Plastic Reimagined: From Campus Waste to Public Seating
At Atlanta Contemporary, Plastic Reimagined presents a series of Adirondack chairs and collective seating elements produced entirely from discarded plastics collected at the Georgia Tech campus. On view from June 21st to September 7th, 2025, the installation functions as both a design exhibition and a prototype for rethinking the role of reclaimed materials in public environments.
Developed in Spring 2025 through ARCH 6050: Architectural Studio Design + Research at Georgia Tech’s School of Architecture, the project was led by Assistant Professor Hyojin Kwon, founder of Pre- & Post-. Graduate students collected post-consumer HDPE and PLA from campus makerspaces, waste collection streams, and local recycling facilities. The materials were shredded, pressed into sheets, milled with CNC routers, or cast into volumetric forms. Surface variations, including marbled color patterns and irregular textures, were retained as integral elements of the final designs, establishing a distinct material language.
Jude – Adirondack-inspired chair extruded by hand-built tool, weaving recycled HDPE into swirling, candy-like forms | all images by Andrew Thomas Lee
Reimagining the Adirondack chair through Circular Design
The Adirondack chair served as the project’s formal reference point. Students explored multiple fabrication strategies, including lamination, voxel-based modeling, custom mold casting, and modular assembly, to reinterpret the typology. Each outcome was evaluated for ergonomic performance, structural stability, and adaptability of the design process. In the gallery, the seating pieces are arranged as a civic landscape, accompanied by process documentation and fabrication footage. These materials illustrate the project’s workflow, from waste collection to finished objects, as well as the roles of community partnerships and shared tools.
Originally conceived as a studio-based investigation into material literacy and circular design, Plastic Reimagined now operates as a case study in the adaptive reuse of local waste streams. The project, led by designer Hyojin Kwon, suggests potential pathways for integrating reclaimed materials into public space through community-led fabrication and design. By combining computational workflows with manual production techniques, the work positions design as an active participant in the development of sustainable material practices.
Vincent – hand-shaped recycled plastic forms fused into a sculptural Adirondack, with joinery hidden beneath swirling, marbled surfaces
Modu-Chair – Adirondack form built from PLA/HDPE cubic modules, echoing quilting patterns through stacked, interlocking blocks
Framework – waterjet-cut lattice in recycled HDPE, translating Adirondack solidity into a modular, transparent structure
Plastic Lamina – tiled HDPE panels combining precision-machined frames with hand-rolled, patterned inserts