Reclaimed wooden walkways and shared outdoor spaces make up a lot of the reclaimed Kha-Nam Noi House.
Thai architecture firm YangNar Studio recently completed “Kha-Nam Noi house” in the central province of Sing-Buri, Thailand, using an existing elongated pigsty as a shell for a series of comfortable living spaces made almost entirely with reclaimed materials.
Source: YangNar Studio Converted a Pigsty into a Beautiful Tropical Home in Thailand
NICK GLIMENAKIS
One good way to include vintage pieces is by using reclaimed materials like wood beams or antique backsplash tile.” — Emma Beryl Kemper, Ember Beryl Interiors
Source: Kitchen Trends 2022: New Color, Cabinet and Countertop Ideas
Fast-forward to 2022 and it’s snowballed into an initiative where BARC goes into “homes otherwise set for demolition,” salvages as much lumber, pipe, wire, and other building components as possible, and then uses those reclaimed materials to build brand-new tiny houses throughout the Grand Traverse region.
Artist Bordalo II was in El Paso working on installing a large-scale mural on the One San Jacinto building in Downtown El Paso. This large mountain lion is part of a Big Trash Animals series of murals that he’s been installing all over the world using reclaimed materials.
Source: Artist Bordalo II
MARK HENNINGER / IMAGIC DIGITAL
Baltimore has been successfully running a similar program since 2016, and Philly officials have visited. In addition to milling old trees, Baltimore’s program also salvages wood waste from building deconstruction.
Source: Philadelphia to launch ‘Reforestation Hub’ to sell fallen trees as lumber – On top of Philly news
Two gummy bears made from the composite resin that could be used to make wind turbine blades. Photograph: Reuters/John Dorgan
Once the blades have reached the end of their lifespan the materials can be broken down and recycled to make new products including turbine blades – and chewy sweets.
Source: Wind turbine blades could be recycled into gummy bears, scientists say | Wind power | The Guardian
The Good Store “radically rethinks the department store”, with an emphasis on reuse and refurbishment. A range of plastic-free and sustainably sourced products are on offer, with the space also set to host informative educational events and services to guide consumers through eco-conscious choices.
Source: Sustainable department store opens in Mayfair – TheIndustry.fashion
Integrated sidetables were added to the lounge chairs
“People who sit in the chairs and touch the surfaces can ‘read’ the story of the furniture and understand where the materials came from. This connection to place and the playful character of the furniture is a powerful antidote to the usual impersonal, sterile environment of a hospital.”
Source: Waste firehoses turned into outdoor furniture for Maggie’s Southampton
Arthur Pululo busy with a unique piece.
Elizma Swanepoel’s unique furniture made from recycled wood and materials such as old-fashioned pressed ceilings has become sought-after collector’s pieces that will be a focal point in any home.
Source: Unique furniture art from recycled materials – Kormorant
Re-New NZ Sustainable market organiser Julie Cronin restoring a desk in her workshop garage in Havelock North. Photo / Warren Buckland
Cronin had decided she needed to do something to shape her own and her family’s future, so she started the Havelock North business to take everyday goods that would usually end up in landfill and give them a new lease of life.
Source: Sustainable market coming to Hawke’s Bay – NZ Herald
The largest converter of reclaimed rubber in North America is coming to Alabama. (Encore International)
Based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, this company uses reclaimed materials to make flooring and surface products. Ecore International is the largest converter of reclaimed rubber in the continent, mostly using recycled truck tires.
Mel and Jez Wright are selling the custom home they created at 29 Highlander St, Torquay.
“I ended up ferrying 100 or so bricks in the back of a van and we’ve incorporated them into the walls of what we funnily call the rave cave,” she said.“It’s a space that we’ve created off the living area to house our music collection. And it’s got some thick sliding barn doors that Jez constructed from the wood that he’s collected over the years.
(Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images)
Production of cement, the raw material in concrete, accounts for between 7 and 8 percent of global carbon emissions today, due both to the fossil fuels used in its high-heat production and the chemical composition of the raw materials and processes that make it.
