Salvaged Material Outdoor Furniture

Architect Adrienne Lau fuses steel parts collected from old planters and beams from demolished army barrack to create the Acute and Obtuse furniture collection. The outdoor series is developed for Abbey Gardens, which is an open-access park and harvest garden. All of the pieces are made from upcycled materials. Lau explains, "The specific angles of the steel corners lend themselves well to forming the structure of different furniture types – 150 degrees for a lounger, 110 degrees for a chair, and the smaller angles as supports for benches."

The project also showcases how waste materials can be used in new ways as a notion of Japanese wabi-sabi, where design emphasizes the beauty of imperfections. Lee adds, "Instead of hiding them, imperfections should be embraced creatively to make material reuse more widely desirable. Making the collective material story evident inspires people to take good care of it. After all, objects are kept from waste when they are valued."

Image Credit: Raquel Diniz