Containing a room’s worth of essential furniture you can take on the bus or train, this all-in-one-box solution costs just $150, is easier to assemble than IKEA equivalents and much lighter too, with wheels as well for added mobility.

While requiring no tools or glue, the would-be catch is that the kit is made of cardboard – however, its makers have delivered on over 40 projects of that same material to date, making them experts at rendering it robust and durable. For those who only need some of the composite pieces: each element can also be converted to other purposes – the bed supports, for instance, can be stacked into shelves or other forms of storage.

The box contains a chair, desk, bin, dresser and bed supports which double as storage, each designed to be load-bearing as well as water-resistant, able to be reused for years by students or other young adults. The entire system can be assembled or deconstructed within a half hour and the pieces weigh around seven pounds each, all making moves between dorm rooms and storage much simpler.

From the creators of Room in a Box: “Every piece of furniture can be assembled with no tools or glue by folding and slotting the pieces, and can be taken down and packed back into the box.  When you are done with the furniture it can be recycled or reused in its entirety. This makes for versatile furniture which can be used in many different ways and configurations.  The design of the furniture also includes sliding drawers for storage (with stoppers) which double as handy moving boxes.  “

As environmentally friendly CFL bulbs are becoming the norm, the old fashioned light bulb that everyone in the last few generations grew up with is becoming even more appealing for reuse. There are a surprising number of ways to recycle used bulbs and creative folks continue to push the limits.

(Images via ahousewife, intheloop, ecosnobberysucks)

It’s quite easy to core away the end of a lightbulb and create a unique mini-vase for flowers or plants. Since the end of a light bulb is metal, there are a million different ways to anchor it in place (or hang it for a beautiful effect).

(Images via flickrhivemind, neatorama, pocketgrow)

A DIY terrarium is a lot less intimidating when it’s the size of a light bulb. Add a stabilizing element to the bottom of the bulb and create half a dozen mini ecosystems to add some green without taking up much space.

(Images via ringobonzai, fourgreensteps, ringobonzai)

Light bulbs are an ad designer’s dream. As such a huge part of our culture, they have a lot of thoughts, movements, and feelings associated with them; this makes it really easy to make a statement about the environment, power, brilliance, and reinvention with just a small amount of photoshop work.

(Images via mydiychat, darkroastedblend, apartmenttherapy, vvb32reads, mymodernmet)

There are a ton of ways to use a light bulb, and here are some of the more creative options. A mini greenhouse is simple enough, but how about creating two creatures that light up? A really small ship in a bottle gets a nice twist by inhabiting an incredibly small space. A mad scientist’s terrarium looks straight out of a steampunk-themed laboratory, and a modern looking throwback to old fashioned lighting gives an interesting spin on technology and aesthetics.

Once soaring symbols of the Industrial Revolution and material progress, smokestacks later became the poster kids of environmental degradation. Today, legions of artists, urban planners and preservationists are seeking to change those carbon chugging chimneys from sooty to beauty.

Battersea Power Station, London, UK

(image via: SHIFT)

(images via: Joseph J Walker, V&A, Denis Waugh and Evening Standard)

London’s iconic Battersea Power Station with its quartet of ivory white smokestacks was designed by architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and was built in 2 stages between 1930 and the mid-1950s. The huge coal-fired station is a classic example of Art Deco design but most know it from its prominent place on the cover of Pink Floyd’s 1977 album, Animals.

(image via: BD)

Battersea ceased operations in 1983 and has been slowly decaying since then, though it remains protected as a Grade II* listed building. Numerous proposals have been floated to rework and reuse the station while retaining its unique 4-stack structure but as yet none have gone beyond artistic impressions.

Chimney Stacks, Bagnolet, France

(images via: Neatorama and Trendhunter)

Call it greenwashing if you like, but the twin 155-meter (510 ft) smokestacks at a suburban Paris heating plant certainly do look cleaner after artist Frederic Gracia gave them the trompe-l’oeil treatment. The largest faux water drops measure 1.1 meters (3.6 feet) in diameter and were painted on by Gracia himself.

Wychwood Barns, Toronto, Canada

(images via: BlogTO and Toronto.ca)

When the City of Toronto decided to renovate and remodel the circa 1913 Wychwood Car Barns into a public housing project, one particular architectural feature loomed over all design considerations: the smokestack. The easiest way to deal with the “problem” was to demolish it but, thankfully, architect Joe Lobko of du Toit Allsop Hillier and Tim Jones of Artscape integrated the towering symbol of industry into the residential development. In contrast to the area’s gritty past as a public transit maintenance yard, the new community uses geothermal heating & cooling, recycled rainwater and high efficiency lighting.

Des Carrières Incinerator, Montreal, Canada

(images via: Francois Rodrigue and Blog Story)

The Des Carrières incinerator was built in the 1970s but has been standing empty and unused since 1993. The “Version Festival of Balloons by Michel” is meant to evoke the previously mentioned Pink Floyd “Animals” album cover but without the ruckus that ensued when Floyd’s pink pig broke away from its moorings and drifted across southern England.