Source: Major construction firms team up to get the carbon out… | Canary Media
Alan Schein / Getty Images
Reusing old wood, windows, metal, brick, and even concrete seems like a no-brainer (even some animals recycle used materials!), but it sadly doesn’t happen as often as it should. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, between 230 million and 530 million tons of construction and demolition waste are produced yearly in the United States.
Detroit the largest city in Michigan and has suffered a long period of economic decline with tens of thousands of abandoned buildings and empty commercial lots. It is also considered one of the unhealthiest cities in America due to food insecurity and the inability to find affordable nutritious foods.
Revitalizing urban environments with consciously repurposed materials and more practices are the brand’s ethos.
Source: How Sustainability Leader 1 Hotels Chose Its New Locations
This short documentary follows his process for creating sculptures that are contradicting in the sense that they’re both beautiful and, well, junk.
This 1948 advertisement for deconstructing buildings for the materials, was found by a redditor at Multnomah Library in Portland, Oregon.
Sources: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/vanport-oregon-how-countrys-largest-housing-project-vanished-day-180954040/ fb4ncw119u491.jpg (1299×2439)
Australia has to come up with an end-of-life plan for used wind turbines, says a leading academic. Image by Mick Tsikas/AAP PHOTOS
“It is not realistic to expect a market-based recycling solution to emerge, so policymakers need to step in now and plan what we’re going to do with all these blades that will come offline in the next few years.”
Source: End-of-life plan urged for wind turbines – Australian Associated Press
The finished project is now a generous, comfortable home for the couple, their two young children and their dog, and is packed with innovative, stylish ideas to copy.
The Lovett Deconstructionist is the heart of the company. This role requires a self-starter, someone who is a hard-working, thoughtful, attentive, service-oriented person who can do everything from the rough, dirty work of demolition to the careful, surgical removal of material such as cabinetry, windows, and salvageable hardwood floors. The deconstructionist uses expert skill and collaboration with team members to protect, salvage, and disassemble all range of structures. Our deconstructionists are team players; they are friendly, safe, and conscientious, creating a work environment that is positive and productive. They work in all kinds of conditions, in all kinds of weather, and perform a brilliant level of service regularly surprising clients. At all times, they carry themselves with dignity and professionalism because they are the best at what they do.
Source: https://www.lovettdeconstruction.com/deconstructionist
Nzambi Matee, a 30-year-old who quit her job in oil and gas to work on her passion full-time, has created a lightweight and low-cost building material that is made of recycled plastic with sand to make bricks that are stronger than concrete material.
Photo Credit: Vestas Wind Systems A/S
Suppliers, fabricators and OEMs across the composite wind blade supply chain ramp up existing technologies, develop better reclamation methods and design more recyclable wind blades.
Source: Moving toward next-generation wind blade recycling | CompositesWorld
Using reclaimed materials and products can give your home a rustic charm while using existing items, keeping materials out of the landfill and reducing the demand for new products and the waste created when they’re made.
Source: 4 ways to revamp your interior design with sustainable products – Times of Oman
Transport trucks and loggers gather around fallen trees in the Chocó. (Photo courtesy of Brian Rodgers)
Some of Home Depot’s plywood is allegedly sourced from vulnerable forests in Ecuador’s Chocó region and the Brazilian Cerrado, and conservationists and investors have pressured the home improvement giant to clean up its supply chain.
Source: Investors force Home Depot to review wood-sourcing policy over logging concerns
Thomas Dambo’s troll sculptures have been exhibited all over the world. Pictured: his piece ‘The six forgotten giants – little Tilde’ based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Credit: Lars W. Jensen
Based in Denmark, Dambo is the world’s most prominent ‘recycle artist,’ best known for giant troll sculptures all made from reclaimed materials.
Source: Big tourism boost for Mandurah as it welcomes Australian-first sculpture trail | Kalgoorlie Miner
The artist is fusing pieces from a broken generator, recycled kitchen utensils and collected scrap metal to create a metal fish.
