Imagine having a life-size dragon sculpture in your garden. Or some freeform hobbit furniture. Imagine creating it yourself, with a nontoxic, sustainable material made up of 95% recycled materials diverted from the waste stream.
The larger-than-life dragon was sculpted with Darjit.
At the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show this month, the Darjit exhibit showcased a wealth of repurposed materials, including the eponymous architectural sculpting compound. Developed by New Zealander Brett Sumner as a way to use a mining by-product, Darjit contains a blend of china clay, rock powder (a mining by-product), and cellulose fiber (from recycled paper products). You add sand, cement, acrylic paint, and polypropylene fibers to the Darjit compound, varying the recipe depending on the application.
Darjit is applied over a wire mesh foundation.
In the garden, Darjit can be used to create gateways, pillars, benches, urns, and other garden features. You can make freeform sculptures, use it as a plaster on a wire mesh (or any recycled object) base, or add details to existing structures. You can incorporate mosaics or mirrors, add oxides for color, or paint it. For information on Bay Area workshops and examples of its artistic uses, see JenniferMcGee.com.
I also found creative inspiration at a talk by Geoff Coffey of Madrono Landscape Design Studio at the garden show. “One of my favorite things to do is to go to a scrap metal yard,” he said. Coffey showed examples of panels he found at metal fabrication shops and scrap yards that were otherwise destined for the dump. The aluminum, perforated steel, and mesh panels could be repurposed into trellises, privacy screens, vertical-planting bases, or other uses. He noted that to access the waste stream at wholesale fabricators, you need to find (or be) an architect or landscape architect.
The metal cutouts hold grass seedlings for a vertical planting.
Coffey also showed some innovative materials with specific practical uses. From the company Invisible Structures, the products Grasspave2 and Rainstore3, modular units made from recycled plastic, can keep rainwater on-site. Grasspave2 creates a pervious load-bearing surface that can be planted with grasses or other groundcovers. It enables vehicular access but looks like landscape rather than pavement. Coffey said this product supports plant growth better than concrete blocks used for the same purpose. Rainstore3 is a stacking system with 94% void space that can be stacked up to 8 ft. high below grade for stormwater storage or water harvesting. For instance, it can be installed under a driveway or utility area. Each 4-inch-high, 1-square-meter unit can store 25 gallons of water.
Interesting modern materials that would be fun to use but cost at least a couple thousand dollars per 4x8 sheet include Luccon translucent concrete and thick acrylic Acrylite panels. Embedded fiber optic cables make the concrete translucent, and it has the same tensile strength as regular concrete. Different patterns of fiber optics are available. Luccon panels could be stunning in any setting where they are backlit, such as the back wall of a waterfall or a privacy or wind screen.
Luccon translucent concrete is made from layers of concrete and fiber optics.
The Acrylite panels are hard and durable, Coffey said, and can be cut like wood using a special saw. He envisioned using them as a see-through deck surface. Where I grew up, a nearby library had a translucent glass-block floor in the mezzanine. I enjoyed going there for the sensation of walking on a solid but light and airy surface.
Samples of Acrylite and Luccon translucent concrete sit atop wire mesh rescued from the waste stream.
© 2012 Tanya Kucak