2 WEEK
Kitchen -
The kitchen in the house is spacious, well functioning and capable. It has been systemised in its logic that takes communal life under account - whether it’s storing, recycling or handling, the people in VARES have made sure to indicate where to find or place stuff, so things wont get lost or spoiled easily.
Cooking and sharing food is a fast way to connect with each other. We have dinners together taking turns in making food for everyone. The weather is often beautiful here, inviting us to dine in the courtyard. I have noticed how chairs and tables are often carried outside for outdoor dinners, which made me curious to scavenger for some leftover / forgotten materials to build furniture for outdoor dinners and hangouts.
Dumpster diving-
Since me and some of my fellow colleagues have taken a goal to use as little to non new building materials for our projects as possible, we have had many inspiring dumpster dive trips in recycling centers, abandoned buildings and sheds.
I have found unique pieces of old furniture, which are in a way guiding my own design process to figure out the structure and details I’d want to implement on my coming objects. Dismantling decaying chairs for its metal frames and reimagining washing boards to become bench tops seems slightly silly, yet fun enough to give it a go.
By talking to the locals around, especially arranging visits to abandoned buildings in the municipality, we are invited into a deeper context of Valga - what it once was and how it is keeping up nowadays - everything has a nostalgic hue glowing to itself. The people we’ve met express a gentle thirst for new surprises, but also hopelessness for change to come their way.
I find trash beautiful in a similar manner. The beauty of it is obviously melancholic, when it comes to thinking how all of the things tossed where in the past someway useful and needed. There was enough care applied for the objects to become aesthetic, functional - a part of its era in a daily context. Now while I look at it all in a pile of goodbyes, I feel as if I’m giving them another chance by making adjustments to invite them back to life.
https://www.macguffinmagazine.com/issues/macguffin-the-log
Diving into particleboards