Used carpet tiles clad walls that are insulated with junk, including floppy discs and toothbrushes, in this building designed by East Sussex studio BBM as a research facility and design workshop for the University of Brighton’s Faculty of Arts.
via Waste House by BBM – “UK’s first permanent building made from rubbish”.
Drones
CEW said that it is implementing the latest technology to carry out the project, including photography drones (pictured) and design modelling.
A drone from Cardiff-based Heli-Eye is being used at various points throughout the project to easily and quickly capture aerial images, whilst Arup and Gillard Associates will be using BIM modelling to look at how design changes might affect reductions in waste.
Some of these projects breed creativity by encouraging experimental design — architects can think about approaching an established structure in a different way — and by devoting more space for public engagement. Perhaps most importantly, projects like the following enhance the placemaking and livability of their city.
via From Abandoned Place To Must-See Hot Spot, 3 Of America’s Best Recycled Structures.
Siobhan Spain’s brother installing reused barn wood in her kitchen.
Credit Courtesy of Siobhan Spain
Spain’s family deconstructed their barn instead of demolishing it. When you demolish a building, it gets torn down as quickly as possible without regard to what happens to the discarded materials. When you deconstruct a building, you take it apart piece by piece and try to resell or reuse everything you can.
via Choosing Deconstruction Over Demolition | Iowa Public Radio.
Southwest is partnering with Kenyan social enterprise Alive and Kicking to make footballs from seat covers, but are projects like this viable? Photograph: Southwest Airlines
So Southwest joined the international upcycling trend. Partnering with upcycler Looptworks in Portland, Oregon, the airline will turn a portion of its leather seats into tote bags, duffle bags and backpacks that the airline will buy back to to use as gifts at events.
“The water conserved by making goods using old leather rather than virgin leather is enormous,” says Looptworks co-founder Scott Hamlin. “For each bag, 4,000 gallons of water is saved. In addition, there’s a CO2 reduction of up to 82%.”
DECON ’15 IS THE BUILDING MATERIALS REUSE ASSOCIATION’S CONFERENCE ON DECONSTRUCTION, BUILDING MATERIALS REUSE, AND C&D RECYCLING.
Join us for a lively, informative conference on the latest in deconstruction technology and materials-reuse applications and help choose hands-on learning excursions, top speakers, networking events, business growth strategies, and more!
via BMRA DeconExpo.
Curbed.com had a great list of adaptive reuse examples. Check it out!
Starbucks design director Liz Muller worked with local artists to create a concept store inside a historic bank vault in Amsterdam. Via Dezeen.
The restaurant at Chile’s eco-tourism resort Espejo De Luna was built inside a seafaring vessel washed ashore.
16 Fantastic Examples of Adaptive Reuse in Restaurant Design – Eating Pretty – Curbed National.
Randy Smith and his two-man work from the hay-loft to carefully dissemble an 1910 era barn in a northwest corner of Marion County on Friday, June 20, 2014. The white poplar exterior planks will be shipped to a client in North Carolina who is re-constructing a turn-of-the-century farm site.
James Miller/The Marion Star / James Miller/The Marion Star
A group of neighborhood residents recently saved Northwest Portland’s Goldsmith House from demolition. ( James Reddick/The Oregonian)
According to The Architectural Heritage Center, an estimated 389 demolitions took place in 2013 in neighborhoods across the city; it’s rumored that a demo per work day is happening in 2014. They have some ideas as places to start responding to the demolition epidemic:
(1) Require advance notice to surrounding property owners and residents. Right now, notice is only required by the city when more than one new house is proposed. There’s no notice/delay when a demo application and the replacement house permit are filed the same day. The city should require notice, and time for response, across the board.
(2) Change the definition of “demolition” in the city’s development code – a big problem is that any demolition that leaves any portion of a house still standing (such as a partial foundation wall) is called an “alteration” or “remodel,” not a demolition (which are seriously under-counted, as a result.) More typically, many other jurisdictions use “at least 50% of a structure remains standing” as the primary criterion for an alteration/remodel. If that’s reasonable enough for other cities and counties, it should be acceptable for Portland.
