12×12 is the maximum dimensions a shelter in North Carolina can be before it legally becomes a house, subject to property taxes. For this reason it is a hallowed number among the off-the-grid set, and the title of a popular book on one man’s foray into the world of tiny houses.
It is also the name of a new exhibit of contemporary furniture. New York designers were challenged with creating something beautiful out of the remains of demolished New York City buildings. 12×12 is the innovative result.
The exhibit aimed to draw attention to the potential of materials abandoned to the trash from the many buildings demolished daily in New York. Eco Brooklyn fully supports this goal, as New York’s demolition sites are our preferred resource to build new structures or renovate older ones without requiring any more trees to be felled. In fact, as a New York City green contractor, we have never bought new wood, including all our joists, studs, floors, subfloors, stairs, and doors, with the exception of FSC formaldehyde-free plywood for kitchen cabinets.
By using wood from our very own Gotham Forest, we can help protect living forests by reducing the demand for deforestation, a major driver of climate change and habitat destruction.
The designers sourced their lumber from landmarks such as the Brooklyn Bridge and Coney Island, as well as buildings from another era and another New York, such as a warehouse from 1832, one of the last of the 19th century’s dry goods district. One of the most glorious aspects of buildings is their ability to serve as witness to countless events and histories, and so the transformations of these storied buildings into furniture allows the sleek, contemporary pieces a depth and richness in their mysteriously alluring backstories.
Some of these stories inform the new pieces, infusing them with a thoughtfulness and humor found in the continuation of a theme, such as a “Vice box” made from the floors of a Prohibition-era dance hall, or a liquor cabinet made with wood sourced from the East Village Mars Bar. You can discover the buildings that became the furniture here.
Perhaps best of all, the unique pieces were sold at silent auction to raise money for Brooklyn Woods, a woodworking training program for low income and high risk New Yorkers, helping to pass on the tools and inspiration to keep New York’s buildings flowing into reincarnations that pay homage to the city’s history while providing for some truly green design.
-Jenna Steckel