and many others...  » <a href='http://associazionearchintorno.spac es.live.com/'>original news</a>

rotor new office
2008-05-10 12:01:00
Heavy steel beams from a demolition yard in the Anneessens neighbourhood have been used for our mezzanine. The spiral steel staircase, was found on the boardwalk a few streets further. Much of the wood panels we used were found in the dumpster of the Monnaie Opera house that was refurbishing its bar. The ceiling lights were saved only hours before they would have been smashed to give way for the new Brussels Casino at De Brouckère. For the furniture, we mostly used rejects found in containers at several large office buildings.  » <a href='http://rotordb.org/projects/2008_La eken101/'>original news</a>
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The Depot Project
2008-05-09 22:10:00
In March 2008 seven artists were given unrestricted access to Dandenong's historic Grenda's bus depot in Australia prior to its demolition. It seems like Artist Robbie Rowlands must have went through some rooms with a huge pair of scissors: He played with the building as it where made out of paper. His weblog explains Rowlands ways: 'He makes cuts into and manipulates the recognisable, peeling back one form to reveal another, reflecting upon the passage of time and what lies beneath the surface of our familiar world.' Robbie Rowlands (1968) The Upholsterer (2008) Dandenong, Australia More about: The Depot Project : http://depot-installation.blogspot.com/ Robbie Rowlands: http://robbie-rowlands-depot-installation .blogspot.com/  » <a href='1'>original news</a>

Waste Wise
2008-05-03 22:15:00
Waste Wise is a practical, step-by-step program inspiring Victorians (Australia) to minimise waste and maximise the efficient use of valuable resources. Joining Waste Wise is entirely voluntary and there are no costs involved in participation. Waste Wise shows you how to integrate sustainable principles into everyday operations, as well as how your organisation can benefit from the tangible results that flow from commitment to responsible waste management practices.  » <a href='http://www.sustainability.vic.gov.a u/www/html/1507-waste-wise.asp'>origin al news</a>
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guidelines reuse building
2008-05-02 10:10:00
Guidelines for Building with Reusable Materials This project of Aaron Tvrdy foresees waste materials gathered in bulk, refurbished, and stored in regional design centers where designers can create components out of the former waste. One example uses discarded railroad track and ties to create a superstructure for a wood pallet wall system. With a creative design approach, reclaimed material kits can be used to create attractive components that can either celebrate or conceal their original identity. this entry won the student tier of the lifecyclebuildingchallenge 2007.  » <a href='http://www.lifecyclebuilding.org/20 07/winner-guidelines.php'>original news</a>
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Lifecycle Building Challenge
2008-05-02 09:56:00
Enter the Lifecycle Building Challenge 2 Lifecycle building reduces construction waste and conserves the embodied energy of buildings. Construction waste totals more than 100 million tons per year, and the embodied energy of building materials accounts for 12% or more of the total energy used in a building.  » <a href='http://www.lifecyclebuilding.org'&g t;original news</a>

PAPERLESS Architecture Book
2008-04-30 19:02:00
Piel.Skin is an experimental web book aimed at architecture students. The book literally surfs on several projects, jumping from exceptional exteriors in Asia to intelligently optimized facades in Europe. The book allows playing a virtual tour dedicated to google-earth travellers: By means of clicking on the coordinates of each project begins a journey where you can jump directly to each site and visualize the project within its environment.  » <a href='http://skinarchitecture.com/'>or iginal news</a>
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Rowboat Roof
2008-04-19 12:41:00
A boat turned to shelter: The same quality that keeps boats, ships, yachts and the like afloat, also makes it a perfect roof. Rowboat Roof Wooden rowing boat Calgary (bay), Isle of Mull, Scotland Picture placed with kind permission of Jamie Bassnett: http://www.flickr.com/photos/trekkingbrit ain/2147842962/  » <a href='1'>original news</a>

Free Your Mind
2008-04-18 00:14:00
Nick Georgiou found his muse in trash. With stitched folds of thousands of discarded newspapers he creates sculptures. And they create him: brought to the streets of New York it seems as if the sculptures themselves are posing for the camera and in the studio for his canvas. Check out: http://myhumancomputer.blogspot.com/ for more Free Your Mind . Nick Georgiou (1981) Free Your Mind (2008) Newspapers New York, New York, USA  » <a href='1'>original news</a>

