ABC Open Central Victoria

Building with recycled 'throwaway' stuff

By Jessie Boylan · 3 mins · From Makers and Creators

According to builder and furniture maker Mark Anstey, “the local tip is the best shop in town”.

Mark builds everything with recycled material - from kitchen cabinets to complete buildings. His biggest project is an arts centre in Castlemaine, Victoria called Lot 19.

He built the 19 artists' studios, cafe, kitchen, stage and gallery over 10 years and says, “just about everything I used was destined for the junk heap”.

Nails are pulled out of wood and reused, demountable classrooms find new life as artists’ studios and tin sheeting, sometimes more than 100 years old, is used as wall coverings on many of Lot 19’s buildings and studios.

The decision to build with “throwaway stuff” is both an ethical and aesthetic one.

“Years ago I saw an American activist on TV who asked a question: 'When you throw something away, where is away?' And I thought that was a really good question, 'Where is away? There’s no such thing as away'.

“The economic advantage of using recycled stuff is already apparent, but there are other byproducts too, like quality. The tin on Lot 19’s gallery wall is much better quality than anything I could buy. It has a much lower carbon footprint and I got it from the shed down the road.”

Mark says that aesthetics are very important - "I run an arts centre," he says with a grin - and there’s a distinctly handmade aesthetic that he cultivates and embraces.

“I’ve always liked the handmade. As a kid we made presents for each other. I like the handmade aesthetic too. Then I worked out why. Thankfully it aligned with my ethics.”

Mark says Lot 19 is how he gets to “explain himself to thousands of people. They come and they’re enchanted by what they see here”.

“To me it’s a deep part of the human psyche to care, including to care for things, rather than just use them and throw them away.

“We’re one of the only animals that actively destroys our environment. That doesn’t make sense to me.”

Published 16 Apr 2015. Castlemaine VIC 3450

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Jessie Boylan

Contributor

Castlemaine VIC 3450

16 Comments

Mark anstey

I'm currently in Uganda, with Orphfund. No waste here!!!! thanks Jessie... Lot19art.com
John Harland

As Mark says, aesthetics are very important. We need the things we make to excite people, to be a better choice than something from new material and to inspire others to take the ideas forward. A Philip Graham says, though, it is not recycling. I call it reassignment because we use as much of the elaborated nature of the input in a new context. For example, a chair of old bicycle parts might use severely-buckled wheel rims as frames for squab and back because of both the rigidity of the rim and the elegant and controlled way it deforms before you remove the spokes. Then, after removing the spokes you might weave inner tubes across the rim, not for their capacity to hold air but because of their tensile resilience. Then you might use brake cables, not to transmit motion but as stationary bracing and use the cable sleeves, not to resist pressure but to make the cables safer against injuring the hands of the person using the chair by increasing their diameter. In each case the primary properties of the original become secondary and the secondary properties become primary but the parts are used to create a comfortable and effective chair with minimal modification. It is profoundly different to melting down old aluminium to make new drink cans.
Peter Cartledge

I am so angry with our local Moreland Council, that they allow period homes with beautiful timber floors windows and fittings to be torn down and all Thrown into a Skip to go tho landfill. a disgraceful waste of a beautiful and finite resource
mary

This is wonderful! I've always wanted to 'meet' someone who'd qualified for the "grand design" by McCloud. It is gorgeous what Mark has here. A great lesson to learn from! thank you abc.
Barbara Elkins

I want to come & visit. Do you run any courses or any other educational stuff? I'd like to know about exhibitions etc. I'm striving to do my bit in my local area (which is the Central Coast NSW)
John Dobozy Molectra Technologies P/L john@molectra.com.au

50 million waste tyres are discarded every year in Australia, plus 1.7 billion around the world. MOLECTRA can turn tyres into quality rubber products (51 different ones and counting), also can make new tyres, extract energy to process the waste tyres, manufactures CarbonEater Fertilizer to produce food. “ The Art of recycling is to emulate nature’s process of recreating useful compounds from the RESOURCES of Planet Earth” JGD. We need every Australian to continuously purchase our product to help the environment. Every customer receives a Carbon Credit Certificate sticker for their car.
Philip Mitchell Graham

Mark is a design genius. He has built a major public building for the same price as a feasibility study. But Mark is NOT recycling anything. Recycling has NOTHING to do with reusing and re-purposing second hand materials. Recycling is a mainstream industrial process that destroys the embedded energy of fabricated waste materials and uses the same amount of energy as any other industrial process. It is NOT a good thing. Corrugated steel is melted down when it is recycled. Used construction timber is chipped into low grade wood chips, contaminated with lead paint and copper chrome arsenate Re-using is a bespoke craft. Re-purposing is an art form. Both activities are non-industrial and anti-consumerist. The recycling industry has no interest in accommodating old school crafts. It is only a matter of time before recycling contractors realize they are in competition with us tinkerers.
Abbie Heathcote

I heard the other day that the latest building regs in Castlemaine don't allow 2nd hand windows! Mine cost $120 the lot.they are great double hung windows which are so much better than modern hinged ones. I was also allowed to use secondhand corrugated iron
Camilo

Classic Anstey! Nice one brother. I love the roll start of the Dodge and the putting on of ear muffs for the camera. You are integral to our community and an asset to awesome town. Thanks for everything you do.
Nola Anderson

Fantastic Mark. Keep up the great work.
RUDE Girl

We are on the same RUDE [reuser of unloved discarded excess] page as Mark. And have shared this article and video to Facebook on Rude Record @ruderepair where we post daily about reuse and repair.
Lainie Tomming

We regularly supply customers (some paying, others non-paying) with recycled materials for them to use in a whole range of re-purposed ways. It is the way of the future.
Ben Shue

I've got to see this place. The buildings are fantastic. It really hit home for me when Mark recalls Butterfly's question.
Isabel Zeil-Rolfe

Beautiful work Mark! Also big complements to the producers of the ABC open videos. I find them all really interesting and a great way to find out what artists around Australia are making! Really inspiring!
Liz Stayner

I like this compact and compelling video story of creativity in Castlemaine through the words and actions of this high achiever in our town.
Zerin Knight

This is amazing! I love it. And so close to my home. Will visit soon.