UICA Art Installations
Chicago, Illinois

Stacked Carpet Strips - Winning Design

The proposal for the north wall of the black box theatre will reuse all carpet waste from the Gallery on Fulton project currently under construction. The residential units and public corridors within the building will utilize over 35,000 SF of carpet with a substantial percentage of trimmed carpet waste. These long carpet strips of varying lengths and colors will be stacked in horizontal layers with only minimal width adjustment. Threaded steel rods will be incorporated to provide rigidity. The resulting wall will have a highly tactile surface with reliefs of varying depth. The wall will be durable, fire resistant, and will provide excellent acoustic properties.

Bigger carpet pieces will be cut into strips

Smaller strips will be trimmed to be between 1 1/4” to 2” wide

Recommended wall substrate to be 1/2” plywood

Low VOC construction adhesive troweled onto the wall surface

1 1/4” - 2” wide carpet strips of varrying length stacked horizontally

Stacked Carpet Strips Elevation and Detail

Folded Carpet Strips - proposed

An alternate solution based on reusing the carpet waste from the Gallery on Fulton project, incorporates strips of carpet folded into an interlocking organic pattern. Carpet strips of varying widths would be mounted with an adhesive to plywood backing and fitted within 4’x8’ modular frame built from construction wood scrap. The bigger frame would be subdivided into 2’x2’ modules utilizing sheet metal scrap. The resulting wall would convert a waste product into an organic vertical landscape, with excellent fire resistance and acoustic properties.

Tube Stalactites - Winning Design

The proposal for the ceiling of the ceramics studio will reuse construction waste, specifically tubes, from the Gallery on Fulton project currently under construction. Many building materials come on a tube or out of a tube. Waterproofing membrane, carpet, drywall tape all come on rigid cardboard rolls, while paint and caulking comes in tubes and buckets. All these tubes normally go to the landfill. The proposed ceiling would reuse tubes of all sizes, with each tube fitting into an intricate pattern based on its diameter and usable length. The resulting design would allow for a highly flexible light fixture and HVAC layout, and due to all surfaces being vertical it would limit dust accumulation. The assembled ceiling would be painted a uniform color.

All collected tubes will be cleaned and long tubes will be cut into shorter lengths, ranging from 6” to 18”

Galvanized steel corner brackets and bolts

3’ x 6’ frame module made from 1/2” plywood, 4” deep

Large diameter tubes will be attached to each other with bolts and low VOC adhesive

Small diameter tubes attached to each other with low VOC construction adhesive

Tubes will be attached to frame with bolts or adhesive based on tube diameter

Ceiling suspension rods attach to plywood frame and structure above