Lloyd Alter’s cabin in Shoe Lake, Ontario, Canada. Lloyd Alter
The doors were grabbed from an office renovation, probably installed in the ’80s and replaced in the ’90s. The dining room table is cut out of a bowling alley, on a base my dad made; it was in his cottage for years. My dad also made the sideboard—it’s made from the floors of shipping containers.
Source: My Forest Cabin Is Built on Stilts With Recycled Materials
Not to mention: What steps were taken to source reclaimed materials? How was the water footprint of the materials reduced? What was done to ensure that the extraction and processing of the materials caused no ill health in communities local to their manufacture? How was renewable energy generation capacity increased either on or off site? How did the project reduce the energy consumption of the building’s users? How did the project reverse ecological harms?
Source: Maybe awards should celebrate co-operation rather than competition
Dam busters: a structure is removed on the Hučava River in Slovakia, June 2021. Photograph: Rob Kleinjans
“An increasing number of governments, NGOs, companies and communities are understanding the importance of halting and reversing nature loss, and buying into the fact that dam removal is a river-restoration tool that boosts biodiversity and enhances climate resilience. We’re also seeing lessons being learned from previous dam removals, new countries kickstarting removals, and new funds, including crowdfunding.”
Source: Record number of dams removed from Europe’s rivers in 2021 | Rivers | The Guardian
This film explores the evolution of our national attitude from pride in big dams as engineering wonders to the growing awareness that our own future is bound to the life and health of wild rivers.
File photo/Black Press Media
Initiatives include talks with the University of British Columbia Okanagan on research programs, and a building deconstruction pilot program. A city-owned property on KLO Road was deconstructed a few weeks ago in partnership with Unbuilders and Habitat for Humanity.
Source: Glenmore landfill in Kelowna going greener with new initiatives – Lake Country Calendar
The rear of the home has multi-level patios and sitting areas and a heated pool and spa. Eddie Avenue Photography
This unusual new spec house in the Virginia suburbs offers an old-fashioned mix of hardwood flooring milled from trees on the property and reclaimed materials from the former house on the site that’s been paired with ultra-modern features.
Traditional Argentine barbecues date back to the 16th century. One inventor created a new twist on the custom, turning discarded fruit from cider production into logs that can replace firewood and charcoal.
Urselmann Interior’s office is in Düsseldorf
These include existing wooden and terrazzo flooring that was salvaged during the renovation, as well as heaters obtained from resource-efficient building material platform Concular.
Source: Urselmann Interior renovates own office using recycled materials
While the former monastery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, that does not prohibit the building from being demolished. According to information on the National Register of Historic Places website. Owners’ rights do not change when the property is listed on the register.
Source: Iconic St. Scholastica building in Fort Smith to be demolished – Talk Business & Politics
There’s a growing movement in support of the Glen Canyon Dam Removal altogether. With the specter of climate change looming, those calls may grow louder. But whether or not you agree with that decision, there’s a lot to be learned from the history of the dam’s construction.
“The first is there is a lack of education for beginning professionals and those who want to upgrade their skills and knowledge, and there are virtually no courses in North American building circularity,” said Martens. “This is the first micro-credential in building circularity in Canada – and, I believe, in North America.”
Source: BCIT introduces new deconstruction micro-credential – constructconnect.com
Each piece of wood is marked with a unique QR codeDaniel Winkler/ETH Zurich
It’s a sad fact that even though our forests are disappearing at an alarming rate, new wooden structures are typically made of all-new wood. A special computer system could help change that, by facilitating the use of wood reclaimed from existing buildings.
Source: Computer system designs structures based on available reclaimed wood
The project would allow unlimited mechanized cutting and removal of live and dead trees of any age up to 2 feet in diameter and an undisclosed number of trees up to 5 feet in diameter, as well as the destruction of chaparral across 755 acres.
