← The Periodic System

Refunc · Design for Succession

The projects

The matrix is built from solutions — one material, one verb, one cell. A project is the place where a handful of those happened at once: a festival, a building, a workshop. These are all 64 of them, straight from refunc.nl.

64 projects 18 visible in the matrix 46 not yet 50 solutions without a project

In the matrix — 18 projects the periodic system knows about

3 in the matrix

2024 · Commercial

airco part made to trade
airco part made to illuminate
airco part made to work

12 in the matrix

Hybrid Catalogue House

2021 · Biosphere

advertising board made to write
beer table made to sit
beer table made to store
beer table made to climb
and 8 more

3 in the matrix

Bauhaus Talkshop Museum

2020 · Cultural

airco part made to sit
cargo air bag made to sit
plastic pallet made to work

2 in the matrix

shrink wrap made to sleep
trailer made to move

14 in the matrix

Milgro Head Office

2015 · Commercial

bamboo made to shelter
car outer tire made to store
cargo blanket made to move
fish crate made to store
and 10 more

1 in the matrix

Newman Festival Lithuania

2015 · Cultural

plastic pallet made to enclose

1 in the matrix

2014 · Cultural

jerrycan made to work

1 in the matrix

2014 · Commercial

hubcap made to illuminate

2 in the matrix

2014 · Cultural

fence made to shelter
shipping container made to enclose

1 in the matrix

silo made to shelter

1 in the matrix

2012 · Cultural

IBC bladder made to grow

1 in the matrix

2008 · Commercial

IBC bladder made to illuminate

6 in the matrix

2007 - 2010 · Cultural

600 liter bin made to move
car outer tire made to move
car outer tire made to sit
car outer tire made to sit
and 2 more

1 in the matrix

advertising board made to illuminate

1 in the matrix

Wasteshow Haarlem

2006 · Cultural

600 liter bin made to move

2 in the matrix

car outer tire made to sit
car outer tire made to shelter

1 in the matrix

2005 · Cultural

car outer tire made to illuminate

1 in the matrix

folding chair made to sit

Not in the matrix — 46 projects

These were built, photographed and written up on refunc.nl, but nothing from them has ever been recorded as a material × verb. That is not absent work — it is unrecorded work, and it is the largest single thing missing from the periodic system.

Scaffold Interior for Camper For a private client we designed and built a camper interior using scaffolding parts, new and used. The unit transforms b…

Dutch Culture Table

2025 · Cultural

Dutch Culture Table The Dutch Culture Organization toured Maakhaven studios. Catering by Haagse Hapjes. Refunc provided the infrastructure. 25 meters …

Textile Shelter Den Haag, 2025 Commissioned by the Municipality of The Hague’s Housing Department, presented at Museon museum. Designed to be mobile a…

*The Book of Refunc

2024 · Learning

The Book of Refunc Finally after years we are heading together with the wonderfull designers of Collective Works towards our first Book…….for more inf…

Pavillion Bench Pavillion

Pavillion Bench Heeswijkplein: child-dense neighborhood with limited public space. Small apartments with balconies generate need for meeting places, s…

2023 · Commercial

Compliance Car Electric Fiat 500 + 1100L waste container Every product eventually asks the same question: what happens to me when I’m done? The …

2020 · Biosphere

MILGRO RDM OFFICE 900 m2 loft floor, former RDM wharf Rotterdam. Office interior for Milgro B.V. 215 scaffolding tubes, 312 couplings, 4 railings, 5 l…

Observation Silo

Observation Silo An agricultural silo, cut and positioned just outside the forest edge where the heath begins but remains invisible. The intervention …

Hortus Hermitage

The Hortus Hermitage A self-sustaining retreat for two occupants, situated within the botanical gardens of Haren, adjacent to Groningen, the Netherlan…

MakeCity Berlin

2018 · Cultural

MakeCity Berlin For MakeCity Berlin, Refunc developed an exhibition system from discarded schoolboards, collaborating with Superuse Studios and Buro S…

Interior Intervention Invited by Cesare Peeren from Superuse Studios, Refunc collaborated with four international teams transforming a lakeside villa&…

Workshop Apolda

2018 · Biosphere

Apolda Workshop – Timber Connection Experiments Design students investigate multiple joinery methodologies through parallel explorations. The pr…

2017 · Cultural

Tiny Tea House A silo becomes a vertical meeting structure for 10 people within 3 square meters. The cylindrical form determines the program: mobile t…

