Treasured trash - cans, that is
Caroline Wolfe Papocchia Friday, October 16, 2009 at 9:45AM 
The Vipp Collection at Design Within ReachEver since first laying eyes on a Vipp refuse can, I was in love. The Danish company's cans are unmatched in their combination of aesthetic appeal with functionality - sharp lines and neutral colors with an easy-to-clean finish and a wide rubber foot pedal. It helps that they have been hand-constructed from quality materials since the company's inception in 1939.
This month, Vipp is once again teaming up with DIFFA (Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS) and Design Within Reach for CAN IT!!!, an effort to raise awareness and funds. They have asked a group of significant artists, designers, entertainers, and celebrities to transform Vipp bins into art objects, with amazing, and amazingly varied, results.
The final bins are on display at the DWR Tools for Living Store at 142 Wooster Street in Manhattan until October 28th, and are available for advance bidding. On the 28th, the celebration gala and final auction hosted by DWR, Vipp, and DIFFA will take place at the DWR flagship store at 110 Greene Street, with proceeds going to DIFFA's important work. Bidders will be invited to this otherwise private event.
I had a chance to visit the DWR Tools for Living store last night, and was truly impressed with the bins and the store (which I learned from delightful salesman Steve has only been open a little over a year). If you are in the area, I recommend a visit!
Here are some of my (somewhat biased) favorites:
Jes Gordon
Avi Adler and John Baldessari
David Rockwell
Cole Garett and Yves Behar
All images
©Vipp via If Its Hip, Its Here. More information and images are available there.
Reader Comments (4)
Wow. Those are nice looking trash cans! I always thought all trash cans looked the same... :P. Thanks for the post!
I liked it. So much useful material. I read with great interest.
I'm sure kids will gonna love those and they will be interested to throw their trash in proper places. Great to see this, I want to make one.
I like the John Baldessari design. Sometimes we're just throwing our wastes without thinking if we'll still be using it or something, and after that is realizing that we should not have thrown it. Thank you for sharing it with us.