Reused house facade

Pines Garden, near Dover UK
eSalvo reader Will Carleton (CEO of Photo Archive News) sent in this weeks reuse of the week: the facade of a London town house on the upper part of 73 Cheapside, demolished in the 1920s, which has been reused in the Pines Garden, just outside Dover, to be admired and provide supporting flower beds for the plants.

The caption on the commemorative plaque reads:

This handsome facade on an important city mansion which was erected in 1669 following the Great Fire in 1666, stood a few doors east of Queen Street and here it is said that Sir William Turner kept his mayorality 1668-9. It was occupied later by Mr. Thomas Regg, the bookseller. A view of this house drawn by T. H. Shepherd in about 1830 is illustrated in a number of books on the City of London.

The house was demolished in the 1920s. Since then the facade has been housed in various places and efforts to reconstruct it in the City of London and elsewhere have proved unsuccessful.

The elevation which was the upper part of 73 Cheapside was offered to the Trustees in 1975 who decided to lay it out in the Pines Garden rather than see the destruction of this fine facade.








Pines Gardens

Gardenvisit.com

nolasalvage

New Orleans, USA
Nolasalvage make wall art houses from old cypress and salvaged metal parts. The wall sculptures are inspired by New Orleans architecture and are made with salvaged wood, scrap metal and other found objects are used to represent a door and window. Each house is unique and the sizes vary from 5"-10" tall and 4"-6" wide.

The founder of nolasalvage said, "Part of loving New Orleans is loving its architecture and signature shotgun houses. Another part of my lifestyle is the abundance of debris, I keep finding interesting bits of metal and beautiful old wood that I don't want to throw away. These wall sculptures are a result of my love for art and junk!"



Etsy

Airline 'reuses plastic cutlery 30 times'

Qantas, Australia's largest airline reuses plastic cutlery as many as 30 times before they are thrown away. The cutlery is collected at the end of journeys and sent to a cleaning facility before distributing them to a new set of passengers.

news.com.au

Reuse from Redhills Community Primary School

Exeter, Devon UK
Children of Redhills Community Primary School have just put the finishing touches to their reuse plastic bottle greenhouse. The last bottles were wired into place ready for the plants to arrive.

Redhills School

Human hair to tackle oil spill

Human hair and fur stuffed in tights is the new contraption to tackle the oil spewing from BP's ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico. Hair possesses a unique characteristic which means that oil clings to the many tiny scales on each strand.

"Each follicle [strand] of hair has an enormous amount of surface area. It's not soaking up the oil, it's not blowing up like a sponge - the oil is coating the outside," says Lisa Gautier, founder of the ecological charity Matter of Trust, which runs an international Hair for Oil Spills programme to collect off-cuts from hair salons and pet groomers, sheep farmers and individuals.

The technique has been tested and approved by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. It was used in past disasters, such as 2007's Cosco Busan oil spill in San Francisco Bay and in the Philippines in 2006.

BBC NEWS

Chandelier from recycled bottles

South Africa
South African designer Heath Nash unveiled a colorful, eclectic chandelier made almost entirely from recycled PET bottles at this year’s Milan Design Week. Dubbed Bottleformball, it is crafted from multicolored pieces of salvaged bottles attached to a hand-made wire structure. The artfully arranged bottle pieces look almost like colored ceramics when illuminated from within.




Inhabit

Kelvingrove Museum to kitchen worktops

Falkirk, Scotland UK
Hargreaves, based in Central Scotland, are reclaiming specialists. Since January 2009 they have expanded the business to include bespoke (reuse) kitchens, worktops and furniture made from reclaimed timber and flooring.

Proprietor Neale Hargreaves' discusses one reuse project - "We removed the solid Teak flooring from Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow, installed 115 years ago, during its refurb 5 years ago. I'd kept the flooring and intended to use it as decking, it couldn't go back down as a floor as 90% of the tongue and groove was damaged, I was too busy and never got round to it.

