São Paulo’s Mobile Aluminum Foundry Turns Empty Cans into Stools

They’re known as Catadores. With nothing more than makeshift smelters and spent vegetable oil picked up from local cafes, they roam the streets of Brazil’s favelas in search of their gold: empty aluminum cans. This is the fodder for the end products, quaint and practical furniture designed to mimic the “vernacular aesthetic”. 

“Can City”, a beautifully-shot short film from Studio Swine, tells their story. What’s really great here, aside from the obvious reuse of what many simply deem as trash, is the smelter. It’s a sort of DIY Rube Goldberg looking thing featuring what appears to be an old beer keg. In Brazil’s sprawling favelas, where its map or be mapped—and where the nation’s misguided new internet law stands to ghettoize access—it’s a redemptive totem of craft and resolve.  

@thebanderson