shipping palette green wall

So, I have been particularly interested in green walls these days... over the past year or so, i have been pondering the idea of making a DIY upcycled green wall or green roof using egg cartons for the structure (styrofoam or plastic so they don't degrade, i hope). But that has yet to manifest... Today, Kira Appelhans, of Working Earth, shared this link from Life On The Balcony with me-- a green wall made out of a shipping palette!




This post is the perfect marriage of my personal and professional interests! Jennifer, my business partner, and I (Studio Balcones) will be embarking on the landscape design for the Pecan Street Project's Home Research Lab. It includes a green wall! If it is built, it will be the second living/green wall/vertical garden (that I am aware of) in all of Texas! -- if you know of others, please share with me! Many thanks to Michael Hsu Office of Architecture for inviting us to be part of the project.

shipping pallets

the possibilities are endless. shipping palettes can be re-configured to become everything from furniture to sculpture to landscape elements. here are a just a few of the possibilities!







via a.ml und partner







via Be Paletto!





via TreeHugger





via graypants

drinking straws + plastic cups

I don't think that these are actually recycled, but they could be. Tara Donovan's sculptural works are amazing. As a landscape architect, I love the topographies that she creates out of simple materials. I am curious to know if 3D modeling software is part of her process. You will be seeing further posts on her work on my blog for sure!!!

via Martha Stewart Crafts Dept. Blog

cans

wow! there are so many interesting uses of can-cladded architecture! some better than worse, but all interesting to see and learn from!



Clare Graham adapted tin cans into a "wallpaper" of sorts for Larry Laslo's room in the 2008 Kips Bay Decorator Show House. She has quite an eye for reinventing materials. I am sure I will post more on her work in the future! I love the way it interacts with light.

via The New York Times





Pugh + Scarpa designed the Broadway Housing's "building skin [to be] partially clad with recycled aluminum cans formed into building blocks about twice the size of concrete blocks. [They] worked with the state to get the approval to work with local recycling companies to provide the material."

via Inspiration Green





Richard Van Os Keuls' rear-addition to his home in Silver Spring, Maryland is bedazzled with ~15,000 aluminum cans!

via The Washington Post





Here in Texas, John Milkovisch started his aluminum can project in Houston circa 1968.

via The Beer Can House

soccer balls + basketballs

I'm always looking for ways to incorporate defunct objects into something functional, especially when it can be out in the landscape. I recently saw a fantastic image of soccer ball flower pots "in situ"-- somewhere in South America, where I assume they had a slew of old soccer balls on hand. but for the life of me, i cannot find it. ha! thus, i started a blog to help me remember these inspirations.

via instructables

vinyl records

Matt Glassmeyer is a Nashville Musician who has applied a music recording medium to a roof. I'm impressed to know that the records do not warp under these conditions; i am going to be looking further into vinyl and weathering conditions... i wonder if it works in this condition because it "breathes" since it is not a sheathing above waterproofing and other non-porous layers. fantastic colors.

via treehugger