A client from Edinburgh came to our showroom in Airth, after he'd noted we built kitchens from reclaimed materials on our website www.hargreavesltd.co.uk Once we had discussed the kind of thing he and his wife were looking for, namely Teak, I reluctantly suggested we could use the Teak flooring from the museum to make the kitchen. In the end we used reclaimed Douglas Fir flooring for the carcase and the reclaimed Teak for the doors and worktops, splashback and kickboards. The kitchen was successfully installed after only 3 weeks from date of order at Inverleith Row in Edinburgh. The client told me it was "exactly as they had envisaged it" and although I was sad not to have used the Teak myself, I was delighted they were so happy with the end result and to see the flooring being re-used: from Burma, to Glasgow, to Edinburgh, its life so far!!"


Above: The flooring as lifted from Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow.


Above: The kitchen in the process of being made.






Above: The finished product

Hargreaves

Armadiature by Robi Renzi

Milan, Italy
Designer Robi Renzi of RenziVivian will present a series of cabinets assembled from a patchwork of salvaged wooden components in Milan later this month. Called Armadiature, the pieces will be presented as part of an exhibition called Let It Shine at new exhibition space Skillart. Skillart is a new exhibition space located in Milan and dedicated to the universe of design and applied arts.




design magazine

What a corker!

How about a bath mat from from old wine bottle corks?

Craftynest

Transformed Liquid Container Trucks Into Mobile Houses

Aristide Antonas a designer from Athens is devising new ways to upcycle existing materials into dwellings. His designs reuse old trucks into apartments that can either remain stationary or stay attached to the truck and be mobile.

"We may be in the Age of Aquarius, but it seems more appropriate to say that we’re entering into the Age of Reuse, and these KEG Apartments are a prime example. Antonas and his collaborator Katerina Koutsogianni envision transforming these abandoned spaces into two-level apartments, vacation homes or even offices," said Bridgette Meinhold from Inhabitat.


Athens, Greece


Inhabitat

Container Gardening

Willem van Cotthem reports on how to make a container garden using plastic bottles.



'(1) Plastic bottle with stop on top and perforated bottom (drainage); (2) Stop taken off and conical part of the bottle cut away; small slit cut in the cone; (3) Cone pushed to the bottom in the bottle; (4) Bottle filled with potting soil mixed with the water absorbing soil conditioner TerraCottem, well compacted up to 5 cm from the bottle top; (5) Seed(s) or seedling(s) in the soaked potting soil.'



The bottle is now prepared, make sure that you choose the right size bottle for the vegetable you are growing. The possibilities are endless, you could even start a container garden on the side of your house (see diagram below)



Container Garden

Sheffield Chimney House at Kelham Island is given new lease of life

Above: The meeting room of 93ft at Chimney House, Kelham Island, which can be rented out. [photo. www.thechimneyhouse.com]

Sheffield, UK
Tim Hubbard and his PR consultant partner Sally Clark have transformed the Sheffield landmark - the Chimney House at kelham into a business headquarters. Mr Hubbard said, "When we heard it was coming up for sale last year we weren't looking to move… until we walked in," and since then it has been a labour of love to transform the Grade II listed building.

"The chimney had been restored but the rest was just a shell when we took over: a dusty bomb-site covered in patchy plaster and crumbling brickwork. We've literally scoured the UK for crazy bits of architectural salvage that we've restored by hand," said Ms Clark. The couple salvaged everything they could from lighting to wallpaper and furniture. "The red and green staircase light is an old eye-test unit, while the main conference room is lit by mismatched white glass lamps and old theatre spotlights, each cleaned and rewired. The solid teak doors once hung in the toilets of a mental hospital, the grain hidden beneath layers of black sludge and green slime. An antique Mr Toad-style car horn offers a means for clients to summon assistance," said Ms Clark

The other focal point, naturally, is the 93-foot chimney itself. From outside it dominates the area. Inside the curved wall has become a mural by local artist Tom Newell.

