People who’ve been reading upcycleDZINE for some time now, know that I’m an Apple fan. That’s since my first encounter with the Apple Macintosh in 1984 and because I’ve been working with Apple computers for over 25 years as a graphic designer. So I’ve used quit a few keyboards in all those years. But never have I thought of upcycling them. Until I visited the Tortona Design Week in Milan where I saw some very nice and cool looking furniture that uses laptop keyboard keys.
Apple laptop keys get stylish new life
In Milan I saw a set of very stylish stools and tables called ‘380|tiles‘. It’s a project by a small design studio called VicoloPagliaCorta, based in Bologna | Italy.
For 380|tiles they recovered ten thousand keys from Apple scrap laptops. “We cut the plastic teeth on their back, we cleaned them and we formed 25 tiles with 380 keys each. A mosaic of 20 rows and 19 columns.”
The composition of the keys follows three themes: Symbols, letters and numbers. Every tile becomes the top of an oak wooden stool they designed and crafted. 25 one-off numbered stools can also be used as small tables.
A second addition to the 380|tiles project was: 6 small tables whose top is made from a total of 5.400 keys also scavenged from discarded apple laptops.
Photos © VicoloPagliaCorta
And their latest additions are a wall clock and a wall hanger, both of course made with discarded Apple laptop keys.
I really like what VicoloPagliaCorta has done with these used laptop keys, especially because I think they perfectly match Apple’s design.
Design by VicoloPagliaCorta