Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1508099
Jim Kastleman JACK THOMPSON I love keeping up with current trends in local, national, and international society, mostly through reading magazines and the news. I love to pick up on new words that describe a modern trend or movement. Though I can't explain the difference between an Instagram feed or reel, circular economy has hit my radar several times in the past few months. It's quite simple: Eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials, and regenerate nature — as defined on the website for the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, an international nonprofit dedicated to the circular economy. Down here in Round Top, I think we simply call it recycling or repurposing. Who knew that so many local builders and artisans have been doing that for generations — I think they deserve some credit for creating the circular economy before there even was a circular economy. Many vendors, dealers, and artisans have the words renovate, rejuvenate, recycle, or salvage in their business names or taglines. Really, it could just be called common sense: Why buy something new that used a lot of carbon to produce and bored a hole in the earth or took down a tree to create. I'm not being naive here; certainly, there are necessary and real reasons to buy new, but when given the alternative, why not repurpose? Look at the old structures of the German and Czech pioneers who settled out here. Some of the old homes are outright collages of different types of wood or metal and even glass. You think they went to the Merc and bought new material? Nope. They created their own, then perhaps a generation or more later, someone else came along and created their own but scavenged for already existing pieces of material. This often leads to trends among those cultures — I've driven around enough with knowledgeable locals who can spot a Czech house or a German door or floor. Common sense equals saved time and money. We just built a bunch of new buildings at The Halles. We used cedar trees that were recently knocked down to build a new road, wood from ole Milroy's barn next door that was going to be torn down and burned, 50- to 100-year-old tin that we'd been collecting, and massive beams and random wood from an old factory in South Los Angeles that had made its way out here. Have a great time in Round Top. And, as you're buying that perfect shiny chair, look next to it and pick up a repurposed side table. The mix of old and new is brilliant in home design. Jim Kastleman Chairman jim@papercitymag.com 12