Junktion skateboard bench

Scrap heaps and junk piles – one man’s trash, another man’s treasure, as they say. From bathtubs to travel trunks, window frames to car seats, nothing is safe from these Frankenstein-esque redesigners who seem able to take any homely and unloved object and turn it into a work of functional art + seating.

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Junktion has worked all kinds of wonders with refuse, but their bench-and-chair sets are particularly compelling – in each instance, one can see what they were built out of in a second. From palettes to shutters, their origins are so clear, it is almost hard to see what their new purpose is at first.

Junktion bath chair

Some involve simple joinery techniques – a few nails or screws to cobble the pieces together. Joined at the hip, four chairs side by side, well, what you see is what you get. Others require cutting chairs straight in half with delicate precision, or slicing through old metal tubs to create a shaped seat.

Junktion stretch bench

There is much here to inspire a few do-it-yourself projects, too – the next time you pass a garbage bin, ask yourself: if I had to use these materials (and only these) to construct something, could I do it? In a pinch, you might surprise yourself.

Junktion stool and chair

Junktion studio is a design and art studio opened in 2008 in Tel-Aviv, Israel. Our focus is reuse and up-cycle design, trying to give a second chance to what the city had already classified as junk. We take everyday objects out of context, and try to look at them in a new way. Most of the raw material is found in the streets, in junkyards and in flee markets around the world.  The majority of the designs are ‘one-off’ items. Gurit Magen, born 1975, graduate of the School of Architecture in Tel Aviv University, 2006. Has been operating the Junktion design studio since 2008.”