(3) Houses that are obviously historic (but unprotected) are those that have long been listed on the city’s 1983 Historic Resources Inventory, but many houses have reached the age of 50-plus since then. We propose a mandatory 120 day delay for houses on the HRI or at least 50-plus years old. These are likely the ones that need time for investigating alternatives to demolition.
(4) Require that existing front and side yard setbacks be maintained for the new house(s). One major concern is that after a demolition, a new house is not only usually bigger, but it covers much more of the lot, often changing the streetscape substantially. If the front- and side-yard setbacks stay the same for the new house, the streetscape remains more like its traditional neighbors.
via Portland must do more to preserve old houses: Guest opinion | OregonLive.com.
Detroit has a rich history and that can be seen in the housing materials we are trying to save. Bricks and wood particularly are incredibly valuable in these homes and it would be awful to see them end up in landfills.
Site selection is key to the success of deconstruction. It is important to select areas in neighborhoods where community members will remain engaged and will keep an eye on properties. This will reduce vandalism and burned materials, which can make this process challenging.
The primary way this occurred, according to attorney David Anton, involved misclassifying demolition and construction waste. Under state law, ground up raw construction material that is labeled as “fines” can legally be used to cover up the top of a landfill – in order to prevent pests, fires, and odors, for example. When construction waste is ground up and used this way, it counts as “alternative daily cover” – like a layer of frosting on a giant cake of garbage – and strangely enough, the state allows waste disposal companies to count that frosting as “diverted waste” even though it’s actually part of the landfill.
The lawsuit claimed that Recology tried to count a great many tons of its construction and demolition waste as “fines” when in reality it should have been labeled just plain garbage, because the tons of stuff that they were shipping to the Solano County landfill wasn’t being processed to a fine enough grade to comply with state requirements for what constitutes “fines.”
via Jury finds Recology cheated in waste diversion bonus program | SF Politics.
Anneliese Bates with a bar created from an old piano.
Encore Reuse operates from Henmore Trading Estate, in Mayfield Road, and recycles old furniture, stopping it from going to landfill or from being dumped.
Good-quality furniture and household goods, which are donated, are sold in the warehouse.
But the charity makes itself sustainable by running an upcycling shop, located within the premises, called Vintage Green.
Rose’s plan is so controversial that over 800 Portlanders have signed a petition begging him to stop, lamenting over the loss of a historic structure.
The house was one of the first homes in Willamette Heights, built in 1892. There are pictures of the house from the 1890s, perched alone in grandeur on the recently logged hillside rising from Balch Creek. The years since then have seen multiple owners, and the house has been the site of many neighborhood gatherings, including annual Easter egg hunts — the sort of hunts and gatherings at which neighbors meet while their children play, and lifelong relationships are formed all around.
The house has been well-loved and cared for. To be sure, it’s over 100 years old, like many of the homes in Willamette Heights. For many of us, that has meant upgrading wiring or plumbing, or even replacing foundations. We understand that you may be now facing those sorts of costs, and we can assure you that they’re worth it. There’s no greater value than in preserving the character of the neighborhood.
via Kevin Rose Infuriates Portland Over Plans to Demolish Historic Home.
Finding Reclaimed Materials for Bar Tables – by Sara Badiali
The larger picture of building material reuse encompasses policy, education, and awareness. In my practice, I can spend months not even looking at actual materials. This week I’ve been overjoyed to get my hands dirty in the local marketplace for reclaimed materials.
Picture It
My friends are updating the interior design of a Portland bar called the Basement Pub. When they mentioned that the tables are going to be constructed of reclaimed wood I immediately offered my services. My love of reclaimed materials is matched only by my passion for research (and possibly spreadsheets). This is my approach to finding reclaimed materials for a large project with a limited budget.
Looking
Scouting reuse centers or salvage businesses is my first step. I spend time online looking at the type of business that sell salvaged materials to get a feel of their prices. More and more business who deal in reclaimed materials are popping up these days. The reclaimed building material market ranges from one-offs on Craigslist to boutique style specialty stores. The prices for materials vary wildly in range. My approach is to match the client’s style and budget, allotted time for the project, the resources available, to available materials in the marketplace. In this case, we have a month to scout materials and people available with skills to turn raw materials into tables. Our budget is small and the tables are only one part of a large remodel project.
