Hasta La Ideas

Set in Vienna’s design-forward 4th district, Gabarage Upcycling Design repurposes materials from personal and corporate donations—old binders, street signs, film, tennis balls and more—into playful, purposeful modern design pieces. The upshot is a dramatic increase in product lifecycles, garbage bins may become furniture, a silencer may become a piece of jewelry, and a bowling pin can find a far more peaceful existence as a flower vase.

But what Gabarage provides its community goes beyond ecologically sound design solutions into the realm of social responsibility. Every finished product in its showroom results from collaborations between professional artists and designers and a team of disadvantaged people from the surrounding community, all preparing to rejoin the regular labor market. Its staff of 20 includes unemployed individuals, welfare recipients and adolescents addicted to illegal substances who either completed drug therapy or are being cared for at outpatient clinics. The employees gain professional creative experience through an occupational training program developed specifically for the shop.

When asked about the company’s hopes for the future, Daniel Strobel, Gabarage’s head of marketing and corporate communications, replies, “Besides the aesthetically pleasing aspect, most of all I hope that our products and the idea behind them contribute to a rising level of awareness concerning both the ecological and the social responsibility we all bear. By (re)using waste materials and employing former addicts, we work towards a more sustainable economy and try to set an example for corporate social responsibility, which hopefully many will follow.”

Photography by Ambra Duda and Sandra Krimshandl-Tauscher

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One of Manhattan’s brightest contemporary clothing designers Unis recently partnered with Brooklyn’s Sit and Read Furniture for a line of home furnishings sharing the nuanced, timeless appeal of the label’s menswear.

Sit and Read’s Kyle Garner reupholsters the one-of-a-kind vintage chairs with textiles from Unis’ Spring 2010 collection, lending a familiar yet fresh update. A 19th-century walnut armchair, reincarnated in blue-and-white plaid suiting used for a trench coat, looks perfectly classic modern. Playing on the enduring color-block trend in fashion, an Eero Saarinen chair gets done up in navy and gray corduroy, while Kyle revamped a pair of Eames fiberglass shell chairs in felted green wool. “Both furniture and clothes are art forms that are meant to be used,” he said. “The interesting combination is that we’re both using these very utilitarian forms of art.”

Garner began Sit and Read a few years ago with a trove of furniture and props he acquired as a set designer, using a blog to catalog and advertise his wares. It caught the eye of the folks at Unis, who approached Sit and Read to consign some furniture and help redesign its flagship store. Keeping the label’s color palette in mind, Garner noticed spare fabrics in the studio, and the collaboration was born. “Everything that [Unis] makes pants and jackets out of is all completely suitable for upholstery,” he said.

Sit and Read also partook in the second annual Pop-Up Flea last November, with like-minded labels such as Ohio Knitting Mills and The Hill-side.

The line sells at the Unis flagship store or go to the Sit and Read blog to make showroom appointments. Prices for chairs range from $450 to $1,500.

Store photography by James Ryang