Recycled glass loudspeakers

Designed by Alex Killeavy, these loudspeakers are built for sustainability both for entertainment and for the environment as well. Using recycled glass the designer has created user friendly woofers and tweeter components which are replaceable. The design is sophisticated and created with sound material choices to last a lifetime. Its aesthetic design is pleasing for home decor as well.

Beer can house

Here I leave you a video explaining how to make the beer can house real. Comedian Jiff Hilliard interviews the owner of this particular house.

Gardening in tires

In this tire garden experiment we can see how many ways of recycling a tire we can use when designing a green area. Some of them look pretty easy to build.

Recycled cans

Being China the greatest beer consumer all around the world, how if we tried to used all those (now) empty cans to do our designs? A graduate of Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Zinaburg, has proposed these three pieces of furniture:

And this designer hasn't been the first one to come across this idea. Already in the 20's this designed was proposed:

As for the walls we can have solve the construction issues in many ways. Maybe by adding cement, maybe by cutting the cans into pieces, maybe by pilling them:

Even the can opener can be a source of inspiration when designing a lamp, such as this piece called "Techno Pop", by the Brazilian designer Maurizio Affonso (through Decoratrix):

Recycled tires

How about if we decide to approach design by using only one material to the concept. We can make numerous things out of tires. For example the Korean designer Yong Ho Jin designed a collection of animal sculptures. Another artist, Wim Delvoye, did this detailed carving:

Also by adding a structure we can design seating places or tables. Some soft surfaces such as cushions may be added in order to make them comfortable:

We can also knit the tires, or cut them into peaces to make a hairy look finish for our couch:

How about manufactuing the tire and  producing a clean material that is perfectly water proof and can be used as a sink?:

Tires have the property of being very strong and can easily turned into a massive material by filling it with concrete or cement. So also walls can be made out of tires, just by pilling them and adding a substance that works as an adherent. 

As for the flooring there are companies that recycle tires and have already industrialized the process, such as the  Recycled Rubber Tire Tile by Recycled Rubber Floors.

Solar Bottle Lamps: Water + Bleach = 10,000 Liters of Light

 Who says you can’t bottle (and distribute) genius? Developed in Brazil to address under-illuminated slums, this simple design idea has been adopted by MIT students and expanded to other developing areas where many low-income homes lack access to either daylight or 
electricity.

The physics of the concept are straightforward: the bottles are placed in roofs – half outside, half inside – and their lower portions refract light like 60-Watt light bulb but without the need for a power source. A few drops of bleach serve to keep the water clear, clean and germ-free for years to come.

We take for granted our electric lights, windows and skylights to access the sun’s glow, but for those living in close-together shacks with corrugated-metal roofs, a stray ray is welcome, and something that can spread light to the darkest interior corners can be a dream come true.

In total, one of these do-it-yourself lights takes maybe an hour to install, cutting an appropriate hole, inserting a bleached-water-filled bottle, and resealing around the resulting gap. Even where clean water is rare, a little can generally be spared for a half-decade of lighting.

Vintage Leather Belts

(Belt) strapped for cash? Forget affordable for a minute and just imagine the curious combination of feeling aged leather beneath your feet and the look of vintage belts lining the floors of your home. Leather flooring is fairly unusual, but these upcycled belt designs are unique – each one hand-crafted and with individually-selected old belts.

BranchHome gives you Vintage Belt Floor Mat which are handsome, handmade floor mat is made of artfully assembled vintage leather belts that have been rescued on their way from waist to waste. Its rich tones, textures, and tread-friendly patina evoke the look of a wonderfully worn wood floor, albeit with a decidedly warmer under-foot feel. And the price? Over 600 US dollars for the round mat shown below:

Other ideas - Benches and chairs:

Further reading: Old Belts? Create Some Interesting Pieces of Furniture!

Paper Knitting!

As part of sustainable materials research, today in class we did some real models with paper. Among other solutions, we developed a prototype of fabric made out of paper by knitting newspapers.  Here I leave you some pictures of the process:

NewspaperWood

Trees to wood to paper - paper to wood to useful objects! 

What can be more clever than recycling by reversing the line of production? Well, maybe not turning the paper into a tree, but at least to something useful! Yes, we all know it is bad to cut down trees, we know we can read the newspaper online nowadays, but personally I still prefer reading a good old newspaper in paper format. Designer Meike Meijer and DesignLabel ViJ5 take newspapers back to their origins by turning them into a wood-like building material called NewspaperWood. Furniture, decorative objects and even jewelry look spectacular when made with the artificial wood. Here is a short interview with the team on their inspiration. 

Turning clothes into furniture

Tobias Juretzek combines old clothes with resins to give a second life to those things we have in our drawers and that we won't use anymore. We can buy his furniture through Casamania.

Also from one of the most popular pants worldwide, the jeans, we obtain this Scrap Lab denim chair. The Scrap Lab is part of the Innovation and Technology Department of Kasetsart University in Thailand