Mexican architect Javier Guzmán Cervantes has collected city waste supplies together with cinderblocks and rebar to create a collection of furnishings for a present in Mexico Metropolis.
Working together with his analysis challenge Ex Soup, Cervantes gathered supplies from development websites and waste deposits all through the town to create an exhibition at design gallery Utíl.
Curated in collaboration with the humanities organisation Lugar Vivo, the Construcciones Domésticas exhibition (Family Constructions) contains objects starting from tables and chairs to lighting and day beds.
Cervantes instructed Dezeen that the challenge was exercised to make clear the ecological results of waste in development, the shortage of choices in inexpensive, sturdy furnishings and the necessity for architects to free themselves from the “psychological realm of design” and deal with making.
“I feel these instances that we live in require us to discover new life and new methods of configuring our home interiors, extra attuned with the current international financial and environmental actuality,” mentioned Cervantes.
He added that new values have to be garnered from industrial landscapes and ecological break.
“That is precisely the spirit of Ex Soup, to take discarded supplies and remodel them into one thing lovely and helpful to life in a course of that prioritizes vitality effectivity and sensible pondering.”
Cervantes mentioned that he has been engaged on creating furnishings from salvaged supplies since his teenagers, however solely just lately started formalising the observe, founding Ex Soup in 2022.
A lot of the fabric comes from the architect’s each day life, whereas driving or strolling, in addition to from supplies discarded from development websites and given to him by buddies.
The identify, Ex Soup, is a reference to his most well-liked supplies: industrial merchandise like metallic and glass that “have been heated liquids of their manufacturing processes and got shapes”.
Initiatives included in Family Constructions encompass mixes of various supplies stacked to create recognisable types, and plenty of have been created with out the usage of glue to create “ergonomic shapes” held collectively by rigidity.
Among the many works is a espresso desk constructed utilizing metal beams with surfaces created from a discarded mirror and glass.
The work of rigidity is most evident in among the taller items, corresponding to a desk. Cervantes stacked items of paving stone and PVC piping in two pillars and used strapping to carry up the desktop, which was created from a reused headboard.
Lots of the items are easy and have a brutalist impact, given the metal and concrete used of their development, whereas others are extra vibrant, corresponding to a divan lined with an expressive weave of scrap clothes.
Rolls of electrowelded mesh additionally function closely within the assortment, at instances serving as helps for a console and at others serving as lamp shades.
Cervantes mentioned that the items have been meant to indicate the big variety of mixtures potential in utilizing these supplies.
“There are some items which might be simply replicable since many instances trash is available in patterns, however I’d say I see Ex Soup extra as an countless seek for new shapes and methods of perceiving supplies, so the main target is in consistently adapting to alter and variation,” he mentioned.
Different furnishings made utilizing scrap supplies features a chair created from previous musical devices by Jay Sae Jung and a collection of Knoll chairs refashioned with used automobile components by Noel Mercado.
The pictures is by Javier Guzman.
Family Constructions is on view at Utïl in Mexico Metropolis from 8 November to January 2024. For extra occasions and exhibitions in structure and design go to the Dezeen Occasions Information.
