Turning the tables: Building site ingenuity inspires upcycled furniture

São Paulo – Architect Marcio Kogan noticed that workers on his building sites were using scrap wood to create small pieces of furniture. This ingenuity has more recently inspired Kogan to create a range of furniture called Próteses e Enxertos for Studio MK27.

The range – which translates as ‘prosthetics and grafts’ – turns wood from building sites into items such as tables and chairs that maintain the material’s rough aesthetic. But the collection is not entirely austere. Many of the pieces also feature an element of modern luxury, such as a built-in iPod dock, or a side table with an aesthetically clean lamp placed within it.

Taking the rough with the smooth, Kogan’s furniture line follows the growing trend for rougher aesthetics that LS:N Global first observed during the onset of recession.