Recycling is bigger than ever and you can find a recycled version of many household items; toilet roll, tissues, glass bottles, notebooks, pencils and plastic bags (not that we condone plastic bags!) In Enschede, in the Netherlands two architects, Jan Jongert and Jeroen Bergsma of 2012Architects, have taken on a larger item and built a recycled house. Made from discarded local material, found using Google Earth to scout out the surrounded 9 mile radius, the team first collected their building materials then designed the house.
Using a process that they have named recyclicity, they scoured the area for anything that could be recycled, upcycled and reused to build a house and everything in it. 60% of the structure is made from reclaimed materials whilst 90% of the interior was found and remade. Jongert and Jeroen even leafleted the neighbourhood asking for broken umbrellas to transform into lighting.
The idea sprung up when Jongert and Jeroen were studying at university, using recycled materials to create small scale models. Why not move this up to a larger dimension? Villa Welpeloo is the culmination of this idea and whole lot of recycling.
At first glance this beautiful recycled house looks like most newly-designed modern homes with crisp lines and spacious layout. When you look a little closer however the uniqueness of the design pops out. Open the white fronted kitchen drawers and the side reveals its previous life as advertising boards, turn on the lights and see the skeleton of umbrellas holding the bulb aloft.
The steel framework of the building is constructed from disused machinery of a nearby textile mill and clad wood scrapped from 600 dismantled cable reels, heat treated in a natural Dutch weatherproofing technique known as the PLATO process.
Only designing the house after the materials have been found could make for a messy looking building but the upcycled house is the perfect blend of architectural beauty and mass recycling.
(Spotted on Dwell)
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