Time
Time is a key factor in using reclaimed materials. The more time to plan a project and scout for materials, the better the outcome and the more enjoyable the experience. For the Basement Pub’s tables, we want to fall between semi raw and processed materials. We don’t want to harvest our own because we are not a licensed and bonded company. Anyone can harvest materials, but the property owner is liable for any accidents or issues that may occur. As a property owner, it is good practice to allow only insured companies deconstruct or remove materials. We also don’t want to spend time and labor on denailing lumber. We do have craftspeople who can build, but not to mill. This project falls square in the middle of perfect for the available skill set and allotted amount of time.
Organizing Resources I
The first tab of my resources spreadsheet is organized by local type of business, inventory and cost. Since we are on a limited budget, I start with the reuse centers. There are over 850 Habitat for Humanity Restores in the country (last time I checked) so this is an easy source along with local nonprofit reuse centers. Then I start looking at the small architectural salvage businesses. I check for independent contractors that have a website with both reclaimed materials and urban tree removal. Tree and stump removal business often overlap in milling street trees and reclaimed wood. Larger and more expensive reclaimed material operations typically have a solid web presence with an extensive list of inventory. I add these business to my list and give them to the client as a reference point. They tend to be pricey, along price lines of the upper echelon of the design goods stores. I put off checking in with demolition companies because that usually means I have to make phone calls, but sometimes they have great leads. Then of course there are deconstruction companies, if they sell their own salvage then they go on the resource list.
Client Communication
Good communication with the client is important to shake out expectations in a project. For example, it took me three conversations about the tables to learn that they don’t want them created out of Douglas Fir. In the Pacific North West, Doug Fir is the most prolific reclaimed wood. There are entire old growth forests captured in the structures of Portland so it’s the easiest to find. With this information, I am less likely to look for salvage from the interior of buildings.
Organizing Resources II
The second tab of my spreadsheet is the materials themselves. Armed with the knowledge that I am not going for salvaged interiors, I am looking for unique supplies. My first thought is reclaimed cedar fencing. On occasion the reuse center I where I used to work would get a load of cedar fencing. Tables made from cedar would be dazzling (but I would have to hurdle the milling issue). For items like these, the only local resource is Craigslist. In Portland we are lucky enough to have an online reclaimed materials website called Boneyard Northwest, but it is not yet the materials juggernaut that is craigslist.
On Craigslist I find many items that would make good tables. Although I am looking under the “Materials” section of craigslist, the “Farm and Garden” section also has reclaimed items. My finds range from: Reclaimed hardwood bleachers, and tropical wood reclaimed from truck beds, to rough table tops already made from reclaimed wood (Doug Fir of course). I email these places to check if the inventory is still available. I list pictures of the materials along with dates and prices. I find the top seven to ten items that I think would fit the project, wait for the sellers to confirm the inventory and send my list off to the client.
The next step is to go see the reclaimed materials. I will do this with the primary craftsperson. Who, in this case, is the architect who will be designing and building the tables. My feeling is she will also be managing those of us who show up as volunteer labor (the perks of volunteering for a pub are delicious).
To be Continued
These are the first steps in finding and working with reclaimed materials. If none of the Craigslist items are suitable then I will widen my search by making phone calls and contacting my friends in the field. If all goes well we will start making the tables in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned for more adventures in finding and working with reclaimed building materials for the Basement Pub in Portland, Oregon!
Housed in a former auto body shop, Coopers Hall’s look is modern industrial with a dash of beer hall Bavarian. Photograph by Samantha Bakall for The Oregonian.
via Coopers Hall, an Urban Winery in Portland, Oregon: Remodelista.
Photos courtesy of The James Lee House
A historic house in Memphis was sold for a buck and turned into a bed and breakfast within a year. Jose and Jennifer Velázquez had dreams of opening their own B&B, and after 24 years they found the perfect place — The James Lee House, an abandoned and rundown Victorian built in 1848 that’s listed on the National Historic Register.
via James Lee House – James Lee House Renovation – House Beautiful.
Photo: Randi Sokoloff for the Guardian.
For two decades Doel’s remaining residents have been embroiled in a battle with a state-funded corporation that is seeking to raze it. The townspeople also have the EU’s strict environmental laws on their side thanks to the large population of swallows that has taken up residence in the dilapidated town. But they also have something else working in their favor: street art.