Tired cars
2008-04-17 01:46:00
tires are to be found everywhere around the world, to discard them companies have to pay about so they are very willing to supply them. sources are bikes, scooters, cars, trucks, airplanes, agriculture Normally a tyre has a metal-mesh-wire lining in the thread to reinforce the surface off the tyre, and an eight mm metal wire along the bead to keep it on the wheel. Scooters and airplane tires have threads without the metal lining. the biggest tires come from the 'earth movers', up to 4 m diameter! The thread with steel-mesh lining can be cut with a strong jigsaw with a wood blade. In the sides, the 'cheeks' of the tire you can cut them by hand with a tapestry knife. You can cut the beads best with a special, expensive, wire cutter. They naturally function really well for toys, and furniture, but are also used as a watertight skin for a house and even to build load bearing walls Mille gomme is the specialist in holland. They build amazing objects from tyres on site. www.milleg...
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Cola Gondola
2008-04-16 22:23:00
The Cola Gondola is made from forty 3-liter PET bottles. Each tube is pressurized to 5 psi* to add rigidity. The Gondola weighs just 14 lbs (6 kg) and is 'really easy to car-top at 12 feet long'. Here is a manual to make your very own: http://www.hometown.aol.com/Sneelocke/Col a_Gondola.htm Andrew A. Kinsman Cola Gondola (2004) 40 3-litre PET-bottles Victor, NY, USA Source: http://www.hometown.aol.com/Sneelocke/ *)A single PET-bottle can, according to this YouTube-movie, take up around 185 psi (12,7 bar), before bursting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_QvUC3Eqx A  » <a href='1'>original news</a>

PET-bottle Temple
2008-04-16 09:59:00
At Heijplaat, an old citypart of Rotterdam, during the folly festival Follydock 2007, Salzig design team created the Temple of Trash. The divined construction consisted of 100 bales of pressed PET-bottles. The sacred place, had a base of 25 by 10 m measured 7m high. The visitor could make his own experience in, at, near, in between, by this temple. In the temple garden blossomed 47000 sun-flowers. Roads where framed with 1500 flowers. The diverse impressionistic touches would form a sacred place for the biggest recycling machines of Europe. Freely quoted: http://salzigdesign.com  » <a href='1'>original news</a>
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Planemotel
2008-04-14 17:32:00
In New Zealand, one of the last allied planes out of the Vietnam war, a 1950's Bristol Freighter, has been refurbished into 2 self-contained motel units. One suite is in the cockpit, the other in the tail. The plane is part of a complex with a converted rail car and boat. Planemotel Bristol Freighter (1946-1958) Woodlynpark, New Zealand http://www.woodlynpark.co.nz/accommodatio n.html Source: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/01/r ecycled_hotels.php  » <a href='1'>original news</a>

Aquarius Catedral
2008-04-14 11:01:00
close to madrid in Mejorada del Campo one can visit a man built cathedral made out of urban remains. Youtube shows a documentary on the maker of the aquarius cathedral; Don Justo Allegro via 'damn'  » <a href='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOyg wz8ri20&feature=related'>original news</a>
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www.thuisvlucht.nl
2008-04-11 16:01:00
I became attached to an old chair I once found on the street, which I took home to use. It has served me well for a long time. Now, the chair has broken down, but it still represents an emotional value to me, accumulated over the years. So I divided it up into 1727 buttons, each of them tagged with a number, a thread and a label, indicating their original location in the chair. In each button the connection with my home lives on. They can be bought trough the internet, www.thuisvlucht.nl, and their distribution indicates my home spreading out over the world.  » <a href='http://thuisvlucht.nl'>original news</a>

