In the 2017 FIKEA application, we associated the TUBATECT production process with Europe\’s ecological priorities – \”efficient control of excessive noise, efficient waste management systems, nature and biodiversity protection programs and implementation of a green infrastructure\”, as well as reducing pressure on the environment in the urban area and neighboring areas, such as traffic (to the landfill), the restriction of natural ecosystems (by occupying garbage pits), industrial pollution and waste, and energy consumed (for garbage incineration, transport).

Also, through that application, we proposed 3 objectives, which denote the impact and similarity of our upcycling action with ecosystem measures / typical functions found in biological systems:

Reducing the amount of waste simply thrown into the environment, with the harmful effects of pollution of the different layers of the biosphere and the destruction of natural habitats.

• Intelligent recovery of products that are apparently at the end of their life, through reuse, recycling, grinding, returning them to the state of raw material, and, of course, upcycling.
• Waste is a resource, but when you can reuse it with simple, non-consumptive processes (of time, energy, transport, etc.), it is all the more valuable.
• Simplifying separation operations at source, by creating and expanding mechanisms and opportunities for selective collection and quality control, at different age levels, in a complex process of educating the citizen in parallel with separation. (FIKEA 2017 application, together with Asura Association).
• The grant-writing period overlapped with the research phase on ecosystem services, and thus we found synergies between them and the TUBATECT project.

In the autumn 2016 I applied together with my colleagues (from right to left) arch. Florin Cristache (concept), stud. arch. Caesar Udrea (execution) and Valentin Corodescu (website, marketing) at the contest Awards for a clean medium edition no. VIII, winning the Grand Prix for a Clean Environment in the Companies category (the other sections being awarded for NGOs, Public Institutions and Education Institutions).

Competitors in our category were projects and programmes in Kaufland and Carrefour, among 98 participants (in all categories), which made the prize even more special.

Recovery of tubes and very rapid creative use and upcycling as furniture components makes the final product an innovative, visually increased, visually impacted by form̆ and dimension, blending, ecological character, by innovation, simplicity, and long-term use that represent competitive advantages in the furniture industry.

In one of the interviews that was accorded in 2016, for an article by Irina Breniuc about recycling companies in Romania, we emphasised that for our range, it is more important to keep tubes untreated, neither with resins nor paint, and to keep the intervention as simple as possible, with as limited consumption of resources in the manufacturing section and to reach the 100% ecological percentage.

Basically, the most harmful element in question is the binder with which the original cardboard tube occurs before paper is placed on it and reach us: \”The main feature of the furniture in cardboard tubes is that it is 100% eco.\”

To preserve its sustainability, Adrian refused to use paint, even though it would make it more attractive and durable. He thinks this is exactly what attracts customers: the product\’s sustainability. However, it recognises that design plays an important role as well.

Even if it is extremely simple, it draws attention immediately. In addition, its modularity makes it easy to dismantle and adapt to needs.

However, it is not resistant, it gets dirty easily, and if it gets wet, it deteriorates. In the cabinet, he lasted until about 5 years ago. \”And he will still last that, Adrian believes, as it is used for storing files.\”

The website is in English, intended for the younger generation in Romania and Europe, and is a type visit card, for exposing models in the offer, and for highlighting the principles of sustainability, zero waste, ecology, and circular economy.

The business plan also took into account the context regarding the demand or need for such objects, in the context in which the post-2008 economic crisis and the increase in the degree of eco-civic education may lead to an increase in the segment of the population that no longer wants to be part of the “general wave of consumption, amid awareness of the need to reduce the use of raw materials, respectively the EU’s efforts to encourage the sustainable and efficient use of natural resources by promoting energy efficiency, the low-carbon economy, environmental protection and adaptation to climate change have increased waste recovery initiatives, including creative ones, through recycling or upcycling, exponentially increasing the public’s interest in this type of product (see the local case of Upside Down SRL, which successfully makes and sells wallets, bags, purses, pencil cases, etc. from truck tarpaulins or street banners).”

Similarly, our products convert short-life materials and waste into longer-lasting objects with very low to zero energy consumption. The collection, recovery, reuse and upcycling of cardboard tubes, which have special properties of vertical mechanical resistance (compression), is very useful given their size and volume, which significantly reduces the amount of waste going to landfills and requiring a complex recycling process.

Since 2015, we have also begun investigating the option of using the tube scraps left over after cutting to size for modular tube racks. In previous years, we used them for our clients’ rolls of boards – as in the image below, but upon closer analysis, we noticed more creative and commercial possibilities.