New regulations could soon restrict the demolition of older Vancouver homes and require at least 75 per cent of the waste material be recycled or reused. (CBC)
The City of Vancouver could soon ban the demolition of homes built before 1940, and require anyone planning to knock one down to deconstruct it piece by piece and sort the materials for recycling.The proposal follows increasing concerns about the demolition of heritage and character homes in Vancouver.
On average three homes are demolished in Vancouver everyday, of which 40 per cent are pre-1940s homes that give many neighbourhoods their character.The proposed regulation would require recycling or reuse of 75 per cent of the waste from a pre-1940s home and 90 per cent of the waste from one which has been identified as a character home.
via Demolition ban could require recycling of older Vancouver homes – British Columbia – CBC News.
A beautiful 1926 bank vault in Chicago with many of its historic features still intact – including that incredible door – is now known as The Bedford, a local kitchen and bar serving food and cocktails in a signature mix of German and Southern cuisine.
via Holy Beer: 12 Pubs Converted from Churches, Urinals & More | Urbanist.
Atelier Data created the Varatojo House from reclaimed railway ties, colored concrete and Quercus suber bark.
The eclectic kitchen is made from “mostly reclaimed from ships and old buildings.”
via A Scottish Kitchen Made Out of Reclaimed Ship Parts — Kitchen Spotlight | The Kitchn.
JON C. LAKEY / SALISBURY POST
Historic Salisbury Foundation Executive Director Brian Davis stands among a treasure trove of old doors, windows and related hardware that was salvaged out of old homes that were to be demolished. The items are stored in the 1912 Ice House on Horah Street. The HSF sells the items to building contractors, homeowners, artists or anyone who is interested in the materials. The monies raised go to benefit the foundation.
At Fallen Furniture we design distinctive pieces of vintage aviation furniture and art from original reclaimed aircraft parts, to create beautiful and unique masterpieces.
via About Us – Aviation Furniture Made from Decommissioned Aircraft Parts.
Brazilian artist Henrique Oliveira recently completed work on his largest installation to date titled Transarquitetônica at Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade in São Paulo. As with much of his earlier sculptural and installation work the enormous piece is built from tapumes, a kind of temporary siding made from inexpensive wood that is commonly used to obscure construction sites. Oliveira uses the repurposed wood pieces as a skin nailed to an organic framework that looks intentionally like a large root system.
Designer Eli Chissick saves scraps of wood veneer from the floor of a carpentry studio, then carefully repurposes them into beautifully crafted furniture.
via Wood Scraps Become Lovely Recycled Eco-Friendly Furniture | Designs & Ideas on Dornob.
The good people at the nonprofit Architectural Salvage Warehouse of Detroit do more than save great architectural details in buildings they painstakingly deconstruct, though they’re well-known for that. According to Chris Rutherford, executive director of ASW, explains that the group’s mission also includes waste diversion: Without Rutherford and his teams, every item for sale in the warehouse would have gone in a landfill.
via Architectural Salvage Warehouse of Detroit – Culture Features – Detroit Metro Times.
Most everything that can be recycled has been recycled.
“Our goal is to salvage and recycle a minimum of seventy-five percent,” says Wollenzein. “We’re on track to be able to do that and more.”
Some of the carpeting that had come out of the building, actually a lot of it, got sent down to a third party and they cleaned it up and are reusing it in other projects,” he says, as we stand outside the now-four-story shell of a building, preparing to take a look inside.
“All the furniture that came out of the building has been taken away by a third party and is being resold. So has a lot of the equipment that was in the building, that is all being used and purposed.
“As of when I visited last week, 67,000 tons of granite, masonry and brick was recycled. So was 6,400 tons of steel, aluminum and other metals; 10,000 tons of wood; and 53 tons of carpet.
via OnMilwaukee.com Milwaukee Buzz: Deconstructing the NML building project from the inside.
Gary will receive $6.6 million of the initial amount. A team spent several months collecting data on blighted structures throughout the northwest Indiana city.
Besides demolishing vacant and abandoned homes and buildings, the federal program also provides loans to help homeowners avoid foreclosure.