can the can house
2008-04-11 09:23:00
Some years ago architect Richard Van Os Keuls of Silver Spring, Maryland started using discarded aluminium drink cans as siding for a house extension. (I also know a guy who had planned on using old vinyl LP records as roof shingles.) Richard washes his cans so ants want find the normally sweet and sticky innards too attractive. Then he stomps them flat, before pounding them with a sledgehammer to round the corners. Aluminium nails secure them in a shingle-like formation, to a plywood/insulation board wall, that is now resplendent with a fishscale look. He expects their various colours to fade over time, but doesn't plan on painting over the surface, because he now likes the way light plays on their many surfaces. Additionally he notes that they aren't noisy during rain, and have yet to develop the common chalky oxidation, which aluminium exposed to the elements can develop. Perversely when he first set out to collect extra cans from his local neighbourhood dump, this enterprising...
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Victory Kebab Lamp
2008-04-11 09:23:00
A carefully collage of trash, pilled on top of each other and crowned by a light. Harry Richardson and Clare Page, who form Committee, made a small series of Kebab lamps: A colourful assortment of pottery animals, vases, figurines, boxes and other bric-a-brac. Objects come from the streets, flee markets and junk stalls. 'Looking at these objects, it isn't clear if they are beautiful and noble on their way up to the heavenly rubbish dump in the sky, or a chintzy portrayal of consumption.' Richardson and Page formed Committee in 2001 and work as designers applying 'pragmatism and imagination' to explore 'the drama of the everyday'. 'The drama of the everyday is an important theme for us, and the Kebab Lamp explores the possibility of making a spectacle of attractive qualities out of the random and ordinary. Each one is hopefully a celebration of the very human instinct to aspire to the absolutes of beauty, elegance and sexiness from the jumble of everyday existence.' Co...
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The Air Bear
2008-04-10 20:14:00
On the streets of New York, Joshua Allen Harris creates inflatable animals by tying plastic shopping bags to the subway grates: Air Bear : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0dF5aTn7W M&amp;feature=related Air Zoo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir0U3VNYg_ w&amp;feature=related Joshua Allen Harris (ca. 1977) Air Bear (2008), Air Zoo (2008) Plastic shopping bags New York, USA Air Bear video made by Joshua Allen Harris http://www.youtube.com/user/harrisdanger, Air Zoo video made by Marc Schil http://www.youtube.com/user/MarcSchil  » <a href='1'>original news</a>

recycled parachute silk!
2008-04-10 15:21:00
clothing made out of war remains...  » <a href='http://www.emaharishi.com/?keyword= recycl&action=search'>original news</a>
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drunk birdhouse
2008-04-08 18:23:00
Vine bottle packaging-birdhouse. Recycling concept. The concept consists in giving to packaging the second applicability. Hopefully, it'll help keeping the picnic places cleaner. Designer: Michael Sholk Made in Russia http://www.sholk.com/  » <a href='http://www.designspotter.com/weblog /archives/2008/04/birdhouse_recyc.php'> ;original news</a>
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Fokker 100 Canteen
2008-04-03 13:45:00
In 1996 legendary airplane manufacturer Fokker went bankrupt. The proud Dutch company, founded in 1912 by Anthony Fokker, made once the illustrious Dr.1 fighter plane (1917) (one was flown by the Red Baron), the G-1 (1936) fighter and the Fokker F27 Friendship (1955) perhaps three of the most beautiful planes ever made. The Fokker shown here, is the last, 100 seat fuselage, Fokker made. The bankrupt company failed to sell it as a whole plane so in 2000 the Breda based metal company Stolwerk could buy the fuselage from the warehouse at Schiphol. The wings and engine bays came from elsewhere from the planet and arrived a couple of months later. In 2004 the plane was ready to be used as canteen and meeting place. The airplane can be seen whilst travelling by train from Rotterdam to Breda at the left hand side, just before entering the station. Stolwerk metaal Canteen (2004) Fokker 100 (1986  » <a href='1'>original news</a>

747 Dissection
2008-03-27 17:01:00
This phenomenal picture is related to the Superuse story of the 747 Wing House. (http://www.superuse.org/story.php?title= 747-Wing-House-1) This is the actual dissecting of the Boeing 747 that is being used for the building. To give a feeling of the sheer size of these elements check out this Superuse item (http://www.superuse.org/story.php?title= 747-Jet-Shed). Here the fuselage is being used as shed, to repair vintage helicopters. The 747 elements for the house are being flown to the construction site by a helicopter. David Hertz 747 wing house (2005 - ...) Boeing 747 Malibu, California, USA www.syndesisinc.com Source: Picture was taken by Alan Radecki, via http://www.flickr.com/photos/telstar/4723 0867/ Alan shot this image of a 747 being scrapped at Adelanto, near Victorville, California, on Sept 20, 2005. Thanx to Telstar: http://telstarlogistics.typepad.com/telst arlogistics/  » <a href='1'>original news</a>
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747 Wing House
2008-03-26 00:23:00
'This project is a 55 acre property in the remote hills of Malibu with several sites and unique topography with panoramic views looking out to a nearby mountain range, a valley, and the ocean with distant island views. The client, a woman, requested curvilinear/feminine shapes for the building. The progenitor of the building's form was envisioned as a floating curved roof. It soon became apparent, that in fact, an airplane wing itself could work. In researching airplane wings and superimposing different airplane wing types on the site to scale, the wing of a 747, at over 2,500 sq. ft., became an ideal configuration to maximize the views and provide a self supporting roof with minimal additional structural support needed. The wing structures are conceived to float on top of simple concrete, shot-crete, and rammed-earth walls that are cut into the hillsides. The floating roofs will derive simple support from steel brace frames, which will attach to strategic mounting points on the...
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Lamborghini Countach Pin-Up
2008-03-20 15:25:00
The poster car of the 80ies was the Lamborghini Countach. It was designed by Marcello Gandini of the Bertone design studio. The young designer was not very experienced in some aspects of automobile design, such as practicality and ergonomics. Except perhaps for one of the trademarks of the car. The doors have horizontal hinges, so they lift up and tilt forwards. This is done because the car is very wide, a normal door wouldn't be practical in confined spaces. The outrageous supercar is also legendary for breaking down. Richard Moriarty, millionaire, ex legendary costume party host and now vineyard farmer, got tired of the car failing on him. Instead of bringing the Italian masterpiece to the scrap yard, he pinned his poster car onto the wall: 'I have a Lamborghini and a I've got a big wall.' The weight of the car got lowered by removing the V12 engine. Moriarty turned it into a '200 mph coffee table' for guest who prefer their drinks 'shaken and stirred.' He than hired a 7...

