meva: recycled shadow from newspapers

san francisco street shadow, alicante (spain)

‘recycled shadow’ is a playful installation project undertaken by spanish architectural collective meva to productively use old newspapers that would otherwise be discarded. the artists fold hundreds of newspaper pages into paper windmills, which they then hang on nylon mesh into suspended sculptures that provide shade to passersby underneath.

meva initiated the project in response to research by london municipal centers that indicated that the daily distribution of free newspapers in the city creates over 100 extra tons of paper waste each year. in the city of madrid, about 938,000 copies of these publications are distributed daily, most of which ultimately end up in garbage cans.

meva elaborates, ‘the windmills are organized to provide shadow with a simple changing pattern, each of them rotates and balances on its own to the rhythm of the gentle summer breeze.’

view of the shadow cast by the hanging sculpture, ‘san francisco street shadow’, alicante, spain

full view of ‘san francisco street shadow’, alicante, spain

installation view of ‘san francisco street shadow’, alicante, spain

detail of windmill, courtyard of the ministry of environment, madrid, spain

courtyard of the ministry of environment, madrid, spain

view from above,courtyard of the ministry of environment, madrid, spain<

room view, courtyard of the ministry of environment, madrid (spain)

windmills pattern

full view of an individual paper windmill

folding diagrams

construction diagram

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication.

— designboom design-aerobics courses

design-aerobics 2011: PAPER course september 15 – november 15, 2011 beyond a writing surface, paper can be used for so much more. furniture, lighting, packaging– from the planning stages to finished works, this fall designboom will explore the infinite possibilities of this material. to see a sample lesson and information on how to enroll click here.