Sheffield Telegraph

Lady Gaga turns waste into haute hair accessories

The infamous Lady Gaga seems to have a passion for trashion. Her recent appearance on Friday nights Jonathan Ross show saw her wearing a telephone hat and her new aptly named 'Telephone' video features Lady Gaga with empty soda cans and the dismembered remains of a rotary phone in her hair.



ecouterre

Plastic Bottle Palace

Puerto Iguazu, Argentina
The Santa Cruz family have created their very own plastic bottle palace, constructed from thousands of PET plastic bottles which were heading for improper disposal. It is portable, simple and creative and “a tool for promoting ecological and social responsibility” said Mr Santa Cruz. The walls, columns, beds, couches, coffee tables, and even an outdoor garden playhouse are all made from discarded drink bottles.

A list of what Alfredo used to construct La Casa de Botellas:

1200 PET plastic bottles in its walls
1300 milk and wine Tetra Pack containers in its roof
140 compact disk boxes in its doors and windows
120 PET plastic bottles in the couches
200 PET plastic bottles in the bed




Inhabitots

Upcycling in the home

Upcycling is a fairly new term for an old practice of taking a discarded object and reinventing them. The founders of Reclaimed Home do just that, reusing and upcycling unwanted items into decorative home treasures. "The thing about upcycling is that anything goes; it doesn’t have to look perfect or even make sense. Whatever it looks like, it’s better than it will look in the landfill," said Reclaimed Home.


Above: A pair of 1950’s water skis bought at a garage sale for $15 transformed into coat hooks.


Above: The towel bar was fabricated out of a Victorian window lintel, used copper pipe and antique glass doorknobs.


Above: This vintage mechanic’s toolbox was found at a garage sale for five bucks. The legs were found in a dumpster. Now it's a coffee table. If you have some longer legs on hand, tool boxes can also make great desks.


Etsy handmade blog

One-of-a-kind find

Rocheport, Missouri USA - An antique two panel door has been transformed into a headboard for a bed or a mantle piece.

Christmas Cards - don't bin them!

We all know there must be loads of things you can do with Christmas cards after they have spent a few weeks making us feel christmassy and getting dusty on the shelf. Obviously the best thing is to cut them up a bit and use for next years cards, but if you are feeling a bit more creative there's a load more ideas on the web, including this star...

Squidoo - Ways to reuse a christmas card

Mini structures from repurposed throwaways

San Francisco, USA

Golden Gate Express exhibit, a miniature steam train that rolls through a miniature San Francisco, complete with Coit Tower, TransAmerica Pyramid Building, Golden Gate Bridge and the Conservatory of Flowers. These mini structures are all made from repurposed throwaways found in a skip. The Ghirardelli clock tower is made with old chocolate brown light switch plates; 1,000 computer keys stud the TransAmerica Pyramid, and Coit Tower is made with plumbing supplies, tape measures and mini blinds.




Craft

Creative reuse

Dutch designer Jo Meesters has a sustainable and handmade approach to his work. His new collection is made entirely out of 34 discarded wooden beams and 16 left over blankets. Entitled Odds and Ends, Bits and Pieces, the collection uses basic upholstering and weaving techniques.






apartment therapy

Phone box reused as libary

Above: The traditional phone box was bought from BT for £1 [photo BBC]

Westbury-sub-Mendip, Somerset UK

A traditional red phone box has been reused as a library in the village of Westbury-sub-Mendip. The worlds smallest library regularly gives out books, dvds and cds to the local villagers.

A resident dreamed up the idea when the village lost its phone box and mobile library in quick succession. Users simply stock it with a book they have read, swapping it for one they have not. "It's really taken off. The books are constantly changing," said parish councillor Bob Dolby.

So far BT have given over 350 phone boxes to parish councils, these have been transformed into art installations, a shower and even a public toilet.

BBC