Recycled Materials
Why recycled materials?
Contemporary, mass-manufactured products lack the unique organic character of natural materials, which older materials more commonly are. We understand where these materials come from, how they’re made and the imperfections have an inherent charm that is noticeably absent in these modern alternatives. Think to compare plasterboard to timber VJ boards, timber to aluminium windows or the faux timber imprinted grain we see on modern floorboards that seem to be everywhere.
Despite minimising landfill and embodied energy, there is also a certain magic in the process of finding solutions through recycled materials. When you keep an open mind and stay receptive to the vast amount of second hand materials out there, your intuition often - and I would even say almost always - guides you toward something unexpected yet perfectly suited for the project.
Nothing ever feels forced or contrived and you’re not adhering to any particular fad or trend. Instead, each project naturally finds its own unique and perfect place.
Read some examples below.
Tiny House 2022
I purchased this Tiny House at Lockup stage following The Bower’s 2022 Tiny House Course. I then fitted out the house using recycled materials in an unplanned organic kind of way over the following 6 months. The video below is an excerpt from a longer presentation I nailed at The Bower’s Repair Festival in 2023 and 2024.
Georgetown Pergola - Serendipitous Door
This project in Georgetown, Newcastle was for a small outdoor room over an existing deck to create an intermediate space between the house and the garden. The proposed roof abutting the house was kept low to avoid alterations to the existing roof with polycarb sheeting to ensure adequate light coming through the door. The main roof then pitched up and away from the house for more internal height. The outdoor room was designed with various operable screens and panels for privacy and protection from the rain and wind.
The owner also wanted to remove the existing window and door unit and replace it with a large timber door for nice connection between the house and outdoor room. We sourced quotes that came in at around $12000, and for an equivalent aluminium door quoted at $2000. As the budget was quite low this was a significant consideration. We both believed that an aluminium door would significantly detract from the warm hand made quality of both her existing cottage and the new pergola.
Then some serendipity kicked in.
At the time I was also working in Sydney driving the truck for The Bower Reuse and Repair Centre in Marrickville. When out collecting donations we came to Margarita’s house where she was also doing a renovation. There happened to be a door there measuring 3850mm wide, only 50mm different from the opening of the window and door unit in Georgetown! I asked what she was doing with the door, she said I could have it for $100 if I took it out myself.
Over the next month or so I removed the door, added a new track and roller to change the fixed panel to also be a slider, sanded and oiled the timber and installed new fly screen mesh. I then delivered the door unit to Georgetown. If you are using old doors and windows in a renovation project you need them to be ready well before the builder needs to install them.
This was all a bit of intuition and magic which always happens when working with second hand materials. Although only a small part of the project, it meant both that these great cedar doors weren’t thrown out, and gave the owner a cheaper but also unique item in that of these Mid Century style with the mid glazed timber panel. The owner is very happy with the doors.
“..The doors he sourced and up-cycled are perfectly imperfect and I could not imagine the space without them..”
I didn’t charge for this process - because I was excited by it - but owners can save money by putting in the labour themselves. You stay open to the things around you, things pop up and you let them help you make your decisions. See final images of installed door below.
Cupboard House
During lockdown of 2021 I built this little House for Homeless, putting into action an idea i’d had for the past couple of years. I had the idea after doing outreach volunteering around Newtown and thinking rough sleepers needed somewhere to sleep at night but also store their stuff during in the day. Working at the Bower I saw all these great old wardrobes that no one wanted anymore and thought their might be some correlation between these ideas.
The video below on the left is an excerpt from a longer presentation I gave at The Bower’s Repair Festival in 2023 and 2024.
The video on the right is a media clip discussing the tents in Enmore Park at the beginning of 2024.