les choses

LES CHOSES, RE DENIM AND RE DESIGN

participants are invited to design and manufacture entirely comfortable LES CHOSES seating (- as part of the R-OUVRIR le monde 2022_2023 / DRAC PACA program -), for open-air cinema projections in July 2023 by Il était un Truc... and its journey through Nice, Écran Total; with social integration association ABI 06, La Recyclerie des Moulins managed by GALICE, Campus Sud, Partage & Découverte and Maison des Projets.

a need

to sit down to an open-air cinema screening
Comfortably, together, for the association Il était un truc dans le quartier des Moulins.

a design session: Les Choses

smarin designed an ample, comfortable, sturdy set with 20 large, intriguing seats, each capable of accommodating several people.
the imagined object is the result of a complete design process involving several phases of expertise :

• survey of user habits and expectations
• possible resources to be mobilized around the project
• meetings with local associations and organization of a working group
• design of a prototype object capable of meeting the specifications in terms of usage and production constraints and values
• run workshops with volunteer participants, to whom we pass on manufacturing methods through hands-on experience

Development & making

The question of the impact of certain practices of the textile industry, and more specifically of fast fashion, on our global equilibrium is complex, but hardly nuanced: a significant reduction is essential.
This project gave us the opportunity to think differently about consumption and textiles.
The starting point was a design located within the framework of a unique project, and carbon-neutral production developed: transformation of recycled materials on site and without machines, and with the utmost frugality through the participation of the project’s actors and future users.

This practice takes the form of design sessions.

Passing on & sharing

sharing a design practice :

• initiation to a technical and manual skill: sewing and tapestry
• professional integration: the demanding path between leisure and professional expertise
• immersion in an artistic project solidarity and circular economy
• virtuous sourcing of materials destined for landfill sites
• carbon neutrality: 100% production located within a radius of less than 30 km
• co-creation of a mobile furniture-system for community use
• activate the sharing network of local associations

working together

The Recyclerie des Moulins, an economically active work-integration site, hosted the design session workshops, inviting local residents to take part.

10 design session workshops to produce 20 things were held at the Recyclerie des Moulins, ABI 06 and Campus Sud des Métiers.
The participants, averaging just under a dozen, took it in turns to make 2 things together in 3 hours.
Some cut, some machine stitched, some filled, some finished needle by hand.
Sewing brought together all generations and cultures.

transforming waste into a local resource

The ABI 06 association, a textile recycling integration project, supplied around 900 kg of textiles from its local collection.

Re-using jeans as seat fabric. Most of the time, it’s a hard-wearing, easy-to-use cotton.
To do this quickly, faster than patchwork, we filled entire legs with denim, forming large bolts.
The filling is a collection of textiles too worn to find a second life as linen. Assembling the whole into a comfortable, super-visual seat came at the end, as the happy reward for painstaking research.

figures from the LES CHOSES project

20 CHOSES are :

150 kg corresponding to 200 jeans recovered
+
750 kg of various textiles classified as waste to become stuffing

TOTAL: 900 Kg of INTERCEPTED MATERIALS then RECYCLED
without transformation and in less than 30km of transport

what’s avoided :

(8 meters of fabric/thing) X 20 choses: 160 meters of fabric, or 128 kilos of textile materials
+
(10 kg of polysilicon fibers/item) X 20 choses : 200 kilos of fiber material
+
fastening systems X 20 : 10 kg of miscellaneous materials

TOTAL : 338 Kg of new unsolicited materials

IN TIME

10 design sessions
- 3 hours

involving :
- 2 people from the smarin team
- 10 to 12 people from associations or external

TOTAL : 420 h (30h x 14 participants)