Archinect - News

Tadao Ando accused of copying artist Willie Cole's designs with recycled Met Gala chandelier

2023-05-03T11:16:00-04:00

Last night, a star-studded crowd trickled into the Metropolitan Museum of Art for its annual gala beneath a gargantuan chandelier made of what appeared to be plastic water bottles. After the event took place, several members of the art community noticed what appeared to be suspicious similarities between the chandelier and the plastic works of American artist Willie Cole.

Cole’s work is included in the museum’s permanent collection, and the large-scale chandeliers in question were profiled just two months ago by the New York Times. The large-scale pieces were made of nearly 6,000 individual water bottles and were created to instigate a conversation about the water crisis afflicting Cole’s hometown of Newark, New Jersey, in 2019. Some have found them comparable on social media.

The pieces were also profiled in Vogue yesterday, which quoted event planner Raul Àvila as saying: "We wanted to find a way to create a sustainable design that would implement the bottles into a breathtaking installation unlike anything we’ve done before."

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Willie cole (@williecoleart)

16,000 plastic bottles used to create Stonehenge-like monument in Milan

2022-11-25T13:01:00-05:00

UK-based studio VATRAA has created a monument in Milan, Italy composed of thousands of plastic water bottles. The installation, titled Plastic Monument, seeks to bring attention to the issue of plastic pollution.

“Some plastics last up to 1000 years in our landfills and oceans while others might never biodegrade,” the studio notes. “We could argue that plastic waste is our legacy to many generations to come.”

Image credit: VATRAA / Alessandro Ariel Terranova

In response, the studio created a monument in the form of a trilithon, drawing similarities with the ancient Stonehenge site in the UK. The installation seeks to create a stark contrast between the single-use, disposable nature of plastic waste and the timeless nature of ancient monuments, reminding visitors that “what we are doing today might stay on Earth forever.”

Image credit: VATRAA / Alessandro Ariel Terranova

To complete the monument, which stands 25 feet tall, 16,000 plastic bottles were pressed together into bales, and...

Pavilion 3D printed from 30,000 up-cycled plastic bottles takes shape in Dubai

2019-12-30T14:22:00-05:00

Located at the Dubai International Financial Center stands an eye-catching pavilion designed by the Middle East Architecture Network (MEAN). Known for their evocative designs using computational design and digital fabrication techniques, their most recent project, Deciduous, highlights the studio's passion for experimentation with fabrication and materials.

Image © Naaro

According to a project statement by MEAN, "Deciduous is composed of a hybrid of 3 different sustainable materials: CNC-milled Birch plywood flooring, Robotically 3D-Printed Concrete Base, and a series of branching 3D-Printed PETG stems, a plastic polymer up-cycled from 30,000 discarded water bottles.” The goal of the pavilion and its unique material construction is to aid spectators by revisiting their "relationship with nature, through an experience reminiscent of walking through an abstracted botanical form," according to the designers.

Image © Naaro

Video Documenting 'Deciduous' Fabrication, Construc...

A plastic pavilion dazzles in Mexico City through innovation and discourse

2019-01-16T11:56:00-05:00

Showcased during the Mextrópoli International Festival of Architecture, one of the largest festivals in Latin America with over 50,000 people in attendance, I-CONO dazzles the streets of Mexico City. Aimed at creating and sparking discussion around architecture and the city architects, students, locals, and tourists from all over come to the event. The 2018 project winners, Bianchimajer and Anna Merci, were chosen to headline the festival's Mextrópoli Pavilion structure with I-CONO. Made of 2500 plastic bottles and standing a little over 21 feet high, the project reflects on the public's interaction with architecture and the city. The public piece creates an immersive sensorial display, allowing visitors to be transformed through sound, light, shadow, and color all while standing in one of Mexico City's most famous plazas. The pavilion strives to spark thoughts and discussions of how the architecture of Mexico City can be understood and juxtaposed with a temporary public installatio...

Startup Pod(o) proposes a tiny-architecture solution to the festival industry's waste problem

2018-11-13T22:17:00-05:00

With the increase in festival events and attendance, one company strives to fix the waste problem these highly attended festivals make. Based in Christchurch, Dorset, Above All C6(n) is a sustainable technology company that is using recycled plastic water bottles to create sustainable alternatives to tents found at festivals. Pod(o) is an accommodation unit that is reusable, stackable, and lockable. It is capable of incorporating solar-power components, an eco water supply, as well as its own bio toilet. Currently holding a capacity of 2 person(s), the team at Above All C6(n) is working on a pod that can accommodate more people.

Pod(o) Image © Deep South Media

At the core of its construction are single use plastic flakes that make up its MESR TECNIC (Modular, Extensible, Scalable and Reusable) building components. These lightweight structures are made to reduce the production of more plastic waste. Event organizers claim that many of the tents that are available for rent at festivals...

Researchers propose concrete mixed with plastic for India's rapid construction

2018-09-19T16:28:00-04:00

Researchers say India could alleviate its growing shortage of sand, which is needed for concrete, by partially replacing it with waste plastic. Research carried out by the University of Bath in the UK, and India’s Goa Engineering College, has found that concrete made with an admixture of ground-up plastic bottles is almost as strong as traditional concrete mixtures.

With India's rapid urbanization, concrete construction has dramatically increased causing a shortage in the country's sand used to make the building material. Mixing in plastic bottles focuses on solving both the issue of a sand shortage and the accumulation plastic waste on the streets. While the plastic added material is not as strong as concrete, it could still be used for lower tech functions such as paving slabs.

This man is building an entire village from recycled plastic bottles

2016-09-16T14:37:00-04:00

"Humanity went through stone age, went through ice age, and today, going through plastic age. We need to find solution,” explains Robert Bezeau, the man intent on amending the global reach of plastic waste by building houses out of it. A transplant to Panama from Montreal, he has started building an entire village from discarded plastic bottles, placing them inside metal cages, and then stacking them into a simple house structure.

A recent scientific study estimates that currently, there are over 150 million tons of plastic waste in our oceans, and by 2050, that amount could outnumber fish. In places like Bocas del Toro, where Bezeau is building his plastic village, a rapid influx of new residents produced waste at a rate the city couldn't handle, resulting in an overflow of plastic garbage.

To cope with the issue, Bezea began gathering plastic bottles from locals and using them as building insulation. Check out The Atlantic's video below for his story.

Bezea isn't the only one buildin...

Soda bottle + sunlight + water + chlorine = 55 Watt lightbulb

2012-01-13T11:30:00-05:00

A simple, yet brilliant, new concept is providing free solar-powered light for thousands of families in poverty-stricken Philippines.