Thursday, March 12, 2009

200 Mile Radius - upcycling



Today's presenter was Housing Development Manager Chris Kious, founder and partner of A Piece of Cleveland. Chris has always been fascinated by the varying definitions of "waste" that exist throughout the world. Every year in Cleveland, a thousand homes are demolished. APOC takes the two-by-fours, framing lumber, doors, and wooden floors of these buildings and upcycles them as chairs, lamps, tables, bookcases, cutting boards, counter tops and conference tables.

Instead of taking a 2x4 piece of wood and recycling it into mulch, Chris upcycles. He takes that 2x4 and turns it into a higher quality item. APOC celebrates the legacy of this lumber by sharing its story in the re-birth certificate attached to each piece.

Here is some of their work from wood that would have been thrown away:



A drawing for two APOC lamps and one cutting board was held after the presentation. None of the cre•a•tiv•i•ty member won a prize. I wanted one of those lamps SO BAD!

More APOC:
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4 comments:

Josh said...

i'm sorry i missed this one this morning! boo!

Mol the Doll said...

I feel a little guilty about winning the wave lamp that came from the Zarelli house (where the neighbors used to gather for spaghetti dinners on the porch).

Just wanted to check in and tell you how impressed I am with the way this blog has grown.

The writing and visuals are great--with so much clutter out there, it's nice to find something elegant, inspiring and upbeat.

Seriously wonderful work!

Molly W

Hello There ! said...

I love that green chair!

Anonymous said...

molly!! so cool that you won the lamp! we are all very jealous. thanks also for your kind words about cre•a•tiv•i•ty! it has been a work in progress, but the talented members of our team make it happen every day.

we enjoy writing it as much as you like visiting/reading it, which also makes it worthwhile and inspiring!