'Pause' & View' installation made of wood, plastic waste

Bengaluru: At the ongoing 3rd Edition of DesignUru Fest 3.0 installation artists are drawing attention by installing a beautiful space made out of wood and plastic waste. This short-term structure to be an informal enclosed public space for community interaction is put up by Assocham GEM, Karnataka Chapter. They have pin-up boards for comments, panels for painting and writing, spaces for weaving, panels explaining the idea of GEM-(Green and eco-friendly movement).

"In 2021, at the IIID BRC Designuru Festival, we at Assocham GEM, Karnataka Chapter, decided to examine this role of temporary structure and in turn celebrate this design. We thank IIID BRC for allowing us this experiment," says architect Leena Kumar, Chairperson Assocham GEM, Karnataka Chapter, about the installation made from waste.

"Nicknamed 'PAUSE' we hope you will 'Pause' to tell us your thoughts on our city. Write your comments and tell us what bothers you most. At the end of it all, we will have an idea of how many engaged, how few engaged, did the public engage at all?" states Kumar.

"Erected from a carpenter's backyard with strips of discarded plywood glued together to form the structure, having infill plywood panels that were delivered to us as factory rejects of non-standard sizes, we bring together this enclosure finished with waste generated by city living. And through it all we wish to communicate the idea of sustainability," sums up Kumar.

While the structure is composed of plywood waste and rejects, the décor is a composition of similar waste encompassing plastic bottles, containers and waste threads, discarded CDs and sample laminates. The recycled plywood structure displays an arrangement of discarded plastic water bottles, a green composition of plants in recycled plastic containers, the thrown away CDs picked up and meticulously pasted on to create an artistic composition that magically transforms itself every evening when darkness descends and the artificial lights come on.

Every problem and its solution needs to be picked and meticulously threaded to find a meaningful end. The recycled temporary structure resonates this, with discarded plastic threads picked from the market place finding their way and threading along the open vents to speak a story of waste and its constructive reuse.

No public structure erected with a purpose is complete without meaningful interaction and a space dedicated to pen down this interaction as well as to voice personal thoughts, opinions. The 'Pause' is fully mindful of this, not only leaving ample space in the form of pin up boards for penning down views, suggestions, but also allotting area for those artistically inclined to paint a picture, beautiful or ugly, of the city and its environs.

In a fast emerging online world, the rapid access to making a choice is through catalogues with samples. The architects' world is no different, with sample catalogues marking every doable segment of décor. The sample laminates are no exception to this. But what does one do with the outdated samples? 'Pause' certainly has a place and use for them, permitting its structure to be coloured with their assorted lay, to form a unique decorative element.

The question that next arises, what happens to the structure after the Design Fest concludes? If sustainability is the mantra, the destination of the structure thenceforth will also need to be a sustainable one. So 'Pause', at the end of the week will be dismantled to make its way to the carpenter's backyard. From there on it will continue its process of going through the cycles of use and reuse till it lives out its life and meets its end.

"We live from the earth, we life off the earth, and every man-made item must live its full cycle of life before it self-destructs to become a part of the earth again. To sustain is to use every item to its full life. To waste is to discard the item before it has completed its purpose of creation and fabrication. Re-use is to be creative and give life to discarded items, until there is no energy left in it. On that depends on tomorrow. We have enough for use, but not enough for waste," concludes Kumar.