Officials estimate about 4,000 blighted properties will be torn down across the state.
via Indiana cities getting money to fight urban blight | WISH-TV.
Deconstruction Works owner members (L-R) Erich Kruger and Michael Weitzner work to clean up ReNew Salvage. (Kayla Rice/Reformer)
“It’s kind of bittersweet. It didn’t have to happen this way,” he said while taking a break from his work. “It’s a mess right now, but at least I know it is being done right.”
After being let go by the ReNew board, Kruger continued working in the trade and last year he helped start Deconstruction Works, which became a worker-owned cooperative this year.
Deconstruction Works owner members (L-R) Erich Kruger and Michael Weitzner work to clean up ReNew Salvage. (Kayla Rice/Reformer)
viaFormer ReNew director cleans out warehouse – Brattleboro Reformer.
all images copyright Jon Dunbar
This time it’s an abandoned Boeing 747 restaurant, looming huge over the highway, and yet dwarfed by a swarm of apartment buildings all around.
via Dark Roasted Blend: Abandoned Boeing 747 Restaurant (and Other Plane Conversions).
Recycled bricks, corrugated cladding and oak flooring were used to build this barn-inspired extension to a house in Melbourne by Australian studio Whiting Architects.
Photography is by Sharyn Cairns.
via Whiting Architects adds utilitarian extension to Melbourne residence.
DES MOINES — The DNR Derelict Building Grant Program will award grants to 20 small, rural Iowa communities to help deconstruct or renovate abandoned structures and limit construction and demolition materials going to the landfill.
via DNR derelict building program grants announced » News in brief » The Ottumwa Courier.
Tinworm made an extraordinary grill from a formerly cute auto. Instructables always delivers!
For the purists among us, who are upset by me cutting up an old car, I remind myself that it was to be crushed and that there wasn’t enough left of her to be the basis of a restoration.
And thanks to the wild success of these exciting projects, other cities around the world are looking at innovative and environmentally friendly ways of reinventing the disused railways of their industrial past. Cleveland’s proposed Red Line Park is one of them.
via Could Cleveland’s Proposed Red Line Trail be the Next Linear Urban Park? | Urban Ghosts |.
‘Aviator’s Villa’ by Urban Office Architecture is elevated on a hill between a lake and a swimming pool, and exposed on three sides so it feels like it’s floating on air.
via Aviator’s Villa: Ultramodern House Made of Airplane Parts | Urbanist.
Oopsmark settled on using recycled bicycle tires sourced from a local recycling initiative called Consortium Echo-Logique. Held together with gold studs, this minimalist upcycled bicycle wine rack offers an eco-friendly and chic way to carry your favorite bottle of wine around town.
Stan Sevenich was the lone opposition vote on the council. “One unique thing about the city of Menasha is that we’ve retained a number of our historical buildings. It kind of gives that certain character that surrounding communities have lost. I’d like to see us be fortunate to continue to have that,” he said.
The developers plan to file the paper work to begin the process to demolish the building right away. The hope is to begin construction on the new project by this fall.
via Former Hotel Menasha Green Lighted For Demolition – WBAY.
Detroit’s Great Lakes Coffee used salvaged materials to pay homage to a bygone era.
Last week, Duggan announced a new pilot salvage program for the city’s North Corktown neighborhood. It’s starting small. The city will solicit bids from local salvaging outfits to find reusable materials in 10 houses set to be demolished. The city’s Building Authority is in charge of the effort.
The initiative, which they hope will launch next month, is part of the Mayor’s broader blight strategy, now with an eye on preservation as opposed to straight-up demolition.
via Looking for Reclaimed Wood? The City of Detroit Joins the Salvage Business – Next City.
Losing ReNew was a blow to the local deconstruction business, Kruger said, because ReNew provided an outlet for reusing building materials — an outlet that no longer exists.
via Welcome to THE COMMONS — News and Views for Windham County, Vermont.
“We tried to keep and reuse a lot of the building’s original materials,” Rice says. The black porcelain door knob is reused from a renovation at 141 Spring Street in Charleston.
via Steal This Look: Fuzzco in Charleston, South Carolina: Remodelista.
While his ideas and motivations are often crystal clear, it is his minimalism and subtractive techniques that make his work truly stand out.
via The Subtractive Canvases and Street Art of Pejac | Colossal.