dismanteled planes
2008-03-20 14:05:00
At the end of their service life airliners may prove useful in many ways. They often fly as freighters for several years. When finally grounded they are scavenged for spare parts for other aircrafts, or used for training aircrews and firefighters. Sometimes sheet metal is cut off and melted down.  » <a href='http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/num ber_of_planes_to_be_dismantled_worldwide' >original news</a>
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Zipper Necklace
2008-03-20 00:32:00
One-of-a-kind jewelry made from old zippers could, according to herself, become the signature trashion thing from Finnish designer OutsaPop. The model shows her latest design. This collar was made for a friend who took this picture of it. It has been reconstructed from 12 metal jacket zippers. It took 3 hours to pint these onto the mannequin and 7 to sew them together by hand. OutsaPop didn't invent the Zipper Collar, that honor goes to Comme Des Garçons. Zipper Necklace 12 zippers OutsaPop (Outi Pyy) trashion: www.outsapop.com/ Photograph: Mikko Rasila, placed with permission from OutsaPop: http://www.flickr.com/photos/outsapop/233 9331947/in/set-72157602058853821  » <a href='1'>original news</a>

Recycling and home design
2008-03-19 20:14:00
Renowned British eco-designer Oliver Heath - former presenter of the TV series Changing Rooms - explores the uses of recycled materials in the home - what can be recycled, how to reuse materials in diy projects, and what sort of products made from recycled goods are available.  » <a href='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eii_ 7WTxoHw'>original news</a>
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Concorde Experience
2008-03-17 09:27:00
On 26th of November 2003, the Concorde flew for the very last time. Due to a crash of a type on 25 July 2000, world economic effects arising from the 9/11 attacks and some other factors, operations ceased on 24 October 2003. The Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde supersonic transport (SST) was the more successful of the only two supersonic passenger airliners which ever operated commercially. The Tupolev Tu-144, which looked almost alike, being the other. The development programme was a product of an Anglo-French government treaty, with a total of 20 aircraft eventualy built. The costly development phase thus represented a substantial economic loss. Air France and British Airways were subsidised their governments to buy the aircraft by, while other sales were blocked by the 1973 oil crisis and competition from the Boeing 747. Nonetheless, the Concorde made large operating profits for British Airways for much of its service life. First flown in 1969 Concorde service commenced in 1976 an...
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dumped.....
2008-03-17 09:26:00
Eleven unsuspecting volunteers are left marooned on one of Britain's biggest landfill sites for three weeks. Their challenge? To survive off the rubbish the rest of us have thrown out. How will they react when they are delivered to a huge, smelly British landfill site instead of paradise? And how will our volunteers cope when brought face to face with the sheer scale of the typical British landfill? Can they turn the grime and pong of 1000 tonnes of rubbish into a precious resource? Will they manage to eek out a living? Will they be surprised at the quality of life they can carve out of unwanted waste? And will their experience make them think about their own lifestyles? Dumped aims to highlight Britain's mountain of waste. Every year each of us throws away half a tonne of rubbish and with only a little over a quarter being recycled, most of the rest ends up in landfill. The Dutch and Austrians recycle more than twice as much as we do. Why are we in such a mess, and what can w...