Using recycled construction waste and rapid prototyping processes, a Chinese company is showing off how 3D printing technologies can be applied to building at astonishing new speeds and scales.
via 10 in 1 Day: Chinese Homes 3D-Printed from Scraps Materials | Urbanist.
Really wonderful article out of TreeHugger by Bonnie Alter on contemporary African design. There are lots of designers and great photos galore – don’t miss it!
Hamed Ouattara (Burkina Faso) says that he is “always working to bring out a design that reflects the realities of Africa”. He uses all different materials in his furniture. Reacting to the fact that there are too many imports of poor quality, and to the loss of traditional carved furniture, he is making modern furniture that reflects modern culture.
His furniture is made from salvaged metal sheets and frames made up with metal welding. They have a rugged and rough feel, very hip and modern at the same time.
via Graphic Africa shows the latest contemporary African design : Page 3 : TreeHugger.
If you don’t know Design Milk yet you are lacking in vitamin Design.
Taking leftover pieces of metal from a factory, Israeli designer Michal Taharlev turns those scraps into beautiful one-of-a-kind necklaces. Each necklace is hand woven on a loom with segments of copper, brass, stainless steel, and aluminum woven together with thread.
For more information, please contact Michal at michalth@gmail.com.
The rusted image of Abraham Lincoln ground into
the paint of a 1975 Lincoln Continental hood. *sigh*
Peter McFarlane‘s artistic vision is a nice treat this morning.
It came to the RA via a site called Visual News who’s managing editor Benjamin Starr has the best bio we’ve read in a while.
Much of McFarlane’s material comes from dumpster diving, an activity which helps to keep him humble: “I have found there’s nothing like garbage picking to ward off the glorification of middle class ideals.” We like that. Considering there’s far more than scrap metal floating around, he’s also worked with sculpting and collaging discarded circuit boards, as well as drawing aspects of industrial society. You can see more of his fantastic work at petermcfarlane.com.
Wang Jian, a young Chinese farmer who worked at a garage for more than a decade, built a replica of Lamborghini Reventon with a second-hand Nissan and Santana. This self-made roadster cost Wang around 60,000 RMB ($9,450) and can reach a maximum speed of 160mph, according to local media’s reports.
via Chinese farmer builds Lamborghini from scrap metal | Photo Gallery – Yahoo! News.
Portland-based artist Robert Jefferson Travis Pond builds stunning animal sculptures out of salvaged metal parts. To see how he does it, watch this time-lapse of him building his 14 foot long dragon sculpture.
via Scrap Metal Animal Sculptures by Robert Jefferson Travis Pond.
The scrap-metal business on Rock Island is a longtime family affair. Here, from left, are John Hargrove and his daughter Hannah of Orr-Reed Wrecking, Frances Okon, her granddaughter Toni and son Louis of Okon Metals.
“He came over from Poland with nothing, the shirt on his back, and started collecting animal bones,” Okon told me. “He would sell them to the fertilizer and feed companies. Then someone told him there was more money to be made by selling scrap metal.
“The reason he was doing it was because no one else wanted to. That’s where you find people who’ve been in this industry for 100 years. It starts with people who find themselves in a situation, back against the wall, nothing to lose, and they start doing what no one else wants to do and figure out how to make money out of it.
…
These families, these people who own and run the family businesses on Rock Island, are all college-going, money-giving, philanthropic pillars of the community now. That’s what generations of hard work and tough, smart business practice have wrought, not to mention a bunch of employment and who knows how many zillions in taxes paid over the decades.
Hannah Hargrove’s eyes flash electrically as she shows me the area of the salvage yard where she intends to bring in sculptors, artisans, glass-blowers and antique brokers to work from the materials gleaned from vast snow-drifts of salvage in her father’s yard. When her father nods and agrees — “We’re gonna have glass-blowers,” he says — it’s part assent, part question.