May 6th, 2017: Make Me A Pallet On Your (Forest) Floor

footfootfoot · 05-09-2017, 07:51 AM

When I was in college, studying furniture design, there was a guest teacher who worked for a company called Bronx 2000 that had a spin-off company called Big City Forest. They had a contract with Con Edison to take about 3,500 pallets a week that they turned into flooring and furniture.

NYT article

and a sad follow-up.

Some of the stuff they made was gorgeous. A lot of pallets are made of "exotic" tropical wood that either didn't make the grade for furniture lumber or was just re-directed to pallet making. Sort of like how our domestic woods like oak, maple, cherry can go to secondary uses because there is only so much of a market for fine woodworking hardwoods.

The teacher incorporated the idea of recycling into some of the design briefs; build a piece of furniture using only the wood from one pallet, or all the wood from a pallet, things like that, with no other limits. A lot of neat ideas came out of those assignments.

05-09-2017, 07:51 AM	#12
footfootfoot To shreds, you say? Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: in the house and on the street-how many, many feet we meet! Posts: 18,449	When I was in college, studying furniture design, there was a guest teacher who worked for a company called Bronx 2000 that had a spin-off company called Big City Forest. They had a contract with Con Edison to take about 3,500 pallets a week that they turned into flooring and furniture. NYT article and a sad follow-up. Some of the stuff they made was gorgeous. A lot of pallets are made of "exotic" tropical wood that either didn't make the grade for furniture lumber or was just re-directed to pallet making. Sort of like how our domestic woods like oak, maple, cherry can go to secondary uses because there is only so much of a market for fine woodworking hardwoods. The teacher incorporated the idea of recycling into some of the design briefs; build a piece of furniture using only the wood from one pallet, or all the wood from a pallet, things like that, with no other limits. A lot of neat ideas came out of those assignments. __________________ The internet is a hateful stew of vomit you can never take completely seriously. - Her Fobs

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