Creativity is a powerful thing. It can create ideas and solutions that one normally wouldn’t have tought of. Design is all about creativity. I like contemporary and modern design but for me upcycle design is more intriguing and inspiring. Upcycle design is straight forward and recognizable because the design is made out of a used, discarded object or material. Creativity is also powerful because it lets designers create different solutions although using the same object. I’m writing this little intro because I was amazed when I came across today’s featured design that used a very specific object that has also been used in only one other design here on upcycleDZINE.

Skylight used in unsuspected way

The object I’m talking about is an old German skylight or attic window. The design shown on this blog that used such an object was a stunning chandelier called ‘VASISTAS‘ by Matthew Appleby. Looking at that chandelier I didn’t think I would come across another upcyle design made out of such a skylight. But last weekend that changed after receiving a small newspaper article about a Dutch upcycle designer called Niek Wagemans. Niek’s website is called ‘Fabiek van Niek‘ [Niek’s Factory’] and is named after his workplace. This is the place where he gives waste and other old stuff a second life by turning it into unique furniture and other objects.

Looking at Niek’s work I saw these two cabinets called ‘Kino I & II‘ [Kino is German for cinema], part of his ‘Confused Furniture’ series and made out of discarded materials found in an old empty cinema in Oranienbaum, Germany. There he found a few East-German skylights, a door and old wooden floorboards and created these fantastic and original cabinets. The skylights function as a real eye-catcher. Inside the cabinets is also a small light mounted to create a nice and warm glow during the evening.

Niek Wagemans:

“I enjoy working with materials, which are labeled as ‘waste’, and with empty buildings threatened by decay or even demolition. They are often far from being totally worn, but its just worn out or broken, or they do not correspond to modern requirements anymore. Thereby they seem to have lost their function, and are ‘worthless‘ for others… To me they are just ‘valuable’ because of the traces of their history or by the quality of used materials and techniques at the time. All that is hidden under only a thin layer of dust, and under our normal negligence. I try to make visible those qualities again.“

Photos © Niek Wagemans

Kino I & II, like Niek’s other work, are very intriguing because of the unexpected way he combines materials and objects. And that shows what creativity is all about.

Design by Niek Wagemans