Architecture studio Wallmakers has repurposed approximately 6,200 discarded toys to construct the walls of Toy Storey, a circular home in Kerala, India.
The aptly named residence by Wallmakers uses toys discarded in the area, which are unsuitable for recycling, as structural components and decoration within the external walls.
A cantilevered verandah wraps around the circular home
“The main concept of Toy Storey revolves around the idea of using discarded toys and effectively conveying a message through this,” studio founder Vinu Daniel told Dezeen.
“By repurposing around 6,200 discarded toys, the residence in Kerala becomes a living monument to nostalgia and childhood, while addressing environmental concerns,” he added.
Approximately 6,200 discarded toys are used in the home’s walls
Toy Storey is wrapped by perforated, curved walls composed of compressed stabilised earth blocks, Mangalore tiles and toys, designed to draw in light and enable cross ventilation through the home. A ferrocement roof sits on top.
Four evenly-spaced entrances puncture the facade, which is wrapped by a cantilevered verandah offering outdoor space overlooking the surrounding greenery.
Perforated walls draw light and ventilation through the interior
Inside, the home’s first floor is divided into public and private segments. The public half is defined by a large living room while the private half contains an open-plan kitchen and dining area flanked by bedrooms.
“One of the things that the client mentioned was they often host their neighbours and members of the community, which means there are often many people in the house,” Daniel said.
“Hence we decided to make the area the people frequented separate from that of the client’s family’s personal spaces,” he continued.
Japanese-style shoji screens are used as partitions throughout the interior to enable light into each space and connectivity between the private and public areas.
An open-plan kitchen and dining area are flanked by bedrooms
The site’s topography enabled the addition of a secluded basement level containing a library and bedroom, accessed from the upper floor by a central staircase.
An internal courtyard topped with a glass ceiling slices through the building providing additional daylight for the interior.
Japanese-style shoji screens are used as internal partitions
Wallmakers is an architecture studio established by Daniel in 2007. Elsewhere in India, Wallmakers has also recently completed an arts centre with rooftop seating and a house that resembles “snake curling up under a rock”.
Last year, Daniel faced criticism on social media for his studio’s use of unpaid internships, which he claims have an important educational benefit.
The photography is by Syam Sreesylam and Althaf Rasheed.
Materials companies Circular Matters and StoneCycling have used corn cobs – one of the world’s most plentiful agricultural waste materials – to make interior cladding that is biodegradable and almost entirely bio-based.
Available in the form of tiles and sheets, CornWall is intended as a more sustainable alternative to ceramic interior wall tiles or plastic laminate.
The material is derived from more than 99 per cent renewable, biological sources, is created at low temperatures using mainly solar power and emits less carbon dioxide in its production than was captured by the corn as it grew, the manufacturers claim.
CornWall is an interior cladding material that is 99 per cent bio-based
To give the products a long lifespan, Circular Matters and StoneCycling have produced the tiles with a mechanical fixing system, so they can be demounted and reused or given back to the company for cleaning and recycling.
The technology behind CornWall was invented by Circular Matters – a start-up spun out of a lab at Belgium’s KU Leuven University, where founder Pieter Dondeyne and his team found a way to process plants to enhance their natural biopolymers and create durable materials.
The team then partnered with Dutch company StoneCycling to channel their technology into a product.
Corn cobs make up most of the composition of the tiles
StoneCycling co-founder Ward Massa told Dezeen that the focus on corn came because it is one of the most grown crops on the planet and its waste is abundant.
“What happens when you grow corn for human consumption is when it’s ready to harvest, you take off the corn and the corn cob is a leftover material because it doesn’t hold any nutritious value,” he said.
“Usually, that means that these corn cobs remain on the field and rot away, or they are burned as biomass to generate energy,” he continued. “In both cases, you release the carbon that was stored in those fibres – it rots away and it gets released, or you burn it and it gets released.”
With CornWall, the carbon is locked away until the tiles reach the end of their life and are left to decompose.
The production process begins with the discarded cobs being collected, dried and shredded into biomass.
This material is then mixed with other agricultural waste, binders and pigments and pressed into a plate material at a relatively low heat of 120 to 150 degrees. As a final step, the tiles are given a thin coating for water resistance.
All of the ingredients are derived from biomass apart from the pigment, which accounts for the 0.5 per cent of the product that is not bio-based – a very low percentage in a field where even products containing small amounts of materials of organic origin are sometimes labelled as bio-based.
The agricultural waste material was chosen because of its abundance
According to Massa, the companies were able to keep the product pure by focusing on interior wall applications only.
“If you want to create a product that can also be used on the exterior or as a flooring or in the shower, then you have to start adding chemicals to bind it, to make it more water resistant and stuff like that,” he said.
“We chose to start with this application because it’s relatively easy and the binder and the product is nothing else than the natural polymers that are already part of this biomass. Because of adding heat and pressure, these polymers are activated and bind together.”
The corn cobs are dried and shredded before being pressed into tiles
CornWall is also biodegradable according to official standards, with Massa saying it could be buried in a field and disintegrate in a couple of months.
The only thing that would remain is the water-resistant coating, which is not biodegradable but makes up less than 0,001 per cent of the total product meaning it does not affect its biodegradability overall, according to Massa.
“Unfortunately there are no 100 per cent biodegradable coatings on the market yet,” he said. “We’re working with our suppliers on this but it’ll take more time.”
Instead, the intent is to keep the product in use for as long as possible.
The companies wants to target retail and hospitality chains that frequently open and close locations – Starbucks is an example Massa gives – and work with them to make sure the tiles stay in a closed loop of material reuse.
He also believes CornWall offers good options for these kinds of businesses in the design stage, as it can be ordered in custom colours and embossed patterns to complement their branding.
The tiles are available in a base range of six colours
“As far as we are concerned, this will become the new retail material,” said Massa. “Especially in those places in retail where they now use materials that are either glued or take a lot more energy to make or create a lot of waste when the shops are being renovated or demolished.”
“Production can also be done regionally because you don’t need a very complicated factory for it.”
CornWall is currently available in a base range of six colours and two sizes, developed in collaboration with Dutch design practice Studio Nina van Bart. Massa says additional textures will soon be added to the line.
CornWall is the fourth product from StoneCycling. The first was the WasteBasedBrick, which is made from 60 per cent waste and was used by Dutch architects Nina Aalbers and Ferry in ‘t Veld of Architectuur Maken to build their own house in Rotterdam.
three timber houses stand in china’s mountainous countryside
Super Normal Design Office assembles a set of country houses in a tiny village at the bottom of Emei Mountain, reusing old materials. Surrounded by wild foliage, three timber buildings stand hidden behind huts, paddy fields, and untamed springs in Sichuan Province, China. Each building serves a distinct purpose while sharing the same easy-living character of the countryside. Respecting Chinese natural aesthetics the design concept ‘regenerates farmland buildings’ former appearance’ in selected reclaimed materials.
all images courtesy of Super Normal Design
new + old materiality composes the solitary farmhouses
Overlooking Emei’s peak to the west, and the rice field to the east, the solitary houses blend seamlessly with their surrounding landscape. The residence’s open layout interconnects indoor and outdoor zones in a natural unforced ambiance. Both the framework and the furniture in the interior and exterior spaces were carefully carved out with no excessive ornamentation. Concepts of ‘new’ + ‘old’ coexist in the construction forming balanced wooden volumes. Super Normal Design used previously discarded timber elements, locally sourced, following an approach of environmental protection and sustainability. All textures and finishes display earthy hues and tones in minimal design.
observation hallway runs around the main volume
open layout interconnects indoor and outdoor zones
