1.25.2007

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Chris Burton’s Repose Lounge is an example of his “upcycled” furniture, made from a variety of construction site waste and other miscellaneous dumpster detritus. His equally-ingenious Yield shelves provide a modular shelving system based on the order of an equilateral triangle. Yield’s various vessels are made from plywood, various wooden off-cuts, and even drywall, giving a unique texture and tactility to each unit. The Yield system was featured, along with the Repose Lounge, as part of Burton’s recent student exhibition at Savannah’s Red Kite Studio gallery.

The next time you pass by a construction site, take a closer look… you may find designer and Savannah College of Art and Design MFA student Chris Burton scouring through the debris, hunting for material for his next chair or table. His recent exhibition at Savannah’s Red Kite Studio, entitled “Upcycle of Waste,” features clever designs that utilize construction waste, dumpster debris, and other urban detritus as raw material for some lovely pieces of furniture. His Repose Lounge chair, for example, is “designed to utilize all lengths of wood used in construction.” It combines plywood with PVC piping cut-offs, which form the slats of the seat and back. Despite the discarded materials, Burton is clever in his material applications, making the most of the PVC’s flexible nature to provide a surprisingly comfortable seat.

Taking recycling to the next level, “upcycling” is Burton’s shrewd interpretation of the trash-into-treasure techniques that many green-minded designers (and we at Inhabitat) love. An environmentally-conscious Californian and ex-construction worker, Burton is inspired by the cultivation of waste into furniture pieces and usable art. We all know how much waste the construction industry produces, and it’s great to see a young designer turning one man’s trash into another man’s comfortable chair.

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