Ava Mandoli/The Daily Northwestern. Sustainability is part of the Evanston Rebuilding Warehouse’s deconstruction practices, as well as its retail location’s construction. Some of the store’s walls have been reclaimed from other buildings and are reinforced with scrap material.
“We want to make sure we get those barriers removed, make sure that we get the supportive services in place,” Nicklin said. “So that they get into a job, and they’ve got their gas figured out. They’ve got their childcare figured out. They’ve got everything ready to go because they’ve practiced it.” The transitional employment program connects participants with local employers, which allows them to support themselves and their families. The program has a job placement rate of over 80%, Nicklin said.
Unique Homestays owner ‘Mouse’ shares the story of creation behind her two chocolate-box holiday rentals, Inkwell cottage and Filly Island.
Nguyen Ngoc Anh, 36, who was an illegal logger turned forest protector poses at Phong Nha National Park, Quang Binh province, Vietnam, April 8, 2022. REUTERS/Hoang Trung
Now, Ngoc Anh is one of 250 former loggers trained by an adventure tourism company to lead mostly foreign tourists through jungles and into some of the world’s largest cave systems in the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, a UNESCO world heritage site.
Source: Illegal loggers in Vietnam train as jungle tour guides | Reuters
In this file photo, a truck carries logs through the Tillamook State Forest. Amelia Templeton
The court determined that Oregon can manage more than 700,000 acres of donated forestland for a range of values like recreation, water quality and wildlife habitat — not just logging.
Source: Appeals court reverses verdict that awarded $1 billion to Oregon timber counties – OPB
“This work really demonstrates the power of bringing together different disciplines, from synthetic biology to chemical engineering to artificial intelligence,” said Andrew Ellington, professor in the Center for Systems and Synthetic Biology whose team led the development of the machine learning model.
Source: Plastic-eating Enzyme Could Eliminate Billions of Tons of Landfill Waste – UT News
A government program designed to train women in carpentry and other trades inspired five women from Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, located east of Toronto, Ont., to build tiny homes that will serve as shelters for those fleeing domestic violence. (CTV News)
“It just proves anybody can build. The trade is not gender-specific, my mom was a carpenter and she built our house,” Chief R. Donald Maracle told CTV National News.“It’s good to see women entering the trades.”
Source: Tiny homes: Mohawk women build domestic violence shelter | CTV News
An old-growth redwood tree named “Father of the Forest” in Big Basin Redwoods State Park, California in August 2020. Some trees in the park have been standing for 2,000 years.
Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP
“It’s a very good start on the things that we’ve been asking for,” said Kirin Kennedy, director of people and nature policy at the Sierra Club, one of the members of that coalition. She said her group is not necessarily calling for a moratorium on logging old-growth trees, but for a science-based approach to managing them. “We want to protect old trees, but we also want to make sure communities are protected,” said Kennedy.
Source: Biden executive action aims to preserve old-growth trees : NPR
The 100-meter-tall construction will follow a system which replaces a concrete core with wood. Credit: Aesthetica Studio/Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects
The project joins other architectural ventures looking to prove that timber can be used as a sustainable alternative to concrete and steel when building high-rises.
Source: World’s tallest timber residential tower to be built – CNN Style
Akin Studio won the AJ Small Projects Award 2022 last week for its ‘treehouse’ in rural Herefordshire.
Have you learned anything in terms of materials on this project that you might use on other schemes? The clients are incredibly resourceful, and we learnt to embrace reclaimed materials, as well as the importance of reuse and considering the afterlife of building components. In the case of Drovers’ Bough, the exposed structural elements are all carefully bolted together allowing for future disassembly or replacement, and many parts of the project were made from surplus materials or reclaimed products.
Source: AJ Small Projects winner: How Akin Studio designed its treehouse on stilts
We met up with John J. Bauters, Mayor of Emeryville, CA to learn more about his experience as arguably one of the most bike-friendly mayors in the U.S. In this rider story, John takes us on a tour of Emeryville, talks about his upbringing, and how others can inspire change no matter what city they live in.
