What Would You Do with 180 Recycled Wooden Doors? This Architectural Firm Created a Parisian Masterpiece

A low-waste, circular economy usually brings to mind utilitarian structures, or hand-me-down clothes, but one architectural studio has taken 108 recycled wooden doors, and turned them into a stunning pavilion in the middle of Paris.

Named Pavillon Circulaire, not for its shape, but for its creation from waste that’s gone full-circle, Encore Hueureux architectural studio has made an absolute masterpiece of something that might end up in the dumpster.

Other reused materials include mineral wool for insulation reclaimed from a local supermarket, and leftovers from other construction sites, including the building of a retirement home.

The floors and walls are made of recycled exhibition panels and the outdoor terrace was constructed from another project called the Paris Plage operation. All the interior lights, and 50 chairs were also found at recycling centers and public lighting stock.

Located in the heart of Paris at the Hôtel de Ville, the 70-square-meter Circular Pavilion it is free for public use for workshops, lectures, meetings and art exhibitions. It will remain at its current location until January 6th, and then be disassembled and rebuilt at Paris’ 15th arrondissement for use as the clubhouse of a sports association.

The theme of making treasure from trash has been carried on in other buildings, too. There’s a home built entirely of recycled bottles which was inspired by a castle in Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Inspiring in its own right is also the $500 ‘junk’ castle built by a high school art teacher that is mad entirely of salvaged materials. Shipping container homes have become all the rage, and one artist has constructed an entire island home by inserting plastic bottles in bags to make a floating paradise in called Spiral Island in Mexico.

With the sheer amount of unrecycled, non-upcycled ‘garbage’ that we create every year, if only a fraction of it were used in more creative ways, we could make a huge difference on the planet. The garbage patches, great floating islands of trash in the Pacific, and elsewhere need to be minimized, and our landfills are getting too full, leaching dangerous toxins into the soil. Novel, new ways of reducing what we use, minimizing the pollution caused by the usual construction cycle, and creating structures from trash, or just a few ways to treat this planet as the ‘treasure’ it truly is.

Sources:

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