A new type of pattern for aggregating bicycle frames allows for more adaptability.
Continue readingreuse
Cluster 3: Connector System for Detergent-Bottle Nodes and PVC Pipes
In this study, we explore how to create a simple connection system between the detergent-bottle nodes and PVC pipes. The aim is to develop a connector system that:
- uses as few components as possible,
- can be assembled and disassembled without tools or skills,
- performs well under tension and compression,
- and reuses an existing element of the bottle (the cap).
CLUSTER 2: Learning from Heineken’s WOBO Bottle
WOBO: The Beer Bottle Designed to Build Homes. In the 1960s, Alfred Heineken visited Curaçao and noticed two things: beaches were littered with glass bottles, many from his own brand, and a huge housing shortage. This led him to an idea: what if beer bottles could be used as bricks for housing?
Continue readingCluster 3: From Container to Connector
We’re returning to the detergent bottle — and to the techniques we explored earlier with pressed plastic panels in the Pearse structure. But this time, the goal is to preserve more of the bottle’s original shape while still transforming it into a structural element.
Continue readingCluster 3: Molding Experiments – recycled Plastic Panels
Recycling plastic into panels for Peter Pearce’s Curved Space structure presents several challenges, from understanding material properties to refining the molding process. Through this series of experiments, we explored different plastic types, tested different melting techniques to create saddle pentagon panels.
Continue readingCluster 3: Material Research – Exploring Thermoplastics
For Cluster 3, the goal is to explore thermoplastics, a category of plastics which is suited for projects involving deformation, bending, and reshaping— could be perfect for creating a structure inspired by the principles of Peter Pearce’s “Curved Space Diamond Structure”.
Continue readingCluster 1: demonstrator
After mainly digital work, we fabricated a physical sample of a bike-frame construction.
Continue readingCluster 1 : BIKE-FRAMES | Collection
hidden reuse
In this type of mosaic floor, second-hand building elements are arranged in an interplay of given/found geometry and designed patterns.
Cluster 1 : BIKE-FRAMES | warm-up studies
Even though Vienna’s waste management agency, the MA 48, according to their own information, is collecting around 2500 abandoned bicycles within the city borders per year, it has turned out to be unbelievably difficult to get hold of any. Once an object has been officially qualified as “trash” (meaning: ended up in a dumpster – which is quite self-evidently always owned by someone – or simply being touched by official “waste management” personnel it seems) it is near to impossible to declassify it as such, and save it from being burnt, shredded, or melted back into undefined formless matter.
“In fact, it has been shown that over 70 percent of the total waste generated in Germany is held as fractions in technological processes (Statistisches Bundesamt, 2015b). However, the ambitious, technological goals of the circular economy have led to a strong separation between the individual and the institutional level.
The established waste system with its regulations can therefore also be perceived as a closed “waste regime” (Gille, 2007, 9; Reno, 2009, 21).“*
Ritzmann, S. and Birkhäuser Verlag (2018) Wegwerfen, Entwerfen : Müll im Designprozess – Nachhaltigkeit in der Designdidaktik, p. 32. Basel.
But we might have finally found a loop-hole and also possible other sources; so Lukas and I won’t have to go “Bonnie & Clyde” to get us a sample set. And this is our first legally aquired specimen:
