A series of industrial steel ventilation pipes and copper sheet stripped from a scrapyard come together in this industrial-style furniture design dubbed “Tubular.” Typically used for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, these standard-sized duct sections are surprisingly ideal for this kind of adaptive reused, designed to slot neatly into one another. Their modular nature makes them well-suited to curvy turns in tight spaces, too, as embodied by this chair.

Eindhoven-based designer Lucas Muñoz’s creation is roughly shaped a bit like the famous Vassily Chair (below) designed by Marcel Breuer of Bauhaus fame, except slim metal pipes are replaced by huge galvanized steel tubing (while brown brass replaces dark leather).

Its creator was inspired by elbow joints in his own studio and scraps from a junkyard, and wondered how these could be applied in a different context. “The materiality and shape – the practical means – of the industrial components allow them to afford a variety of roles if arranged in a way that offers some kind of furniture function for a domestic context.”

It was on display at Dutch Design Week, where participants were challenged to put everyday materials, components and objects in new contexts. Hopefully, this is just the start of a larger series — this strategy could make for a great table, among other things.

“I find a great richness in all these engineered standard components. Not only visually but also functionally. Great designers and engineers are behind all these industrial components, and they work hard in making their production and durability as efficient as possible. I find the potential for other functions in these materials.”

Plastic piping original mass-produced to carry water from place to place has found a likewise liquid-related second life in the form of flower-holding vessels, blown out like glass into fresh new shapes.

Adapting traditional glass-blowing techniques, Japanese artist Kodai Iwamoto has created a series of signature vases that still show elements of their past lives, including production stamps. The above video illustrates the creative process.

The expansion process also naturally deforms these stamps as well as the coloration of the pipes, creating a variety of hues and details showing the origin of each piece. Custom effects, like vertical ridges, can be achieved by creating slatted formwork (then sliding the tube inside, so when it deforms its shape is informed by the slats).

This ‘Ex-Portation’ series explores the intersection of everyday object reuse and handicraft, turning cheap and available materials toward a new beautiful and functional purpose.

More about the process: “by applying air pressure into a closed pipe,” the artist “then slowly warmed the pipe with a heater to make it soft and moldable. As with glass blowing, many factors such as the shape of the mold, air-pressure and the speed of heating the pipe’s surface affect the shape of an object.”

The whole process is remarkably straightforward, which is part of its beauty — ordinary people can follow this artist’s lead and use simple technology to craft similar works from local scraps.

Designed to address the pervasive drought and long-term water problems of the West Coast, The Pipe is an offshore water purification plant that combines sustainable energy, public works and experiential architecture.

A finalist of the 2016 Land Art Generator Initiative design competition, focused on projects around the Santa Monica Pier, the solar-powered Pipe filters brine and channels drinking water to the adjacent city. Saltwater is returned to the Pacific Ocean. Khalini Engineers, a Canadian company, employed an electromagnetic desalination system for their entry, driven by energy from the sun (10,00 MWh/year). With that power and overall system capacity, the Pipe could produce 1.5 billion gallons of fresh potable water annually.

“The sustainable infrastructure that is required to meet California’s development goals and growing population will have a profound influence on the landscape, ” say Rob Ferry and Elizabeth Monoian, co-founders of the Land Art Generator Initiative. “The Paris Climate Accord from COP 21 has united the world around a goal … which will require a massive investment in clean energy infrastructure.”

“Above, solar panels provide power to pump seawater through an electromagnetic filtration process below the pool deck,” writes the design team, “quietly providing the salt bath with its healing water and the city with clean drinking water. The Pipe represents a change in the future of water.”

“What results are two products: pure drinkable water that is directed into the city’s primary water piping grid, and clear water with twelve percent salinity. The drinking water is piped to shore, while the salt water supplies the thermal baths before it is redirected back to the ocean through a smart release system, mitigating most of the usual problems associated with returning brine water to the sea.” In addition to its primary functions, The Pipe also represents an aesthetically pleasing offshore object that would change viewer’s conceptions of near-coastal rigs, conventionally associated with oil production.

Designed to provide 1,000 square meters of recreational space across four floors, this multistory structure bends and curves to accommodate bowls and ramps for skaters who can move vertically between differently-shaped levels.

The proposal by British firm Guy Hollaway Architects is to be constructed in Kent as part of a larger project to recreate the area and bring in new and diverse activities. The structure’s semi-transparent skin will allow views in from the surrounding sidewalks and streets.

Climbing walls and boxing rings are interspersed through the floors and aimed at a variety of ages and experience levels and activity types. The ceilings of each floor are informed by activities above, making for a rich series of building sections.

While the design is still in development, it is both impressive but features a series of missed opportunities as well, including the chance to at more vertical integration through multistory tubes, ramps or pipes. In its current iteration, skaters use side ramps to traverse floors but more sectional complexity could add new elements that truly take full advantage of the height of the building.

The latest in a long line of city-centric upcycling projects, this modular couch turns the ultimate in untouchable urban infrastructure into a chic industrial work of furniture.

Carlo Sampietro created the Cloche Sofa after seeing a section of sewage pipe abandoned by a construction site, its spot being fit for replacement with a new set of tubes.

He then fitted the ends with stabilizing structural circles and plasma-cut sections for seats, welding them back into place, hinging them and creating two locked positions (open and closed). Various configurations can be achieved by opening and closing sections to create a pair of chairs, a love seat or a full sofa.

This is far from the first time that Sampietro has reworked urban elements into new forms – his Cloche Chairs turned safety barrels from “symbols of caution into objects of comfort.”

Some of his pieces draw on the visual language of familiar street objects, but interpret them in new ways, like this police barrier table constructed from walnut, steel, resin and using LEDs (which light up through its lettering below).

More about the sofa from the artist: “It represents landscape evolution that dismantles established structural standards and elements of construction materials, and repurposes a found material into sophisticated design, reshaping a common object into a meaningful amalgam. This piece harnesses objects that outlived their original uses, were discarded, reclaimed and renovated. The evolution of this landscape design could be achieved by taking in consideration other material such as concrete, stainless steel, wood or marble, all cylindrical forms present in existing construction materials or natural environment. The tube shape is accented by LED side panels and the conic footing. This renders the object’s hybrid functionality almost invisible, unnoticeable at the first glance.”