Super Limao Studio: Recycled and Recovered from Brazil
by Paula Alvarado, Buenos Aires on 11.27.07
Super Limao Studio was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil's biggest city, and is run by architect Bia Hajnal, colleague and husband designer Sergio Cabral, and architect Thiago Rodrigues. The first two started designing with recovered and recycled materials in college, when they used to collect old computer boxes, and as their idea grew they joined Rodrigues in 2002.
Driven by materials recovery and recycling, today the studio has several collections organized by the motivations and materials behind the products: plastic, paper, reel, recovered materials and other projects. The plastic line, for example, is an investigation about the possibilities of extending the life of this material. Products include a series of chairs with recycled plastic from the car industry (ABS) and a line of lamps, glasses, trays and alike from recycled polystyrene (second and third pictures above).
Keep reading to find out more about the lines and for bigger pictures.
Under the Paper line there is a series of chairs and tables produced mostly with pressed recycled paper and expanded PVC.
The Reel line is a study about the possibilities of different paper spools, turned into a set of chairs, benches and tables, by combining them with MDF wood, jute straps and other materials.
In the Recovered materials section, they have three products: a lamp from reused plastic cups that Hajnal designed after a party, another lamp made from a plunger and a cup, and a rubber ball turned into a decorative element.
Finally, the Projects section holds some work the studio did for restaurants, where you can see the products in context.
Super Limao's store is located at 456 Manduri Road, in the Jardin Paulistano, Sao Paulo. ::Super Limao Studio
Lamp with recovered plastic cups.
Chair from recycled plastic.
"Glass" from recycled plastic.
Benches from recovered spools, PVC and jute straps.
i like the benches; the lamp looks like a very classy/sophesticated version of a common holiday decoration here in Texas, but the recycled plastic chair looks uncomfortable and the 'glasses' wouldn't hold anything. I guess they are just sculptural - which, if you want art that looks like that, then I guess that's good, too. . .
Hey there Liz,
They call them "glasses" but I think they are more like a flower pot, however I do find it very nice for a decorative element.
thanks for commenting.
Hi, Paula
The Glass is actually a flower pot. Vaso, in portuguese, is actually flower pot, not drinking glass.