The Missouri Civil War Museum is housed in the renovated Post Exchange building in Jefferson Barracks Park.
In 2002, Mark Trout approached the county with his vision of renovating the old Post Exchange into a museum. Trout leased the building for $1 per year for the next 99 years. He and historian John Maurath believed so strongly in the project that they both left their jobs to be able to devote their energy to the renovation on a full-time basis.
Mark Trout (left) and John Maurath stand in the gymnasium of the Post Exchange building while it was undergoing renovations in 2009. file photo by Diana Linsley
“A lot of these buildings don’t make the cut because they are just so old and so dilapidated that the numbers don’t work without this revolving loan fund that we’ve put together. It’s a perfect example of a public-private partnership,” Cohen said Friday.
The Buffalo Building Reuse Project provides gap financing of up to $750,000.
via More funding available for downtown housing projects | WBFO.
THEY DID IT!
Congratulations Northwest Neighbors for Preservation on a job well done. North West Portland will continue to exemplify the history, culture, and beauty of our fair city.
The 112-year-old Goldsmith house on the corner of Northwest 24th Avenue and Quimby Street has been sold to a group of local residents to save it from the backhoe’s claw.
Last week, between 10 and 20 neighbors bought the lot on which the Victorian house stands. They also bought the lot to the north, upon which there is a 1920s cottage of little historical value. The group proposes to call itself Northwest Neighbors for Preservation.
Rick Michaelson says that some of the investors put in more money than others, but they all did it “for a little bit of interest and the joy of seeing the house saved.”
Northwest Portland neighbors pooled their money to buy the Goldsmith house on Northwest 24th Avenue from a developer. The house will be restored to a single-family home.
Architectural Salvage Warehouse field supervisor Renard Culp pulls up oak flooring from a home in Grosse Pointe. (Robin Buckson / The Detroit News)
“That’s why deconstruction needs to be part of a building removal package,” said Rutherford, who heads the nonprofit focused on keeping building materials out of landfills. “If deconstruction isn’t included, then we’re just throwing literally millions and millions of dollars worth of material into a landfill.”
Rutherford pointed to his own economic impact study that assumes the city would dedicate $2.8 million to the effort, with an average of 24 homes being removed each month for one year. He projected at least half of the 288 homes would produce usable building materials, resulting in $6.5 million in economic activity supporting 160 jobs.
The study, Rutherford said, measures the initial workers needed to deconstruct homes and the resulting wholesale, manufacturing and retail sales from the salvaged materials and lumber.
“There’s a brand new lumber industry in the city that everyone is going to benefit from,” he said.
Groups have been doing deconstruction work and training in and around Detroit for the last decade, but this project would integrate the practice with demolition for the city.
via Detroit blight fight turns to salvaging | The Detroit News.
Restaurant The Jane in Belgium’s Antwerp has gone from old chapel to fine dining venue. Piet Boon Studio carried out the conversion for Michelin-starred chef Sergio Herman’s latest venture. Chef Nick Brill from Oud Sluis restaurant in the Netherlands heads up cuisine at the new Antwerp venue. The main restaurant hosts 65 guests while an upper room bar accommodates 40.
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Photography by Richard Powers and Rahi Rezvani
via The Jane: divine fine dining in converted chapel – Alto Magazine.
Bureo designs and manufactures a unique line of sustainable skateboards. Bureo’s innovative boards are manufactured in Chile through the team’s initiative, ‘Net Positiva’, Chile’s first ever fishnet collection & recycling program. Net Positiva provides fisherman with environmentally sound disposal points, while Bureo receives highly recyclable and durable raw materials. By offering recycled high quality products, Bureo enables ethically conscious consumers to support recycling development and job growth for local inhabitants.
via Bureo Skateboards.
Jarmak Corp., a salvage company specializing in wood reclamation, is removing much of the old wood in the 124-year-old building before it is demolished
Photos (T&G Staff/PAUL KAPTEYN)
I’m really enjoying this giant pigeon painted on an abandoned home by Dutch freelance artist Super A. You can see more of his outdoor work on his website, and read more about him over on City Leaks.
via A Towering Pigeon on an Abandoned Home by ‘Super A’ | Colossal.
via