www.nextpittsburgh.com: Sometimes, when a door opens, the only thing to do is to walk right through it. For architect and Doors Unhinged founder Andrew Ellsworth, it wasn’t a single door. There were many.
He was on the board of Construction Junction, a nonprofit warehouse in Pittsburgh for surplus construction materials, when he noticed something.
9 comments:
Reusing doors from commercial buildings is such an interesting way to help diminish waste in landfills. I have never really thought about how much waste is produced when a commercial building is demolished, but after reading this article, it is hard not to think about it anymore. Doors are used everyday in buildings, but also in other ways too. Door Unhinged sounds like an amazing resource to have in North Oakland. I can imagine so many people building houses or renovating buildings using this resource. It is almost like up-cycling, yet sometimes the doors do not have to be refurbished in order to be used in a building. I also find it really interesting that the brains behind this idea, Andrew Ellsworth, was on the board of Construction Junction, another great recycling resource in Pittsburgh. Both of these companies, as well as Creative Reuse, are great ways that Pittsburgh is helping minimize waste in the world. I hope that there are more of these companies soon, as the world sorely needs it.
It's not often I hear about environmental resolubility when it comes to building and demolition and other things typical in the construction industry. Plenty of times, it seems that companies are just out to get the thing built in the quickest time and that is the only areas of focus, excluding what they could do to be environmentally conscious or even preserving of reusable materials. And I get that, especially in my experience, when it comes to striking a show there are things we can always do to reuse materials. However, the question always comes up if the time spent striking is worth saving the money and being environmentally friendly enough to reuse these materials some way down the line. Doors Unhinged is a very cool program just being as simple enough to go around and collect doors. There are so many beautiful doors out there and at times can be the most unique feature about a house. It is great that this company is going out of their way to be environmentally conscious and sell these good-as-new doors for low prices.
This is a super cool idea, and I’m certainly going to be interested in seeing how easily it comes out. People tend to like to buy new things, especially for big projects like that, but it’s so much better for everyone if they get reused. Refinishing them also may work really well because they are still cheap, but they look like new because that’s what people want when they build a new building. Of course it gets worn in super fast so it doesn’t matter in the long-run. Hopefully we can change the way we think about reusing building materials and save money, energy, and the environment. As for the non-industrial doors, using a slightly used doors in a house that’s already slightly used seems perfectly reasonable. Unfortunately old homes sometimes have odd shaped door frames. I know that the door frames in my house growing up were all different shapes and sizes.
I think this is absolutely fantastic!! I actually didn’t know that construction junction was mostly residential repurposed/surplus materials—I actually would have thought it to be more leaning towards commercial. Anyways, I think this idea is wonderful, especially since the doors are described to be in such good condition, being university doors. It’s fun that they’re doors from around town getting put in new places around town, for the added layer of nostalgia that was described in the article. Some people may see “just doors” being recycled to not have a big impact, but judging by how many doors are shown in the photo, I definitely think it will. Especially if word gets out about Door Unhinged, this could be spread to other communities looking to help with our environmental impact. I was surprised to learn that a door was that expensive, especially if it’s secondhand, but I guess if it’s something that has to be super durable and strong. And, it’s half priced, which will hopefully encourage people to reduce the embodied carbon from production.
I never really thought about the waste that comes from demolished buildings until now. By that, I mean that I never pictured waste that was once a building being dumped into a landfill as trash. I have, however, driven by hundreds of abandoned strip malls, feeling so annoyed that people are only going to keep building more. The work that Andrew Ellsworth is doing is absolutely necessary, and it is a giant step in the practice of recycling and sustainability. It is crazy to think that he operates in one small part of the city and globe, and he only focuses on doors. There are still windows and other building materials to be explored. If more people around the world kept preservation at the forefront of demolition, some serious change would be made. I also love how parts of Carnegie Mellon have been preserved, not only because that is where I go to school, but also because it is his alma mater.
I think Doors Unhinged has started something really cool and not only good for the environment, but good for the community. Weirdly enough, I have always been interested in old doors and how they can be used in newer construction. Whether it be using them as an actual door or as a piece of furniture, I think there is a lot that can be done with a door. For example, back at home, the coffee table at my house is made out of a door. I found the door while looking through a salvage yard and immediately my mom and I fell in love with it. The door was this oversized red door with a couple nice inlays, but what was under the red paint was even better. After a lot of paint stripping and sanding, the door was stained, a slot was routed in for glass, a peep hole and push plate were installed to added to the aesthetic and a floating base was built and connected. The end result, an extremely unique coffee table that could have never happened without someone finding that door and deciding it didn't belong in a landfill.
This seems like a great project that not only saves materials, but also gives character to old doors if they are re-purposed. When it comes to materials, it can be frustrating to see how much waste we produce. However, many people don't have the means or skills to make something out of broken furniture or construction materials. This is a great way to turn that around and to give something a story. First, the environmental impacts, while arguably minor relative to other industries, are important for a variety of reasons. The concepts of embodied energies and embodied carbon is something I really enjoy looking at because it can tell a much better story about the environmental impact of a process or material, and clearly they have thought about this. Being able to reuse these doors, especially when they are made out of exotic woods, saves not only the precious materials that may not be renewed, but also the shipping costs often associated with lumber. If the doors just live in Pittsburgh, that can have a huge impact. I like this trend of reuse and rejuvenation, and hope it continues to gain traction in other industries.
I don't know what it is about this project that so draws me to it, but it might be something about how categorical doors are, how easy they are to come by, and how easy they are to repurpose and rejuvenate. I would love to see more about where all these old doors end up, whether or not they were refinished, and if so, how they were refinished. I also love the environmental impact this project has. By taking up commercial and residential waste like this, Ellsworth really reduces the net amount of refuse put into landfills, not to mention the energy and resources saved by not having to manufacture new doors when old ones like these are perfectly reusable and available. I do enjoy the idea of taking old things and making them new again, so I hope work like Ellsworth's will continue to become more and more popular.
I really love this idea and it’s so interesting that the initiative was born from Construction Junction, which is already such a great resource for giving old materials new life. I didn’t think about the fact that Construction Junction didn’t have much in the way of commercial materials, but thinking about their stock and their purpose, that makes sense. I think what Ellsworth is doing also makes a lot of sense - why waste quality materials when they could still be useful? Doors as a material are so interesting due to the amount of hardware and the variety of design - looking at the photo from their warehouse, without the hinges, that could just be a stack of hardwood, and it’s such an good idea to recycle them and not just throw them away that I’m amazed we’re only learning about it now. I know I personally don’t care where the doors in my house come from, as long as they function, and I think many other people would agree.
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