The Craft of Upcycled Interiors: Creating Versatile Environments

The workshop empowers participants to reimagine interiors using upcycled materials while embracing flexibility and adaptability. This workshop challenges students to design innovative, multifunctional spaces that can transform to meet varying needs all while promoting sustainability and creativity. Assigned to a specific space, students will select diverse zones in the GIU Berlin Campus (Mansour Hall) each intended for a unique function: café, exhibition/gallery and community hub. The main objective is designing these zones to be transformable, allowing each area to serve multiple purposes throughout the day. Students will explore and incorporate upcycled materials like reclaimed wood, repurposed textiles, scrap metal, and other sustainable resources into their designs, rethinking the conventional boundaries of interior spaces. Throughout the workshop, students will receive guidance on how to effectively utilize these materials to craft dynamic, modular furniture, movable walls, and flexible layouts. They will learn the principles of adapability of spaces, examining how thoughtful design can allow a single space to function in multiple ways without compromising aesthetics or functionality. The expected outcomes of the workshop are as follows: As a collective groupwork task the students will initially create a zoning model that outlines the different functional areas within the overall space of Mansour Hall. Additionally, each group of students will develop a sectional model that demonstrates their design’s flexibility, highlighting how upcycled materials contribute to both the functionality and sustainability of the space. They will also develop a leporello (Fold-Out Portfolio) a Visual Journey of the Design Process which will include the following points: Mood Boards: Visual collections of colors, textures, materials, and inspiration images that guided the design. Sketches and Diagrams: Early conceptual sketches, floor plans, and diagrams illustrating how different zones within the space function and transform. Design Iterations: A timeline of design development, showcasing how the space evolved, including visual comparisons of early drafts versus the final concept. Collage illustrations: showing how the upcycled materials and flexible layouts come together to create a multifunctional, transformable interior. Also, students will create a material catalogue which will document and highlight the upcycled materials used in their designs. By the end of the workshop, students will have a complete transformable interior design, supported by a sectional model, leporello and material catalogue that showcases their use of upcycled materials and the space’s adaptability.