Recycling/Upcycling

Recycling:

Recycling is processing used materials (waste) into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution (from incineration) and water pollution (from landfilling) by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse gas emissions as compared to virgin production. Recycling is a key component of modern waste reduction and is the third component of the "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" waste hierarchy.

Upcycling:

It is good to recycle our waste products but even recycling can damage the environment and use up precious resources such as water and power. For example many grain processors burn their husks to create energy to run their plants but those same husks could be upcycled as mulches or mixed with epoxy and fashioned into gardening containers. Both upcycling ideas will upgrade the value of the waste husks.

 The main difference between upcycling and recycling is making something of    equal or better value without downgrading the original material or creating    more pollution during the process

A.a.Push-Button House by Adam Kalkin

Shipping container prefab houses certainly aren't anything new but the latest incarnation from architect/artist Adam Kalkin is pretty darn slick, so we had to mention it. The Push Button House is exactly that: it starts as a shipping container until a button is pushed, and it turns into a house. Motorized walls unfold like a flower, revealing a fully functional house, complete with refined, understated furnishings. Kalkin is unveiling the house (in more ways than one) at Art Basel Miami Beach, a renowned art show that started yesterday and runs through the weekend. Fitting that the house's debut is at an art show; Kalkin fancies himself a fusion of artist and architect: "I'm not into the container per se. It's what I can do with it emotionally; transforming a commodity into poetry." No word yet on pricing or production schedules; his Quik House will go into production next month and will be priced between US $150,000 and $175,000. ::Adam Kalkin via ::Future Feeder and ::New York Times

b.It's Easy Being Green: Shipping Containers Provide Affordable Housing

Container City at the Trinity Buoy Wharf in London was built over 2001-2002, out of 80 percent recycled materials. It provides living and working space to residents and artists.
 

c.Packaged and Living ISO Container Structure

 

B.Shanghai Corporate Pavilion Is Made Out of Used CD Cases

Shanghai’s Corporate Pavilion takes the upcycling trend to extremes: The entire exterior of the 4,949 square meter structure is made out of polycarbonate tubes fashioned from used CD cases.

If and when the building is ever taken down, the tubes can be recycled into polycarbonate granules that in turn produce more polycarbonate plastic products. But the Pavilion, in construction for the Shanghai World Expo 2010, is sustainable for more reasons that just its CD case exterior.

The building also features a solar thermal energy system to provide energy. The massive solar heat-collecting tube produces hot water up to 203 °F that can be used to generate energy with what architecture firm Atelier Feichang Jianzhu calls “ultra-low temperature power generation technology.”

Shanghai’s newest pavilion will also store and filter rainwater to provide a mist that lowers the temperatures in the building. The mist may also be used to spray visitors upon entrance into the pavilion, Las Vegas-style.


Upcycling Project: Slot 4

Group2’s BRIEF was to explore a design solution for the domestic environment keeping ecological sensibilities at the forefront of its approach. The main purpose of this exercise was to explore spatial conditions in smallscale.

Group 2’s design proposal is titled SLOT4 SERIES. ANDREA, KATE, PIM, QUEENA AND XUE make up Group2.

The characteristics of SLOT4 are defined by Series 1-4,in the form of 4 Seat Backs, and are complemented by a more defined typology in Series 6,7,8 and 9 in the form of a Table, Lamp, Parasol and Flowerpot. The common thread which links the Series is the steel tube fixing which slots each object into a wooden base to form a large multifunctional seating area.

A set of CRITERIA was devised as a means of ensuring a logical and methodological design process, acting also as a system of evaluation aiding the developmental process.

FUNCTIONALITY is key to the longevity of a design’s life. In development, physical functionality, as well as psycholgical functionality, have been examined by continually questioning the purpose of the design.

Is this the simplest way of making it?

Is this a useful use of space?

What will user gain from this?

The success of any furniture design is tested by its relationship with the THE USER.An interactive quality is vital to a successful design. The intention is to create the interactive quality element to maximum effect from a simple but effective design solution.

Our CULTURAL IDENTITY is retained in the design solution by reinterpreting and reinventing Eastern and Western activities in a contemporary way.

ECOLOGICAL sensibilities were considered when sourcing materials. Whereever possible we have undertaken to use reappropriated furniture or recycled materials. We have tried to minimise the waste keep cost down, and to buy wood grown locally within the UK.