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Plastic Recurrence ספסל ציבורי by HIR Studio

Plastic Recurrence ספסל ציבורי by HIR Studio is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2021 פרס הכסף של A' Design Award in עיצוב רהיטים Competition Category.


כסףרהיטים· 2021

Plastic Recurrence ספסל ציבורי

by HIR Studio

Client: HIR Studio

פרס הכסף של A' Design Award Winner in רהיטים Category

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Verified Award Winner

Verify Award Status for #120840

Colors

The Design

About Plastic Recurrence ספסל ציבורי

"היווצרות פלסטית מחדש" היא סדרה של ספסלים ציבוריים העשויים מפסולת פלסטיק ביתית ממוחזרת. שנים-עשר הספסלים עוצבו עבור בית מועצה עירוני מחוזי בהונג קונג, תוך שימוש בפלסטיק שנאסף מאותו המחוז. כל ספסל מורכב משני סוגי מודולים בלבד, החוזרים על עצמם באורכים ובסיבובים משתנים. המודולים המסובבים יוצרים צורות מעוקלות המזכירות אדוות על פני נהר. מרקמים מוחשיים וצבע לא אחיד הופכים כל ספסל לייחודי. הצורה המעוקלת מפרידה בעדינות בין המשתמשים ומאפשרת לילדים לשבת בתנוחות חופשיות.

The Recognition

About the פרס הכסף של A' Design Award

העיצוב Plastic Recurrence ספסל ציבורי זכה בפרס הכסף של A' Design Award, הכרה יוקרתית ביותר הניתנת לעיצובים ברמה הגבוהה ביותר, מרהיבים ומרשימים. זוכי הכסף הם יצירות מבריקות להפליא ויצירתיות מאוד שממחישות את המומחיות, הכישרון והחדות של מעצביהן. מהעיצוב Plastic Recurrence ספסל ציבורי מצפים שיהיה יצירה נפלאה, דגם מופת, מקצועית להפליא וחדשנית לעומק. העיצוב הזה שזכה בפרס הכסף של A' Design Award הוא המצאה בולטת מאוד ומוערצת שמועילה ודוחפת קדימה את גבולות האמנות, המדע, העיצוב והטכנולוגיה. העיצוב Plastic Recurrence ספסל ציבורי הוא יצירה שרבים מקנאים בה, שמעוררת רצונות, מביאה רגשות חיוביים ומציתה התפעלות ופליאה.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties
Plastic Recurrence is a series of benches designed for a district town hall in Hong Kong, by using recycled household plastic waste from the same district.
The series were made of only two typical modules assembled in varied lengths and rotations. Tactile textures and imperfect colour of recycled plastic render each bench unique.
What's taken from the community is used back in the community. For the first time in Hong Kong, the local experienced the joyous rebirth of plastic waste recycled.
Dimensions & Packaging
Number of benches in the series: 12
Dimensions: type1- 1500mm, type2- 2000mm, type3- 5000mm

The design is adaptable by assembling different numbers of plastic modules invarious rotations, installed in the factory.
Tags
Recycled Plastic, Adaptable, Modules, Ripples, Textural, Public Bench
Production Technology
In collaboration with some community organisations in the neighbourhood, HIR studio collected household plastics during the weekend events, as the local residents in Hong Kong helped to categorise the waste into the seven types of plastics. About 500 kg of HDPE bottles were collected in two months. They were then cleaned, processed and ground into pellets, prior to transporting to the furniture factory in China. In the furniture factory two steel moulds were used for rotary moulds in the big oven. Five hundred plastic modules were produced and drilled with CNC controls, which were subsequently fixed with steel tie rods into the twelve benches in varied lengths and forms.
Design Challenge
With no more furniture factories in Hong Kong, the production of plastic needs to be done in an industrial town in China. China customs only allows plastic waste import in the form of recycled pellets. So plastic waste needs to be first processed and granulated in HK, which pushes up the overall transportation costs. While the public's habit of recycling plastic is not popular due to a lack of facilities and motivation, the recycled plastic pellets are often of low qualities, poorly categorised and structurally unsound, This makes the manufacturing process difficult , as we tried to optimize the proportion of recycled plastic without compromising the benches' structural safety.
Research
We researched the feasibility to adopt recycled plastic as a building material, for the first time in Hong Kong. The objective is to alleviate the problem of plastic pollution and to reduce the consumption of new materials. About 20,000 household plastic bottles were collected, processed, and transformed into a dozen benches after a year. The manufacturing process is hardly cost-effective, whereas regional customs policy is not intended to raise the quality of recycled pellets. We as designers can help to change this by letting the public appreciate the beauty of recycled products, hence motivating people to recycle better and supervise the industry.
Inspiration
The legendary river in town was polluted by plastic waste for years. To raise public awareness, our design shares the fruit of recycling with the community by collecting household plastic waste from them. As more people appreciate the value of upcycled plastic they will be more motivated to pick up the habit of recycling. Every bench is made by assembling numerous moulded modules, each identical, yet rotated to a specific angle to form curvilinear shapes like the ripples on a river.
Project Duration
The project started in February 2019 in Shatin, Hong Kong. Materials were collected in Shatin, processed in another town that is 30km away, and manufactured in a Chinese factory that is 130km away. The project ends in March 2020 in Shatin, Hong Kong.
Operation Flow
Profiles, grooves and textures are designed in the mould to render the benches' surface tactile.The curvilinear form shapes like the ripples on a river, and naturallyseparates the users for better privacy. The slanting humps also offer freedom for children to sit on them in unexpected postures.
Patents
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Team Members
Irene Cheng
Howard Chung
Jeannie Ho
Carlson Kwan
Krisana Wong
Image Credits
Image #1: HDP Photography, 2020
Image #2: HDP Photography, 2020
Image #3: HDP Photography, 2020
Image #4: HDP Photography, 2020
Image #5: HDP Photography, 2020
Video Credits: Make Some Noise Workshop, HK Wong, 2020

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