Canada Packers Plant, Edmonton, Canada

(image via: Pentax Forums)

According to a contributor to the Pentax Forums’ Project Urban Decay, “This is the smoke stack of the former Canada Packers Plant in the old side of Edmonton. Most of the building was demolished in 1995 and a local architect who owned the land at the time saved this smoke stack from destruction. Nothing has been done to the land since, while development flourished all around it. Weird!” Indeed – but weirdly beautiful as well. The clash of the modernistic green graffiti and the weather-worn brickwork of the lone stack makes an incongruously intriguing combination.

Salmisaari Substation, Helsinki, Finland

(image via: Nuage Vert)

By day, the smokestack at the Salmisaari power generation substation in Helsinki, Finland, looks like most any other power plant stack accompanied by a cloud of spewed emissions.

(image via: Nuage Vert)

By night things are different – a green laser beam lights up the emissions cloud. This is more than just an art installation, however. By adjusting the laser, the operators at Nuage Vert (Green Cloud) in effect created a highly visible power meter that displayed Helsinki’s energy consumption – the less wattage consumed, the bigger the green cloud. Even more interesting, the public actively began to monitor their power usage in an effort to affect changes in the size of the green-lit cloud.

The Names Remain

(images via: YrVelouria and Sudan Envoy)

(images via: Texas Escapes, Bad Luck City and Dmealiffe)

Many older smokestacks bear the names of the factories they served, in some cases formed from bricks of a contrasting color. The permanence of these factory names sometimes leads to the unexpected consequences of surviving stacks still shouting out their names long after the original company and factory has faded into corporate history.

Smokestack Art

(images via: MFA Boston and Valerie Lueth, TBPS)

Smokestack art and imagery isn’t as uncommon as one might think. The topmost of the above examples is a sample of Soviet textile art from the period 1927 through 1933, when it was banned by the USSR’s leadership. The lower example, titled “Smokestack Song”, is a pen & paper work by artist Valerie Lueth dating from 2007.

More Smokestack Art

(images via: Jupiter Images, Freshome and Rob Greenleaf)

Smokestacks can be the stars of the show as well, not just a bit player in a larger pattern. The white porcelain Factory Vase above is Maxim Velcovsky’s ironic comment on industrialism. One wonders if Velcovsky wasn’t influenced, if not outright inspired, by scenes of sixties flower-power protests where hippies placed blooms into the barrels of National Guardsmen’s guns.

A Convenient Demon

(image via: Greenpeace UK)

So closely are smokestacks identified with air pollution on a grand scale, Al Gore figured it was a no-brainer to put them front & center on posters for his global warming clarion call, An Inconvenient Truth. The poster features emissions from industrial smokestacks coalescing to form the familiar spiral of a hurricane. Al Gore may be many things but subtle isn’t one of them.

What say ye, is the deck stacked against the world’s towers of industrial power? Even the name “smokestack” reeks of throat-searing particulate clouds and eye-watering emissions. And yet, these chimneys symbolize society’s leap from rural to urban, from agricultural to technological. They are a part of Us – and along with Us, embody the potential for rehabilitation and redemption.

Technology has advanced throughout the years at an extraordinary pace, a pace that can only be matched by the rate of “the last model’s” obsolescence.  How often do we stop to think about the fate of these once-beloved, now defunct relics?   A growing trend in the art world is to do just that; gifted artists around the globe have produced some truly amazing works of art by utilizing the very technology that we let fall into disuse every day.

Friendly Giant

(image via: law_kevin)

Towering at nearly 23 feet, this three-ton European megalith of technological refuse, the WEEE Man, is literally a monument to the machinery of our recent past.  Designed to be almost too human, this marvel stands as a politico-ecological statement against improper disposal of our most ubiquitous everyday appliances.  His teeth are computer-mice.  His brain-pan is filled with ancient computer hardware, and most striking of all, his eyes, old washing machine doors.

A Not-So-Friendly Face

(images via: artmachines)

Images of demons may get conjured up when looking at this piece of robot-art by Jeremy Meyer, who builds his sculptures out of nothing but typewriters.   While this grinning bot may seem scary, his bedfellows are practically lifelike.  You can find more of Jeremy’s stunning work at his gallery in La Jolla, CA, at his equally smooth Web site, or right here at Weburbanist.  It’s interesting to note that when building these works, Jeremy uses neither welding nor glue to assist in the process.

