LAND REVERT

Concepted & Lead by:

Francisco Fonseca [SKREI] Portugal

Assistance by: Keti Hoxha

[Universiteti POLIS] Tirana / Albania

Participants:

Art & Design Students

2nd Year

Academic Year 2018- 2019

ABSTRACT

Land-Revert Workshop’s main theme is the preservation of forests and promoting “nature source design”. The workshop prepares the students of Art & Design to provide a new source of income for the forests by creating a draft proposal for a low-tech system, where branches of trees are traded as high-end components for building construction and furniture craft. The aim of this workshop is to introduce to the students with the approach of design and construction by showing them how a material can be an instrument for creating design and architecture. An artist, engineer or architect, is an entrepreneur, is someone who has a comprehensive approach to his time and context, someone who aims at society, the environment, and the common good.

OBJECTIVE

The concept of the workshop is double: the first is to present effective answers to contemporary territorial, and environmental questions by reshaping the way buildings and products come into being. The second goal is to prove students that synergies among disciplines such as applied arts, applied engineering and architecture are highly symbiotic, thus having the potential to play an important role when working locally side-by-side.

METHODOLOGY

The students will work as a system, divided into working groups with specific tasks: The Field Group is responsible for finding the raw material in the forests of Tirana. Branches disconnected from trees will be collected and scanned for creating a botanical survey of the material. The Design Group with the task of

researching for furniture craft with raw material and proposing the design through sketches and dimensions for the new furniture. The Builders Group with the task of building the final product with the raw material in close collaboration with the design group. The Communication Group responsible for communicating the ideas in media, internet and creating a website to promote the new proposed system. The Intelligence Group responsible for the main research of the existing companies and creating contact with those that would be interested in the new products. All the groups were sent to “Ardeno” Furniture Company, in order to present them with the dynamic of producing and selling wooden furniture. From the processing of the raw material to the process of fabrication of the furniture. The students were confronted with several detail solutions of furniture fixture. The contact with the company was necessary in order to give the first input to the students for the working process during the workshop. The groups were sent to the forest to collect the damaged branches and select those that could be used for the new designs. The selection was made by surveying the stability of the branches and also searching for different tree typologies. After collecting the raw material, a study of branch typology was made, creating a botanical survey. Also, the branches were scanned and measured in order to have the exact proportions for the new furniture. For this method a scanning tool was created with plywood as holding structure and the scanning structure with a plywood block with squares drawn on for measuring the raw elements. In the upper structure a camera was installed and provided several images of the branch while rotating it in 360˚. These images were capable of producing a 3D modelling of the branches which later the block 3D material was posted on the website created by the Communication Group. These raw materials were put up on the website as products to be bought by other companies or individuals interested. After the branches were scanned the Design Group proposed ways how to combine the wood for creating a new design for the furniture. A research was made for raw material used in industrial design, and low cost Do It Yourself Furniture. The group sketched several designs for the furniture and solved fixing details in order to ease the work of the Building Group. Later the drawings were given to the Building Group which had to finalize the final products. The raw material was cleaned, scrubbed and died with wood protection paint to make it appropriate for use and visually systematic. The first product finalized during the workshop is a chair made of a bunch of branches tied with rope and

combined with the support of an existing unused chair. The second and third seat was created with an existing damaged seat, whose legs were replaced with branches. Finally the table was created with a concrete top (concrete poured in a bucket, to be given a shape) and a static branch and several derivations to support the weight and maintain its equilibrium. All of these sitting elements and table were quite comfortable and provided a unique design, promoting “nature source design”, and a low cost Do It Yourself product. The Intelligence and communication group meanwhile proposed ideas of how to communicate the final products to the media, internet and other companies that might be interested in the future for this sort of low-tech system.

CONCLUSIONS

During the workshop, the groups collaborated closely with each other by creating “a new company” with the main task: creating a new system for the forest preservation and also obtaining income for their maintenance and preservation. The final products were three chairs and one table, made out of branches, damaged chair and concrete. Also the workshop finalized with general research of the forest situation in Albania, concerning deforestation, their financial management and recent proposals for new forests by the government. This process made the student conscious and more concerned about the existing situation of the forests in Albania. The website created by the students demonstrated several types of branches that can be purchased for furniture use promoting one-off wood and low-cost design. It also provided information about raw material used in design, the situation of the forests in Albania and other information related

Moments of the workshops activities

to nature preservation.

landrevert.wixsite.com/landrevert

Students propose an innovative method where tree branches from forest trees, which are not vital to trees and at this moment have no market value, are turned into design components and furniture. This is possible by scanning “nicely shaped” branches from forest trees, and making them available at the website for designers and architects to download in 3D format, and book/ purchase them for production of furniture or buildings. This tool promotes unique “nature sourced design” and creates an extra income for forests making them less prompt to forest abuse, fires and hopefully increasing their lifetime. In the Land Revert workshop students proved that the system works, they collected the branches, scanned them, cleaned and cut them, and used for furniture they produced.