Can City | Studio Swine

Studio Swine have created ‘Can City’- a project based in São Paulo where a mobile foundry operates around the city’s streets. The foundry smelts aluminum cans using waste vegetable oil collected from local cafes as fuel. The moulds and the finished pieces are all made on location, turning the street into an improvised manufacturing line. In a city with some 20 million residence the waste is on a massive scale, however over 80% of the recycling is collected by an informal system of independent waste collectors known as Catadores who pull their handmade carts around the streets. ‘Can City’ creates a system where their livelihoods can extend beyond rubbish collection. The Catadores mine the streets for materials for the furnace, cheap and adaptable sand moulds are made using readily available construction sand from local building sites. Where the majority of carbon cost is in the transportation of goods rather than their production – ‘Can City’ explores the possibility of industry returning to our cities, using free metal and free fuel to produce an endless range of individually crafted aluminum items adaptable to customisations and able to ‘cast on demand’. The stools are the first line items to be produced, inspired by vernacular design the seating is made for the food market that provided the waste materials.  'Can City' was made for Coletivo Amor de Madre Gallery, São Paulo. The project was made possible with the generous support of Heineken.