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A Design Emerges

All of Scrapile’s sharp modern forms come from the solid block of wood. The pieces have evolved from basic, boxy shapes to more complex lines as Salgado, who does most of the design, has become more comfortable as a woodworker. “Initially the idea was to keep the designs as simple as possible,” says Salgado, a sculptor by training. “But the more I got involved in the making of the material, the more I wanted to push the structure and the language of the design into being a little more contemporary. I’m not a traditional woodworker. I’ve learned it all on the job. I’ve never adhered to the rules.” The Pi table, shown in progress here, is one of Scrapile’s simplest, but still displays thoughtful, subtle detail.

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The assembly in progress.

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    The Pi Table

    Scrapile—Pull up a chair to one of Scrapile’s impossibly elegant dining tables and you’d never guess that the materials used to create it had once been destined for a landfill. Founded in 2003 by Carlos Salgado and Bart Bettencourt, Brooklyn-based Scrapile repurposes cast-off scrap wood to create crisp modern furnishings. Salgado and Bettencourt met in the mid 1990s, doing installation work at the now-defunct SoHo branch of the Guggenheim Museum. “We were both appalled by the waste at the Guggenheim,” says Salgado. “Between exhibitions everything got demoed, and it was still good material. It just sat on our consciences.” Years later, they found themselves at a studio staring at a pile of wood, wondering what could be made from it. The query yielded two benches—the seeds of Scrapile. The collection has been growing ever since.

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January 1, 2009

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  • The Pi Table

    The Pi Table

    Scrapile—Pull up a chair to one of Scrapile’s impossibly elegant dining tables and you’d never guess that the materials used to create it had once been destined for a landfill.
  • Bamboo Drawer Organizers

    Bamboo Drawer Organizers

    In addition to being a sustainable material, bamboo has a striking color striation to its grain, and is nice enough to be displayed just about anywhere. These crafted modular boxes are big enough to tackle a commercial tape measure, yet small enough to bring order to the typical origami of forgotten keys and loose thread.

  • Modern Farm Furniture

    Modern Farm Furniture

    Modern Farm Furniture out of Columbus, Ohio, was one of my favorite finds at the Solar Decathlon this year.
  • Piet Hein Eek

    Piet Hein Eek

    Dutch designer Piet Hein Eek is best known for his intricately composed scrap wood furniture—each piece a one-of-a-kind creation that merges artisan handcraft with skilled design processes.

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