reading stephen fenichell’s plastic about polymer history i was amazed by the story of cellophane. initially useless, it took some clever marketing to find a market for the transparent film. first, camel used it to wrap packs of cigarettes and ‘lock in flavor’ to regain market from lucky strike. then, cellophane became used for wrapping […]
Category Archives: upcycling
fragrant upcycling
since many people have shown interest in john habraken’s wobo beer bottle bricks and up-cyling in general, i thought i would bring up yet another example: my favorite architects’ (lot-ek) 1994 chromo-lamps, crafted from discarded detergent bottles found on the streets of new york. both the quasi-lamp (top) and omni-lamp (bottom) are painstakingly assembled by […]
Also posted in fabrication, open objects, product design, soft/glowing
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extreme recycling
there’s almost no such thing as true recycling, because almost all post-consumer materials are re-made into a material of lesser quality (down-cycling). but RE-USE is very easy and allows an material to retain its functionality through multiple product life-cycles. unfortunately, people don’t seem to value re-use as much as they could – until now, when […]
Also posted in product design
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beer bricks
in 1961 john habraken designed the WOrld BOttle: a new beer bottle for heineken that upcycles into a building material, turning an often-disposed and hard-to-recycle product into an empowering tool for do-it-yourself home building.
Also posted in open objects, possessed products, product design
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downcycling
heather rogers’ gone tomorrow:the hidden life of garbage is a wonderful short documentary that shows how the myth of recycling was created by materials manufacturers to convince people that plastics and metals are recyclable as a way to feel good about consuming more and more via meiver
Also posted in materials, possessed products, product design, visualization
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