Did you know that of the 100 tons of waste recovered on the site of a major European festival, 17% comes from abandoned tents? This is the estimate of the French collective Parenthèse, which recovers used tent canvases to transform them into garden furniture.
You may have already experienced it: this musical program made you so longing that you traveled for miles to finally see your favorite artists on stage during this Breton or Charente festival. And because you didn’t want to leave the party and/or were on budget, you pitched your tent directly at the festival campsite.
But like the Parenthèse collective, you may also have noticed that at the end of the festivities, many leave, leaving behind the canvas that served as a shelter. “In recent years, we have been particularly affected by the amount of waste that a festival can produce”†
Furniture designed for travel
This “waste”, the collective took the initiative to turn it into outdoor furniture for festival goers† “A year ago, we surrounded ourselves with specialists in design, technology and events to offer you 100% circular furniture, collected and produced in France”explain the founders of the collective in a video presentation published on the crowdfunding platform Ulule.
Cuts of plywood, canvas flysheet and floor, metal hoops from salvaged tents, 3D printed fasteners made of biomaterials (wheat, scallops, terracotta)… This oval-shaped and designer furniture called “Relaxation” is specially designed to travel to major European festivalsto raise awareness among visitors “to the environmental impact of their short-lived passage”†
Now that the first prototype has been developed, the next step for the collective is to recover the tents from festivals to develop the models that should be available from the summer of 2023, in particular at the eco-responsible festival We Love Green.
Based in Aubervilliers, the Parenthèses collective was founded in 2012. Composed of scenographers, architects, engineers, carpenters and graphic designers, it develops around three main axes: zero-waste, reuse and construction, sustainability of the wood industry.
(ETX Daily Up)