During my internship as and an Interior Designer, I was able
to work with many manufacture companies when it came to finish samples. I’m sure whether you are an interior
designer/merchandising student or apparel student you are aware of the
abundance of samples that are distributed to companies in order to get them to
use their products. Towards the
end of my internship I was asked if I wanted to take any of the sample that
they had accumulated in their library.
Obviously, I didn’t think much about it then, but now I wish I could
have brought back some samples and made something useful out of them.
In this week’s concept I want to focus on “Optimizing, Not
Maximizing” and “Using Materials Sparingly”. According to Benyus, “eighty–five percent of manufactured
items quickly become waste”. We
all know that sample items are never intended to have a function other than to
be a showpiece. But what if we
developed a company that would restore all of the sample materials and finishes
that companies produce and turn them into renewable items or materials? Take-back
laws are being implanted in countries like Europe and Germany that require
manufacturers to take back their products and recycle them at the end of their
life cycle. I believe that this
concept should be developed into the apparel and especially in the interior
design industry. This concept can
help develop the idea of “refurbished” products which is the theory described
by Quinn as discarded materials having a potential to procure a fresh life.
The theory behind my concept is to have interior design and
architecture companies donate their unwanted samples and turn the samples into
a functional piece of furniture or materials. As well as producing new furniture pieces from samples, they
could be designed to be multifunctional in order to use the materials
sparingly. By designing multifunctional products we could achieve lightness
according to Flecter, which will allow the development to produce products with
many functions but with less materials.
With implementations of developing lighter materials such as wood and
metal, we could achieve a sustainable production with upcycled sample
materials.
This concept has been developed by website like Pinterest
where they have DIY (do it yourself) projects ideas. However, I want to take this concept into a bigger approach and
develop a company that will actually make furniture pieces out of scraps of
samples. Below is an example of
what I would like for my company to develop with scraps of wood or other
materials.
This beautiful credenza was made out of scraps of wood from an old broken down cabinet.
Olivia,
ReplyDeleteI really like how you took your concept from last weeks blog and expanded it and then gave it a specific tie in to Interior Design. I think this is a good idea that could be beneficial to many different people and groups. The example you showed is a really unique product that I think a lot of people would find appealing. My only question is where and how would these Architecture and Interior Design companies be able to send their unwanted samples to?
I know that shipping the samples would just add more footprint but I think that this is the only method to get the unwanted samples to the company that would recycle them or produce them into a another product.
DeleteOlivia,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog and learning about these display pieces! Too bad you did not take advantage of taking some of those display pieces when you were interning. I agree that a lot of waste comes from these displays when they are done being used on the selling floor. Do you think sending back and having them recycled is more beneficial than maybe just making display furniture that is more versatile and can be used over a longer period of time?
Honestly, I think it would be more beneficial if we just made display furniture to be more versatile and use it for a longer time than having to use more energy to recycle a furniture piece.
DeleteYou focused on a very important issue and described how to make something better from that issue. I enjoyed reading your blog and wished something like this existed! It would make consumers more conscious of "waste" when buying these types of pieces. How do you suppose say the firm you worked for would respond to a upcycled company such as the one you're describing? Would they take the effort to actually pass along samples and scraps?
ReplyDeleteI think that if the company that was doing the upcycle would produce furniture piece for the the company that was passing along their samples, I think more interior design companies would want to take advantage of this opportunity.
DeleteOlivia, you did a wonderful job on writing your blog! Very interesting! I like how you linked the concept of refurbishment to capturing and restoring of sample pieces. We really do not consider much about the aftermath of sample material, it's a product that is used once and discarded immediately afterwards. By developing a formalized organization to recover these pieces, other advantages for them can be recognized. Do you know what has prohibited the US from establishing such laws?
ReplyDelete