A Strange Bridge to Nature

(images via: toysgadget, toysgadget, toysgadget)

Not all techno-sculpture is based on humans.  Ann P. Smith dedicates her time to creating robotic animals and insects out of nearly any piece of gadgetry she can put to use.   Ann’s creations often feature pose-able joints, and somehow seem to portray a sunny disposition!   Her owl may even remind you of a certain favorite stop-motion character from Clash of the Titans.  However, Ann doesn’t stop there.  She goes as far as to recreate the object of many a child’s imagination, with extraordinary detail.   Ann’s art is not kept behind lock and key from the public. She builds and sells her pieces on a regular basis, and you can find more of her work at her Web site.

The Steampunk Angle

(image via: Hrekkjavaka_Astarkort)

Any discussion of obsolete technology would be incomplete these days without mention of Steampunk art.   In and of itself, Steampunk idealism is based upon the concept of resurrecting long since dead technology and ways of seeing technology.  There is a deep-rooted fascination with all things of the Steam Era, and these run congruently with a startlingly adaptive fashion-sense.  Jewelry such as the necklace pictured above is becoming increasingly common, as the popularity of this beautiful and captivating form of practical art grows.  This particular piece was made out of nothing but old watch parts.

Folk Art In Any Century

(images via: BlissTree, rememberwhen)

Artist D. Young creates 21st century folk art in the old fashion, but with a decidedly modern twist.  Burned out or faulted electronics, once reliquated to the bin under the workbench, are now becoming tiny robot charms.  Directly compared to the corn husk dolls of early America; popular among children, these tiny figures are carrying on a legacy spanning not decades but full centuries.  These little treasures are sold online at obviousfront’s etsy store.

An Extinct Medium

(images via: iri5, designboom)

Though the cassette tape died long ago in the hearts and minds of the entire 90’s generation, they remain today as a beacon of nostalgia, and as art.   More and more aesthetic applications for these simple pieces of recording media are surfacing as time goes on; first as fashion-art, and more recently, incredibly creative exhibits.   An artist going by the moniker iri5 has made waves with her artwork depicting much-loved (and often deceased) celebrities and famous musicians using nothing but the actual tape out of a cassette or film reel.  As if this were not enough on its own, her attention to detail is astounding, as is shown above with her instantly recognizable depiction of the legendary Jimi Hendrix.   More of her remarkable work can be found in iri5’s Flicker collection.

Functionally Fashionable

(images via: slipperybrick,  joaosabino)

They say a designer has done their job when form meets function.  Twenty-nine year old Joao Sabino has surpassed simple design and created art in his Keybags.  The first word that may come to mind with this may be “geeky,”  but meant in only the most affectionately possible way.  Old keyboards rarely get a chance to live on as anything more than garbage in a landfill, and Joao has shown one more legitimately amazing use for something so easily overlooked.  Similarly, when a computer is designed to be as pleasing to the eye as to productivity, it’s a shame to let the artistic efforts of those designers to waste.  An artist going by the name pixelthis created this functioning clock out of the side of an old Mac G4.  As simple as it may be, this stylish clock is art with a purpose.

When Voices Fade

(image via: robpettit)

Even old cellphones can be beautifully repurposed.  This gorgeous precision display by artist Rob Pettit consists of 5,000 cellphones destined for the landfill. Rob’s early work utilized more traditional mediums; however, in his more recent works he has relied heavily on used and discarded wireless and cellular telephones to make his mark.

Greener Pastures

(images via: jeonghoan21, C.P.Storm)

Old circuit-boards have found their way into homes as bookmarks and key-chains for years, but these most basic of uses cannot come close to this.  Canadian sculptor Pierre I. Brunet created the above “Geek’s Palette,” proving silicon can be more than a stamped surface.  Below, Grace Grothous stunned viewers with her “Uncharted Terrain.”  Looking from afar, what appear to be buildings on a detailed topographic map are actually the original circuits for the boards used in this work.

From Classic, to Vintage, to Abstract

(images via: islanddave, Rivamonte Robots, boingboing)

The Mona Lisa needs no introduction, save for the fact that she is rendered in circuitboards at this exhibit in Beijing.  This is possibly as unique as the original painting; it is a masterpiece in its own right.  Benton, the happy robot, can trace his lineage back to an old trolley fare box.  What looks to be an enormous Faberge egg is in fact a circuit-board sculpture placed as street-art near Stanford University.  This genre of art isn’t going anywhere, and we can expect to see much more in the years to come.

Recycling discarded materials into new buildings and adapting disused structures to new uses is not just about sustainability – it is also about savvy innovation and stylish adaptation. Some architects build modular wonders from existing units (such as shipping containers). Others draw from recycled, found and local materials (or entire old buildings) to create aesthetically amazing designs that brilliantly blend old and new.

Spiral island (shown above) is just one such example: an incredible mobile private island floating on 250,000 recycled plastic bottles off the coast of Mexico. From a pre-industrial pigsty converted to a postmodern home and a magnificent monastery built from a million glass bottles to adaptively reused cargo containers, airplane hangars and water towers, here are twenty awesome more examples of brilliantly creative and sustainably innovative recycled architecture. Click below to learn more: