We like to take unusual paths for our clients: The interior design and furnishing of the new flagship club for Lynk & Co in Amsterdam led us this time to the recycling yard of a local raw materials recycling plant to search for pressed car body scrap.
The background was the interior concept jointly developed by the design offices S-P-A-C-E Projects and Studio Alexander Fehre for the new club rooms of the car manufacturer Lynk & Co, which Ganter was commissioned to implement. Among other things, an ensemble of display tables was planned for the flexibly usable premises, with surfaces made from a combination of various waste products (scrap automobiles and recycled newspapers). This upcycling idea came about in light of the agenda of Lynk & Co., which aims to advance a culture of sustainability with a novel car-subscription model.
Always keen to find the best possible solution for our customers, we first scanned the market for finished products. Since the result did not meet our expectations, we finally found what we were looking for at a raw material recycling company, where, among other things, aluminum residues, which are produced during car body construction as part of the cutting process, are pressed into transportable cubes.
Unusual concepts require unusual measures
While custom made furniture can be made to measure according to exact specifications and detailed plans, and uncertainties can be reduced, for example, by building prototypes as part of an intensive sampling phase, in this case we had to approach the customer’s ideas and the idea only roughly sketched out in the concept step by step.
On the raw materials recycling site, our colleagues searched intensively for the most exciting scrap cubes whose surface and haptics matched the ideas and roughly specified dimensions of the designers and the customer.
In order to be able to use the scrap cubes as display tables, the surface structure had to be selected in such a way that not too many and too deep grooves would make it difficult to display goods later on. At the same time, it was necessary to find particularly interesting objects with a surface that was as rough as possible, in whose structure the traces of the pressing process can still be clearly traced.
Since the shape of the cubes results from the processing in the aluminum press and can no longer be changed much without destroying the special character of the scrap cubes, only sharp edges and protruding parts were ground off to reduce the risk of injury.
Presented on the unusual presentation tables is now a carefully curated selection of products from like-minded partners who, in the spirit of Lynk & Co, are pushing a sustainable agenda: e.g. Japanese vintage sneakers, locally produced skateboards or hip sunglasses. The lifestyle products are available for purchase, just like all the free-standing furniture. These, too, were produced from upcycled materials: a centrally placed table, for example, is made from old marine waste and the bar stools are covered with Lynk & Co’s own fabric obtained from recycled fishing nets. The furniture divides the club rooms into different zones for exchanging ideas, working together and being inspired, because the focus is not on the car model to be purchased but also the community idea.
PHOTOGRAPHY:
Photo 1, 2 and 4: Ganter Group
Photo 3: Today’s brew / Lynk & Co
