Assagao House Furniture Design

Status: Built

Type: Furniture design for a traveler’s hostel

Project location: Assagao, Goa

Completion Year:  2016

Design & Fabrication Team: Rita John in collaboration with Swechha India

Photo credits: Swechha India

This furniture design project included design development, material sourcing and supervision of fabrication of various items for the Assagao traveler’s hostel. The work was carried in collaboration with and for Swechha – India’s largest upcycling collective with a primary focus on using discarded building materials like pallet wood and other usable elements.

Vintage building elements of old architecture like ornate doors, windows, frames, columns, railings, etc can be found in a dismantled state at kabadis or dumpyards. After these were sourced for minimal prices, they were re-configured and re-finished to create completely unique furniture pieces. Labour intensive processes were involved and many design decisions were made in collaboration with a team of carpenters resulting in innovative solutions and detailing.

The entire traveler’s hostel is filled with such furniture pieces as an example to all those who reside there that the life cycle of many building materials can be extended greatly by up-cycling.

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