An EU-funded research project has laid the foundations for change – it is promoting concrete, ceramics, gypsum and plastics recycling around Europe.
Recycling and re-using parts from old buildings makes sense – it creates less waste, makes construction cheaper and reduces the use of raw resources (more than 50% of all materials extracted from the earth are currently transformed into construction materials and products).
Tag Archives: ceramics
Shards of Hope: Jewelry made from pottery broken by Japan’s tsunami: TreeHugger
Meticulously crafted in a setting of collective healing and hope, The Nozomi Project is a wonderful example of long-term aid that takes into account of wounds that may take longer to heal than re-building mere buildings. More over at The Nozomi Project.
via Shards of Hope: Jewelry made from pottery broken by Japan’s tsunami (Video) : TreeHugger.
Faculty, students build new kiln from recycled materials | Penn State University
The new kiln combines traditional brick building techniques with contemporary equipment. While the walls of most kilns are between 4 and 9 inches thick, the new kiln, nicknamed “Reclaim,” has walls that are 11½ inches thick. This extra girth is provided by an outer layer of hundred-year-old red bricks recovered from a building that was recently torn down. A range of glaze colors was developed in class and applied to this outer layer of bricks, giving the kiln its distinctive multi-colored jacket.
Bricks, more than a century old, were glazed by students to create a colorful and functional exterior wall for the “Reclaim” kiln.
via Faculty, students build new kiln from recycled materials | Penn State University.
Rehab Diaries: A Garage Turned Studio Workshop in Portland, OR : Remodelista
RA Sponsor Shout Out Vitrified Studio!
“Our garage, like our house, was built in 1924 in the Northeast Portland Alberta Arts District neighborhood. It is a 16 feet by 20 feet (320 square foot) detached building, and is a ‘car and a half’ garage so there’s room for one car on one side and then another half for other stuff. The garage was unfinished on the interior when we bought the house, so we decided to break the one large space into three distinct areas: A ceramics studio, a bike room, and a wood shop.
“We did all the work ourselves, with the exception of electrical. The first big step was fixing the building structurally by replacing the rotted sill plate (the horizontal 2-by-4 at the bottom of the wall and on top of the concrete slab that all the studs sit on) with pressure-treated wood. We also had to sister some of the wall studs, add ceiling joists to hold the interior sheathing, and create the opening for the large sliding door on the exterior in to the ceramics studio. We also insulated the exterior walls and the interior walls so that each space could be heated individually in the winter.”
Go see both articles via Rehab Diaries: A Garage Turned Studio Workshop in Portland, OR : Remodelista and http://remodelista.com/posts/an-architect-turned-ceramicist-in-portland-or