Upcycling with Nordwerk recyclingDESIGN from Germany

Nordwerk recyclingDESIGN GbR

Gambrinusstraße 14

Hinterhaus

DE-01159 Dresden

http://www.nordwerk-design.de/

https://www.facebook.com/Nordwerk.Design

May I introduce to you Nordwerk recyclingDESIGN from Dresden, Germany? You are wondering what they do? Honestly spoken, what they do … is garbage.

Ok, garbage is not a product at all and certainly none you would spend money for. Everybody knows garbage is something one should reduce and not produce. So, how can a garbage-producing company be a green Startup?   

The secret is called upcycling. Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or for better environmental value.

Nordwerk recyclingDESIGN produces furniture, exhibition stand construction and any special designs made of recycled materials - primarily from used corrugated cardboard.

Founders Maximilian Hansen and Daniel Fucke 

In the beginning there was no initial business idea but the wish of two architects named Maximilian Hansen and Daniel Fucke together with a student of architecture named Norman Frost to build just a chair from recycled materials.

In fact, one and a half year ago these three guys designed a chair just for fun. They choose corrugated cardboard as material by sheer coincidence and were quite surprised when their chair was submitted to a competition at the Technical University of Dresden. The surprise became even bigger when their chair won an award and they got an invitation to an exhibition organized by Deutscher Werkbund e. V. in Hellerau, Dresden.

From this date onward they have started to believe in their idea and continued to experiment with the material and different designs in their leisure time. To ensure the availability of corrugated cardboard they negotiated a collaboration with Veolia, a company for waste disposal an environmental services. The deal was the following: Veolia provide as much corrugated cardboard as needed and in return it was allowed to use the works designed by Nordwerk.

By conducting several smaller projects for Veolia pro bono Nordwerk has become even more professional plus paying more attention to the topic of sustainable production: They rented an old blacksmith in Dresden, changed the cutting technology from laser to the much more energy-efficient cutting with saws and professionalized the planning processes.

Finally, a bigger project for the German Hygiene Museum in Dresden was the decisive factor. Nordwerk worked at its limits and Maximilian Hansen and Daniel Fucke decided to set up a company instead of continue their work as hobby. 

Today Nordwerk recyclingDESIGN is a green manufacture creating extraordinary products: Recycled materials, green electricity, an energy-saving cutting technology as well as eco-certified water- und fireproofed impregnation is used in the production process. In addition Nordwerk is producing less than 1% waste.

The team of Nordwerk recyclingDESIGN is optimistic for the future and will adhere to their credo: 

It is possible to make the world a little better by using corrugated cardboard!