Stimulated by the waste levels they encountered in São Paulo, Brazil, design duo Studio Swine have created Can City, a mobile foundry that enables waste collectors to turn aluminium cans into functional furniture and sculpture. São Paulo is home to thousands of 'catadores', informal scrap collectors who profit from recycling schemes. These workers pull hand-drawn carts, perfect to carry a disassembled foundry and create products that are functional and unique from materials that are readily available to them on the streets. Using a process called sand casting, cans are smelted down into molten liquid, able to be cast in almost any shape. About 60 cans are enough to produce a metal stool. 



Studio Swine’s foundry can itself be constructed from found materials, with waste vegetable oil from local cafes used as fuel, further enabling the catadores to create art from trash. Co-founders Azusa Murakami and Alex Groves believe their design could change the face of the city as people there find new uses for the foundry, from souvenirs to sculpture and beyond.

Bearing a similar ethos to designer Dave Hakkens' custom built plastic recycling plant, Can City is a great example of design making effective, sustainable impact in a community.

We recently talked to Studio Swine about their unconventional approach to craft, which you can watch right here.