Vancouver Lifestyles Magazine
April 2007

132 Powell Street, Vancouver, BC. V6A 1E1
604.874.7797

Article Text

Reduce, reuse, reimagine
`Creative recycler' Ross MacMillan turns industrial castoffs into useful pieces of Vancouver history
Among Ross MacMillan's repurposed `industrial artifacts': (below) a screen made from abandoned bulbs from traffic signals and (opposite page) a shape-shifting set of benches/tables.

By BEVERLY CRAMP


At the fare east side of Vancouver's Gastown area. in a heritage building. is a store full of what appear to be aged relics from bygone eras. But these relics have a twist - they've been transformed for new uses: an antique-red cast-iron fire hydrant without its top is turned into an umbrella stand: the round wooden mold for a large industrial gear becomes the frame for a mirror: and old lenses from obsolete street signs form the design for a room divider, as well as lighting fixtures, magazine racks and bowls.
The unique furniture and home accessory pieces are created and sold by local designer Ross MacMillan through his company. Industrial Artifacts. Industrial is a key word because MacMillan uses discarded pieces from old manufacturing plants and old technology that would otherwise be destined for the garbage heap. Not your typical householder's first choice for home decoration.

"We are creative recyclers. We try to create something stylish that people want to put into their house because it's got a story to it. Our pieces look cool. they have a story and they have a function.- says MacMillan.

History is important to MacMillan. a fourth generation Vancouverite. "That's part of what we do here. That's how it started. I wanted to make pieces from the artifacts of my family's business. Progressive Engineering Works, which was my maternal grandfather's company. We take these shapes and leftovers from industry and we transform them into something that's cool."

It's more than history that motivates MacMillan as he links forgotten Vancouver manufacturing landscapes to an environmental philosophy. summed tip in his company motto: sustainability with style.

"All those businesses in southeast False Creek built and maintained the infrastructure of the whole city. That's why I have a fascination with industrial history: it's kind of what regular people take for granted. The men and women who worked in these industries - the foundry industries, sawmills and pulp mills - they kept this city going. They kept this city growing. Being able to preserve some of this history in what we do at Industrial Artifacts, that's really important to me because you're creating bridges with the past and the present into the future. It's very important that we understand where we came from in the evolution of the city in order for us to figure out where we're going and what's important to us.

We all make mistakes and in the past, especially post World War II, there wasn't much concern about the environment. We had dominion over the world and we could shape it and take from it what we wanted without really thinking about the consequences so much.

"We thought that we were doing good things: it was the industrial revolution and it was changing the world. Now it's come to this critical mass and scientists say the greenhouse gases that we've produced, especially in the last 50 years. haven't been seen in this quantity for over 10.000 years. And that was the last time we had an ice age.
"This is how we've been conditioned and I don't think that can happen to the same extent anymore. Now people are starting to get the idea that we need to look at alternatives and take this old technology and flip it upside down and give it another use before we put it in the landfill."

Macmillan started showing his one-off' pieces at art shows in 1997. One of the first people he invited to his events was environmental crusader David Suzuki.

"He wasn't able to attend but he faxed me hack - those were the days of faxes more than email - saying he thought preserving history was important and not something we do enough of in Vancouver. He also said that he liked the idea of what I was doing."