Guerrilla Upcycling: Public Furniture Made of Parisian Trash

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Guerrilla Upcycling: Public Furniture Made of Parisian Trash

03 Feb

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

guerilla art paris france

As darkness descends these guerrilla activists hit the streets, not to protest or graffiti but to build and install community infrastructure from the discarded roadside scraps of Paris, France.

guerrilla street furniture build

guerilla seating space

Chapitre Zero is a project led by Duccio Maria Gambi and Mattia Paco Rizzi, furniture designers with a higher purpose in mind for the urban refuse they find, but with no license from the city to install their de facto illegal creations.

guerilla mixed bench chair

guerilla bent wood seats

The evolving team of nocturnal participants uses leftover palettes, old doors and other pieces of wood to shape seats and tables which they deploy into carefully-chosen spaces, leaving local residents to wake up surrounded by useful surprises

guerrilla urban public construction

guerilla shaded chair design

Their process has evolved over time, from prefabricating their pieces to working onsite with portable power tools to build with whatever waste is at hand, bending, fastening, screwing and nailing as they go.

guerrilla scrap wood chair

guerilla palette love seat

This trash-taking approach naturally requires a degree of planning and preparedness but also a sense of the impromptu – much like other forms of ad hoc guerrilla street art.

guerilla street seat use

guerilla recycled community zone

If there is a twist to this particular tale, though, perhaps it is as follows: you can get away with a great deal in public if you seem to be doing something to improve the context you are working within. For their part, the community has responded warmly, throwing impromptu picnics, meetings and birthday parties in these unexpected new spaces.