Tag Archives: recycled building materials

Reuse Design

Reclamation Points: Salvaging Materials for Trendy Designs | Jewish Exponent

Heartwalk, a sculpture made from reclaimed Atlantic City boardwalk pieces, is shown here on tour in Brooklyn. NYCDOT.

You may not have noticed it, but if you’ve eaten at Bryan Sikora’s lovely La Fia in Wilmington, any of Jose Garces’ spots, Jake’s in Manayunk or Stephen Starr’s Fette Sau, you’ve been in the presence of recycled building materials and rescued architectural finishes. Artists have long been hip to this karmic win/win, using found objects to create jaw-dropping masterpieces of all stripes. Heartwalk, a 30-foot wooden heart sculpture installed in Atlantic City last November, was created by Brooklyn, N.Y., design firm Situ Studio, which used reclaimed wood from Hurricane Sandy-battered boardwalks.

via Reclamation Points: Salvaging Materials for Trendy Designs | Jewish Exponent.

Reuse Design

Tim and Hannah’s Affordable DIY Self-Sustainable Micro Cabin House Tour | Apartment Therapy

The two integrated as many recycled, salvaged, low-impact materials into their design as possible. A good amount of building material was acquired for free from Craigslist. Seconds, mis-sized, and salvaged materials were sourced from their local lumbar yard and the Restore.

via Tim and Hannah’s Affordable DIY Self-Sustainable Micro Cabin House Tour | Apartment Therapy.

Reuse Design

Pachyderm Perfection: Recycled Robotic Elephant | Gadgets, Science & Technology

It took 45 tons of recycled steel and wood to put this beast together. Overall, the elephant is about 39 feet high and 26 feet wide. It was meant to be an approximate replica of The Sultan’s Elephant, a huge elephant sculpture created for the traveling French public art show of the same name.

via Pachyderm Perfection: Recycled Robotic Elephant | Gadgets, Science & Technology.

Reuse Design

Public kitchen workshop cooks & builds furniture with donations, recycled materials : TreeHugger

The convergence of growing crises in community, environment, technology and economy is laying the groundwork for practices such as car sharing, tool libraries and skill swaps. Echoing this encouraging move towards collaborative consumption (or sharing, for simplicity’s sake), designers Johanna Dehio & Dominik Hehl put together Construsine, a public kitchen workshop that allows participants to cook and build collaboratively using entirely donated and recycled materials.

via Public kitchen workshop cooks & builds furniture with donations, recycled materials : TreeHugger.

Reuse Design

San Antonio Sustainable Living: Dan Phillips, Huntsville recycled building material artisan and home building benefactor

Dan Phillips of Huntsville has been building houses from recycled material for years. His projects include the Phoenix Commotion and Brigid’s Paradigm. His houses are affordable well beyond the government’s definition.

While many people have gone down to the local Habitat for Humanity Restore to buy an item or two for a renovation project, Dan has made an art of taking discarded materials and turning them into whole houses. His houses aren’t just simple structures either. They are works of practical art.

via San Antonio Sustainable Living: Dan Phillips, Huntsville recycled building material artisan and home building benefactor.

Reuse Centers

ReNew closes doors to building recycling store Founder looks to salvage the concept, this time as a cooperative instead of a nonprofit- THE COMMONS

By Randolph T. Holhut/The Commons

BRATTLEBORO—The man who helped create the deconstruction industry in southern Vermont is getting ready for the next incarnation of his passion.

Erich Kruger of West Dummerston, the founder of ReNew Building Materials & Salvage in 2005, helped popularize the idea of keeping building materials out of landfills and reusing them for other projects.

ReNew, a nonprofit, had a dual mission: recycling building materials and providing local jobs under its building deconstruction program. It closed the doors to its retail store last month.

But Kruger said last week that the concept of building deconstruction and salvage lives on even as ReNew struggles to reinvent itself. He hopes to start up an employee-owned cooperative called Deconstruction Works, which will pick up where ReNew left off.

Read the entire article via Welcome to THE COMMONS — News and Views for Windham County, Vermont.

Reuse Design, Structure Reuse

Small Rustic Cabin on 40 Acres in Colorado with Mountain Views for Sale

Much of the house is clad with old wood from fences and old buildings, see below…

Reclaimed materials from fences used on this small rustic cabin

Some parts of the house are even from a chicken coop, like that wall down there.

Reclaimed wall from a chicken coop used in this small rustic cabin

Recycled Timbers inside this Small Rustic Cabin - For Sale in Colorado

The timbers used on the pictures above and below are recycled from old boxcars and a hot springs water tower.

Interior of Small Rustic Cabin made from Reclaimed Materials

Kitchen area in Small Rustic Cabin

Parts of the kitchen, including the cabinets, came from an old motel.

Small Rustic Cabin - Kitchen Area - Reclaimed Materials from Old Motel

Storage in living area of small rustic cabin

Small Rustic Cabin in Colorado Made with Reclaimed Wood

 

via Small Rustic Cabin on 40 Acres in Colorado with Mountain Views for Sale.

Reuse Design

96 Sq. Foot Finnish Micro-Cabin Built Small To Forego Permits : TreeHugger

The image of a secluded cabin in the woods recalls the simple, idealistic idyll of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, free of the impositions of society. This beautiful micro-cabin, built beside a lake in Finland, was constructed to go under the radar of Finnish building regulations, which require one to get a permit for anything that is larger than 96 to 128 square feet, depending on the district.

Anticipating a one-year stint in the military, owner Robin Falck decided to design a cabin that wouldn’t require getting tangled in bureaucratic red tape. Built with a 50 square foot loft above for sleeping and storage, and a ground floor lounge/living area and kitchen and bathroom, the house is designed to maximize the allowed area, plus boosting the capacity for great acoustics and natural daylighting. In addition to the tall window, there’s an adjacent deck for a great view of the tranquil surroundings.

On Tiny House Listings, he talks about his cabin, which he has dubbed “Nido” (or “bird’s nest” in Italian):

A couple years back in 2009 I got this idea of an cabin/small house that would be small enough to be built without the need of a permit. In Finland it’s 96-128 sq. ft. (depending on where you are). So I started daydreaming about different possibilities and didn’t really believe that I would one day actually build it.

Well, a year later, suddenly, after almost forgetting the whole idea I got obsessed and set out to actually design it. Probably a combination of the fact that my military service was approaching and after sketching and calculating it seemed so possible.

Winter of 2009/2010 I spent designing and planning the house. I contacted a couple of architects that were really kind to help out with some of the more technical stuff.

Then came summer and the construction began. I had already chosen the place and had it in mind when designing the cabin. On June the 5th I started and 2 weeks later the only thing missing where the window and door which arrived a couple weeks later.

Best of all, Falck says that he was able to find recycled materials for the majority of the construction, and he estimates that the cost was somewhere around US $10,500 plus labour, which isn’t too bad for a photogenic little lakeside shelter such as this. More over at Tiny House Listings.

via 96 Sq. Foot Finnish Micro-Cabin Built Small To Forego Permits : TreeHugger.

Reuse Centers, Reuse Design

Quick Tip: Recycle Building Materials – Bob Vila

Think Before You Toss

Deconstruction is the new demolition. Instead of gutting a project and sending the whole shebang to a landfill, more and more contractors and homeowners are getting savvy about recycling building materials. Deconstruction contractors can help homeowners auction off or donate the waste materials they don’t want. Those old kitchen cabinets can be a tax deduction instead of a dumpster filler. And, on the other end, they can really help cut purchasing costs for new materials.

via Quick Tip: Recycle Building Materials – Bob Vila.