Thus, we began creating and producing design objects that serve as lighting fixtures, the first test being a Christmas tree model for our office, which we also used during the 2018 holidays and at exhibitions.

The cylindrical remnants, of different cardboard shades, diameters and lengths, respectively texture thicknesses, are creatively joined in various compositions and proportions on a rigid cardboard support panel.

Compared to other objects, which are mounted ecologically by mechanical fastening, without adhesives, in this case we used aracet to support the panel. For lighting we used LED bulbs – here we even used a winter tree installation with uniform white light – which we removed through holes inside most of the cylinders in the tubes.

The programmed and varied play of LEDs further creates a very captivating animated and dynamic effect, both through the rhythmicity of the installation itself, but also through the various juxtaposed shadows left by the unevenly sized cardboard. The compositional possibilities, together with the options for the type of LED strips, are unlimited.

In December 2016 I was invited to organize a creative recycling workshop to create such a Christmas Tree, ecologically reinterpreted for the ECOTEC Association, Bucharest, where, with the support of a group of volunteers and members of the association, I built such an object in 2 hours, having at my disposal tubes collected or recovered by them.

Together we cut the fragments to sizes more suitable for the concept, glued them, perforated a white painted board, made of sawdust and included the installation – for this model having a variant of red LED lights available.

In this way, we have reached the stage where we recycle and creatively upcycle at another level for the leftovers derived from the production of furniture from waste. We call this process Upcycle 2.0 or Upcycle squared and for this type of objects we are considering a collection/vernissage for 2020.

In this interview, taking into account the audience the magazine was addressing, I drew attention to the social responsibility component of the concept – and the role of educator of society, which the designer can have through his objects: \”The decision to keep these leftovers does not come only from design.

It comes from an ambition of STUDIOPLOT to leave behind as little waste as possible from our activity. They are \”waste\” that we should not call that. Not as long as we can reuse or reinterpret them. Some call it internal regulations, office ethics, but we see it as a new standard of life, of society.

We even managed to reuse the leftovers from the tubes, some are braces for attaching the tubes, and with the others we make washers and give our clients the boards stuck in them.\”

At that time, pre-doctoral, I did not suspect that the advanced attitude is a typical one that describes the processes by which biological systems in nature operate in an efficient multi-epoch circularity, a function described in the subchapter on the work of architect Michael Pawlyn and in the one on the Cradle to Cradle concept of William McDonough.

During this period, we began to ask ourselves the question of the tube residues that remained after the modular assembly (in the images on the right), in 2013 using them to package the rolls of sheets for STUDIOPLOT clients.

Later, in 2016, we developed a range of lighting fixtures with them, moving to an Upcycle 2.0 level of plotting waste.

Here we concentrated some of the furniture designed at the time of March-April 2013, when we were preparing to launch the product offer and had not yet chosen the name Tubatect.

Another interview followed, given by the Brussels department of the Portuguese television SIC NOTICIAS filmed in 2013 and published as a video report for the segment \”Green Europe\” in 2014.

During the interview, I again drew attention to the social responsibility component, this time on the substrate of the transition from the idea of ​​recycling forced by communism to the modern, contemporary approach, from the individual to the community regarding the intelligent use of resources, including waste.

This principle today is fundamental in defining the circular economy and responsible design, towards a model not only of energy-efficient production but also of 0 waste (arch. Mihai Trandafir, founding member of ZEBRA, national association of NZEB and PassiveHouses professionals), for the health of people and the environment.

In the same year, our proposal was selected for the second edition of Ciorne 2.0 (Drafts 2.0) – How do ideas become reality? for out-of-the-box ideas, alongside other brands, including Pegas (the bicycle manufacturer that revived the classic 80s model), where we talked about the beginning, the concept, and process.

While working, we often change the shape on the fly, looking for the perfect proportion or maximum utility”, this flexibility in design for efficiency being one of the brand’s current principles.

Organized by the Friends For Friends Foundation, the opening and the associated public debate highlighted the existence and enthusiasm of an “eco” consumer market that we could address with the mass production of this type of furniture – that was also the moment when we decided to launch the objects commercially, for the future.

The Ciorne 2.0 opening and the impact that our presentation had also revealed the marketing potential for all the activities carried out by the office – architecture, furnishings, design and printing.

That is why, in 2013, for the popularization of the concept, it emerged a series of presentation workshops and public testing emerged, a presence at a Carturești MȚR exhibition, and an exclusive opening for our concept (Furnitubes, Industrial Design at the Imbold Gallery) and a series of interviews and articles, the first being in the student architect magazine Atelierul de Proiectare.