“Upcycling!” – The New “Up” in Today’s Upwardly Green Architecture & Furniture Design!

If it weren’t for the fact that its amazing roof is indeed made of an airplane wing, one would think it a joke that an architect has taken a “retired” airplane, (a Boeing 747), and has converted it into a hilltop dream home in Malibu, California now known as the ‘Wing House’. But that is exactly what architect, David Hertz, President and Founder of the Studio of Environmental Architecture in Santa Monica, California has done.

Then there is the ‘Monte-Silo House’, an old and abandoned grain silo in Woodland, Utah which has been converted by Gigaplex Architects in Park City, Utah into a cozy, eco-friendly bachelor pad with modern circular rooms and a deck overlooking the Provo River!

And here on the East Coast of the USA, the Philadelphian eco-minded builder and developer, OnionFlats, has ‘transformed’ a former meat packing plant into eight groovy residential units and a former trolley garage-turned-firehouse into a contemporary residential home complete with mezzanine and rental loft.

This ‘upcycling’ notion of re-using, recycling, and repurposing disused and neglected buildings into fabulous places to live in of better quality and a higher environmental value – began in earnest back in the 1980’s in the USA with the gentrification of its inner cities and city suburbs – an outgrowth of the ‘recycling movement’ of the 1960’s.   But ‘green home building’ and ‘sustainable architecture’ of today did not really take off until the 1990’s with the advent of new technologies – more energy efficient and renewable energy generation systems, waste management systems, sustainable building materials and environmentally friendly building practices.

This has had the effect of spilling over into ‘green furniture design’ and ‘green studio design’ as exemplified by East London’s “Village Underground”, a renovated community space founded by furniture designer, Auro Foxcroft, who has recycled shipping containers and upcycled discarded tube train carriages into a low-cost carbon neutral studio space to accommodate artists, writers, filmmakers, jewelry makers and musicians in central London.

A truly wonderful example of upcycled furniture design is that of the contemporary-looking oil drum furniture created by French artist Francois Royer.  In his ‘Rocking Chair’ piece, Francois has taken an old industrial oil drum of steel, painted it a vibrant orange, and cut out the mid-section thereby installing a waxen smoked bamboo seat with which to safely rock on its four adjustable rubber feet.

But my favorite examples of do-it-yourself upcycled furniture are indoor and outdoor sofas and coffee tables made out of discarded wooden warehouse pallets which can be inlaid with ceramics, tiles, and old wine boxes.  Even plastic pallets can be transformed into cozy children’s sofas by welding stainless steel plates and legs to its frame.

So next time, you happen to see a set of old school bleachers and vintage gym lockers being thrown out or a shopping cart or office basket cast aside – remember the word ‘up’ as in ‘upcycling’ – and get going on your ‘reclaimed’, ‘re-modeled’, green décor design!