Sustainable display furniture

Repurposed and reusable exhibition furniture with a focus on sustainable design

CLIENT: Midlands Art Centre

CATEGORY: Arts and Culture

PROJECT TYPE: Exhibition design, manufacture and installation

LOCATION: Birmingham, UK

MATERIALS: H20 Doka beam, workshop off-cuts, ratchet straps

PHOTOGRAPHER: Tegen Kimbley

APPROACH:

We were challenged by Midlands Art Centre curator Roma Piotrowskato to design and make custom display furniture in keeping with the ethos of the exhibition “Waste Age: What can design do? A touring exhibition focused on a new generation of designers who are rethinking our relationship to everyday things, conceived by the Design Museum, London and curated by Gemma Curtin and Justin McGuirk.

Our approach was to explore materials which had a previous life or the ability to be repurposed,  reused or recycled at the end of the exhibition. The selected materials had to complement the values of the exhibition and function effectively to support the various objects and artefacts. We were drawn to the idea of joining together, which led us to create a set of components that could be configured in various ways.

We identified structural components H20 Doka beams, previously used within the construction industry, alongside waste timber from previous exhibitions from Midlands Art Centre and studio offcuts from our workshop, to add a painterly textural element. We sourced bright yellow ratchet straps as a method to connect these components, meaning these materials can be easily separated and reused afterwards. This is purposely visible to illustrate this joining method and to add an accent of complementary colour. Therefore, these materials can take on a new life after the exhibition and be reused, repurposed, reconfigured or rebuilt.