We are big fans of reusing perfectly good materials like waste glass, which can be turned into beautiful glasses, and this incredible pavilion in Bat Yam, Israel is a shining example of just how creative it is possible to get. Many Israeli artists love to recycle ordinary objects into beautiful, magical art.
Ecco Ukka turns scraps of material into enviable jewelry pieces, as does Yael Uriely, but this is the first time we have seen the country’s ubiquitous soup cans turned into a temporary shelter.
The Sukkot “environment” holiday happens in October… perhaps our Jewish readers will be inspired to use something similar in their Sukkah huts? Come on in to find out why the artists chose tin cans for the Bat-Yam International Biennale of landscape urbanism in 2008, and why these principles are timeless.
The soup kitchen and the soup can house?
The folks over at Recycle Art quote Lihi, Roee and Galit – the artists who developed the Soup Can Pavilion:
“The combination of “hospitality” and “public space” implies an inner tension. How can people identify with public space and relate to it as if it were their own living rooms?
“We approach this question by fostering the participation of residents and visitors in the shaping of their environment, thus leaving their mark and presence on the space. The location we chose was an unoccupied lot where the municipality has planted a grove of palm trees, while the lot remains “on hold” for a construction project some time in the future. The palm trees bestow an ambience of fantasy we chose to further emphasize by using shiny tin cans as building blocks; city conservation using a familiar household material in a new context.
“A sense of the exotic and a choice of no-man’s-land, practically transparent to street traffic, sheds a new and different light on the space and reveals its latent potential. After sundown, pavilion visitors will be exposed to the street, the same way urban interiors are revealed for viewing every evening.”
If it looks like a lot of work to create a structure of this kind, look again. It’s actually very simple. The hollowed-out cans are linked together and held upright by a system of steel rods. Plenty of light penetrates the entire structure, ensuring that there isn’t too much solar gain. The last thing anyone needs in Israel is a magnet for more heat.
I would be concerned though about climbing kids getting stuck or cut by the cans. Some ideas are best tried as a pilot and maybe left at that.
This is not the first time that the somewhat beleaguered satellite city of Bat Yam has been chosen for an urban renewal project. Not long ago, 72 Hour Urban Action took over with a fast paced urban design project designed to breathe new life into the city.
Now, where to find the cans. Looks like you could find some nearby a falafel or hummus restaurant.
More Recycled Ideas on Green Prophet:
Ecco Ukka Weaves Love, Magic and Recycled Materials into Fabric Jewelry
