Drop: Stuart Haygarth's Take on Bottled Water, in Chandelier Form
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 12.20.07
Stuart Haygarth strikes again. After wowing us with his eyeglass lens chandelier at Trash Luxe and disposable wineglass chandelier, the London-based designer is back with more lighting from recycled materials. This time, his muse is bottled water, and "Drop" is the result, debuting the recent Design Miami show. Check out a video and interview featuring Haygarth, courtesy of dezeen, for more.
The choice to use the ubiquitous bottled water (don't even get us started on the world of reasons to ditch it or it's true (enormous) cost) is a pretty interesting one. Haygarth's work is always about both making recycled materials beautiful and functional, but also about exposing our overuse of those materials; with his treatment of bottled water, he's taken something that's a real problem in the waste steam (we haven't railed against plastic wine glasses or eyeglass lenses much) and put his personal spin on it. Hit the jump to hear more about the project in his own words.
About the project, Haygarth has this to say: "Drinking mineral water has become such an integral part of contemporary culture. There are many brands available and which brand you drink has become a lifestyle statement. One of the repercussions of this healthy drinking culture is the fact that the empty plastic water bottles are littering our landscapes and filling up our landfill sites at an incredible rate. Currently at airports we are not allowed to take water bottles through security check points, and thousands of empty or half-full bottles are collected.
"For Design Miami 07 I created a new piece of work for the first time, which focused on the overlooked sculptural beauty of these plastic water containers. I cut a small detail section (the base) from approximately 1800 bottles (collected from Stansted airport, London) and placed them in a cement mixer containing sand and water. This slightly modified the visual appearance of the plastic by creating a sandblasted quality which made the plastic appear like frosted glass.
"From scaled drawings I put together a water drop shaped chandelier over 3 days. The audience was also encouraged to donate their empty water bottles just in case we ran short during the production."
::Stuart Haygarth via ::dezeen
the biggest problem with the crusade against the bottled water is that most tap water tastes bad. This is not to say that all municipal water sources are foul but just that's the way to bet. I use bottled water when driving and filtered at home. Mineral waters I save for meals out. There is nothing like a good mineral water, stored in glass, to round out the flavors of a pasta dish.
This looks way too similar to a light done by Michelle Brand, I saw it four years ago.
http://www.michellebrand.co.uk/pages/portfolio.html