salvage

Respecting our resources: the Christchurch team working to save timber from landfill

A small but dedicated salvage team based in Christchurch, The Silvan started out life as an art gallery and café. When their building was lost in the 2011 earthquakes, the team came back fighting, shifting their focus to saving and repurposing beautiful timbers, hand salvaged from damaged buildings. Founders Debra and GT believe in minimising waste and reusing everything they can to make pieces that are practical, beautiful, and full of soul.

First take your genuine medieval priory…


Reclaiming Style: using salvaged materials to create an elegant home
By Maria Speake and Adam Hills · Reviewed by Jo Drysdall

The title and cover of Reclaiming Style are promising: a clever storage space is finished with panels of reclaimed weatherboard, their timeworn surfaces creating a characterful finish and promising, with the superimposed text, a treasure-trove of ideas for outfitting your home in repurposed goodness.

Rekindle Wood Collection Day, Christchurch

Rekindle Wood Collection Day,
11am–3.30pm Saturday 11 August, Christchurch

Rekindle is a social enterprise that makes furniture and other useful objects by diverting wood from landfill to reuse.

Gather up any dry planks of hardwood (i.e. cladding, flooring, tongue and groove) and take them along to the Rekindle Wood Collection site at 272 Worcester Street in Christchurch on Saturday 11 August 2012 between 11am and 3.30pm.