Ogden, Utah-based Graeme Abraham, owner of the Etsy store GreenCüb, has repurposed a collection of recognizable video game controllers as useful desk organizers (Nintendo 64, GameCube, Xbox 360 and PlayStation). Each controller comes equipped with a three foot gold-plated USB extension, action buttons or joysticks replaced with pen slots and a magnetic paperclip holder.
More: Video Game Controllers Repurposed as Useful Desk Organizer
See also: Nintendo Zapper Lamp.
In Korea there are a lot of Hanok, Korean Traditional House, being torn down everyday. The roof tiles for these houses, called Kiwa, often get damaged while the house is being torn down so they usually get discarded.
This project is about offering a new life to these discarded materials.
The Kiwa, roof tiles, have a different colour and texture depending on the kind of mud, the baking temperature and age. I’ve sliced the tiles into pieces and put the pieces of these different tiles together so that a contemporary functional object, with traditional Korean aesthetics, is created.
Ballroom Luminoso is a series of six chandeliers designed by artists Joe O’Connell and Blessing Hancock currently installed in San Antonio, Texas. Made from custom made structural steel, custom LEDs and recycled bicycle parts, the lights project colorful silhouettes of sprockets and other pieces onto the otherwise drab cement underpass.
More: Recycled Bike Part Chandeliers Under a Texas Overpass | Colossal
Via Metafilter
Earlier chandeliers on Unconsumption.
The Vermeer BP714 is the first compressed-earth-block machine that makes strong air-dried bricks out of dirt. Its bricks don’t just exceed U.S. cement-code strength requirements—they’re 20 to 30 percent stronger, and cheaper than other machines’ too.
Sculptor Karl Dupere-Richer has created an octopus lamp using recycled objects like garden hoses, Christmas ornaments, and a hanging globe. More pictures of the unique lamp can be viewed at Dupere-Richer’s website.
In developing countries, the basic need to feed a family has huge challenges: Staple diets require long cooking times, yet there is little access to energy and water. Lack of clean fuel means using charcoal or tree-wood for cooking. Cooking over a charcoal or wood fire means smoke inhalation. Little income to afford charcoal means cutting down trees. Cutting down trees results in deforestation as communities quickly use the tree wood around them, digging up the roots when desperate. Deforestation leads to foraging further afield, which is done by women and also girls, often taken out of school. Foraging as far as 5-10 km per day leaves women open to violence. Poverty will not end if girls don’t have time for school, women spend 4-6 hours of their day cooking, and the environment is ravaged.
To solve this problem, South-Africa-based entrepreneur Sarah Collins and social activist Moshy Mathe came up with the Wonderbag. By filling a polycotton bag with recycled polystyrene beads, the duo have created an object that can be safely draped around a pot that has just been brought to boil. The Wonderbag then keeps the pot and its contents hot for hours, without the original heating source.
(via The Wonderbag: How Cooking with Recycled Polystyrene Can Avert Disasters - Core77)
We’re revisiting the work of We Make Carpets because, well, they’ve been up to a lot lately! My favorite recent installation of their now famous non-textile carpet installations is this giant one made from plastic utensils, cups and containers.
More: Giant Carpet Made from Disposable Plastic Tableware by We Make Carpets - Design Milk
barrel chair from scoopa
Looking around a little I found an actual link for this, here. And here is more about scoopa.
(via fuckyeahupcycle)
Valentina Carretta of design studio Fabrica’s Egg of Columbus lamps come in three sizes and combine a shade made of moisture-resistant recycled paper with a ceramic lamp holder and a red fabric cord.
Via: http://www.dezeen.com/2013/01/26/egg-of-columbus-recycled-paper-lamps-by-valentina-carretta-for-seletti/
Australian company DesignByThem has added a range of bright recycled-plastic chairs to its collection.
Like the studio’s earlier Butter Stool, the Butter Chair is made of 100% recycled HDPE plastic, mainly composed of milk containers and factory waste.
More at Dezeen.
”Your old plastic bottles no longer are useless when they’re being made into the felt that forms the Torbuschka family of bags by Kaaita
More on Design Milk.
13 Ways To Turn Your Outdated ’90s Tech Into Truly Usable Things
Pictured is No. 4: “Turn old CD cases into a mini greenhouse. Get full instructions here.”
