Andra Formen a Malmö, Sweden based design studio has taken up the task to explore the possibilities of salvaging and recycling that most ubiquitous of urban modes of transportation, the electric scooter. The result is E-metabolism, a collection of table lamps, indoor garden systems, floor lamps, seating, and even a grill.
The collection is produced in collaboration between the studio’s team of four designers with the aid of two divers who courageously dived the depths of Malmö’s murky canals to fish out electric scooters unceremoniously dumped. The parts are first disassembled to reveal the possibilities.
“Our mission is to turn toxic waste in form of electric scooters from the bottom of the canal into pieces of art,” says Oskar Olsson of Andra Formen. While the lofty goals of creating art inspires the E-metabolism project, perhaps equally important is the firm’s attempt to identify existing waste as an entire category beyond scooters as resources to build with.
“With the project, we investigate how electric scooters can be seen as materials and how their inherent design can create inspiration for new objects. Built of ancient skeletons and artifacts.”
The scooters (above) are turned into objects, like the chair (below).
A grill
The scooters used in the project were gathered from remote sections in or around the Malmö canal where they were discovered in various states of disrepair and no longer connected by GPS signal, “broken and without a functioning battery” – i.e. electric transportation with a depressing estimated lifespan of less than a year.
The resulting designs admittedly lean toward a recycled chic appearance, but certain pieces like the floor lamp and desk lamps reveal a greater bit of ragtag style evocative of the colorfully recycled soft goods from Swiss brand, Freitag.
The Andra Formen E-metabolism designs are currently on display online, with the option to inquire about purchasing any of the products via email form found here.
