There are so many things that we throw away. And most of the time we don’t think about what and why we throw it away. Okay, thankfully a lot of people do separate there garbage into different bins like paper, plastic, glass, etc. But what about all those other things. There are great programs for recycling. But of course there’s a better way than recycling and that’s upcycling. And that’s what today’s featured designer wants to make us aware of.

Mice chair symbolizes the waste problem

Have you ever thought about the enormous amount of electronic objects that is thrown away everyday? Well I haven’t, until I saw the upcycle design shown in this post. This piece of furniture is called ‘Mona‘ and is designed by Ana Carolina Lima Santos from Curitiba | Brazil. She got for this design a Honorable Mention in the category sustainability at the Bom Design Awards 2012. On Béhance she says about herself: “Communicative and open minded, having fun finding unconventional solutions to problems in the simplest way possible!” Looking at Mona that intention really shows.

“The Mona chair is an ironic vision, trying to cause the user to reflect about the rampant use of electronic objects and what to do with them after disposal. Built with 259 mice on a recycled wood structure, the intention is not to propose a closed solution, but invite you to experience the feeling of ‘sitting on the problem’, seeing and feeling the heap of garbage we throw under our rugs. Showing it while we do not see it, but it’s there and that there are possibilities to reuse it rather than leave it in a corner.”

This furniture design is so ‘in your face’. It shows an amount of waste and what it has turned into. That Honorable mention was rightly deserved.
If you look at the last photo you’ll also see another design by Ana Carolina called ‘Balancê‘. Furniture made out of CRT tube monitors aimed to reuse without chemical intervention.

Design by Ana Carolina Lima Santos