Made from sawdust and plastic bags alone, these adhesive-free lamps take leftover materials and make them shine again.
Plastic bags are an (unfortunately) abundant material that have been used in many ways by designers, but sawdust – though abundant as well – has not been used as frequently by sustainable Middle Eastern designers. One other designer, Yoav Avinoam, has made furniture out of sawdust but his designs required a great deal of resin (perhaps not the most eco-friendly material).
Kulla Industrial Design – a team of two designers based in Israel – has found new and more environmentally friendly ways to use this waste material. Combining sawdust with plastic bags and baking them together in molds, Kulla creates table lamps, pendant lamps and stools in their 50% Sawdust line.
On their innovative work method, designers Adi Shpigel and Keren Tomer write that “a measured mixture of the two materials is pressed into an aluminum mold and then baked. The heat creates a homogeneous connection without using any adhesives.”
The designers describe their material for the 50% Sawdust line as a combination of “two different worlds of waste.” In fusing them together in an environmentally friendly way, they make waste useful again.
The lamps are either set with a wooden base and suitable for use as table lamps, or hung from the ceiling as pendant lamps. Either way, the lamps can be fitted with eco-friendly CFLs. The semi-translucent nature of the plastic bags in the lamps creates a warm glow.
Read more about other sustainable designers::
Tel Aviv’s Junktion Studio Keeps Inspiring Us to Rethink Our Junk
Tel Aviv Port’s “Pop-Up Design Store” Features Many Upcycling Designers
Studio Mesila is Paving the Track to Sustainable Design
Author: Karen Chernick
Much to the disappointment of her Moroccan grandmother, Karen became a vegetarian at the age of seven because of a heartfelt respect for other forms of life. She also began her journey to understand her surroundings and her impact on the environment. She even starting an elementary school Ecology Club and an environmental newsletter in the 3rd grade. (The proceeds of the newsletter went to non-profit environmental organizations, of course.) She now studies in New York. Karen can be reached at karen (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
