A strong desire of have her parents close again was what motivated Sandra to remodel her house by creating a new space such a department, where Carlos and Yolanda –Sandra´s parents-– could live. Throughout time, this -almost- abandoned room was converted into a warehouse. Also many things were stored in the room of her son, who no longer lived in that house, and many others
were distributed throughout the house creating a chaotic environment inside and outside.

Our client had a low budgeted, but a great availability toward experimentation, which made this a very attractive project. Experimentation in most cases is expensive, but in this case we were
willing to sacrifice economic benefit to gain experience and knowledge. Recycling has always been one of our great interests, so 75% of the totality of this project was made with recycled material from the client´s house.
 

Working with recycled materials has its own complexity such materials condition, which demands more workforce-hand hours. The design process has its own basis on treating those kinds of materials very carefully saving its original condition. Some of the materials were: industrial pallet staves, triplex boards for shipping transport and glass waste obtained from some stores or factories.
 

The warehouse’s structure is made of eucalyptus sticks, the cheapest material available in market.
For its walls, we decided to alternate a stave and a glass stick, although glass is not a suitable material for a warehouse because of tools which are stored inside could break the glass. Through a system of riels in the staves, the replacement of a glass stick could be done easily. The roof was
covered with recycled triplex boards and a waterproofing sheet.

The outcome was a well-illuminated warehouse with a pleasant and organic aesthetic. It also has a great storage capacity compared with its own space.

 

The best thing of this project was the experience of working with this kind of recycled materials. Working with a diversity of recycled materials has its benefits and disadvantages and we have learnt to deal with it. This project has been a big step to understand which the most efficient way to use recycled materials is.