2017 · Cultural

Workshop Cairo University Refunc conducted a student workshop at Cairo University examining material reuse through pallets and car tires. Participants…

2017 · Cultural

PARASITE For Construct Lab’s guest studio at Berlin’s ZKU—a former train station—Refunc designed and built the facade using locally harves…

2017 · Biosphere

Rabobank Maarsen The assignment: design and build a new bank interior. The constraint: use only materials harvested from a decommissioned bank elsewhe…

2016 · Cultural

Aquapolis Aquapolis 900 large-format PET water bottles (18-20L industrial containers) transformed into architecture in 4 days. X-shaped components con…

2016 · Cultural

Audiopolis Invited by TodaysArt, Refunc encountered thousands of forgotten audio cassettes in Kuwait. Rather than prescribing their new function, we d…

2016 · Cultural

Brike Terni, a post-WW2 reconstruction city in central Italy, was rebuilt entirely for the automobile. No bicycle infrastructure exists, except for on…

HKW Campus Berlin

2016 · Commercial

HKW Berlin Modular Wall System For the Anthropocene conference at HKW Berlin, stage practicals were function-shifted into vertical dividers to create …

Spuiplein Den Haag

2016 · Cultural

Modular Plaza System Agricultural drainage blocks, designed for semi-permeable farm roads where plants penetrate and water infiltrates—reveal unexpect…

2015 · Cultural

Chicken Wrap For the opening of St. Lucas’ new building in Eindhoven during Dutch Design Week, the school commissioned Refunc to realize a monum…

2015 · Cultural

Pixel Palace, Astana Public Art Festival One-way shipping pallets. Black plastic squares, 110x110cm, designed for a single journey. Poor quality, inte…

Shrinkwrap hotel

Shrinkwrap Hotel IBC tank steel frameworks transformed into minimal sleeping modules. The galvanized cage structure, originally protecting 1000-liter …

2013 · Cultural

General Dynamics – St. Petersburg, Russia Working within New Holland Island’s historic shipyard transformation in St. Petersburg, Refunc explore…

Socialny Kollaider

2013 · Biosphere

Socialny Kollaider (Social Collider) Summer in Siberia provides optimal construction conditions. Refunc utilized surplus pallets as primary structural…

Brave New Onion

2012 · Biosphere

Forgotten Foundation In public space, infrastructure persists beyond its original purpose. In this Polish park, a solitary metal pole, remnant of a di…

2012 · Cultural

Manifesta 9 Just when we thought we’d never work with IBCs again… Commissioned to design a bar, shop, library, wardrobe and public entry s…

2011 · Cultural

Banner Facade Poland’s commercial advertising infrastructure generates continuous flows of post-consumer promotional textiles, large-format bann…

2009 · Cultural

Containosaurus The Containosaurus stands as a vertical landmark across Lowlands’ flat terrain, four decommissioned 1-ton wind turbine blades sta…

2009 · Cultural

SHIPYARD Opening – Urban Activation For the opening of a former shipyard as urban development site, Refunc stages a large-scale material perform…

Final Tank Pro: Material Memory as Camp Ecosystem After years of IBC research, you reach the point where you’ve done almost everything with the …

2009 · Cultural

Recropolis (Lowlands Festival) 200 IBC containers arranged as illuminated letters spelling D-U-R-S-T. Strobe starters fitted to D and U create blinkin…

Retank Lowlands

Retank Lowlands What has since become a mainstream product—the IBC tank with built-in light, was realized on this monumental scale at Lowlands festiva…

Crashed Car Monument, Vilnius Crashed vehicles from alcohol-related accidents were arranged into a temporary monument before the Lithuanian Parliament…

2007 · Commercial

Mobile Workshop (Lithuania) A shipping container retrofitted with five washing machine windows served as mobile research station on the local market. …

Return of the Fridges

2007 · Cultural

Saldytuvų Siena “What is it?” asked the highway inspector. “It’s art,” said the director of the fridge recycling company…

Oxfam Restaurant – Lowlands A temporary outdoor restaurant where mooring pole residue becomes dining furniture. Tables are constructed from massive wo…

2005 · Commercial

Wormshop Interior: Pneumatic Sonic Infrastructure A monostream of discarded tires, car, tractor, truck, industrial, transforms into furniture that is …

2004 · Technosphere

Capsule Hotel Two Brucker offshore survival capsules shift from ocean emergency to amphibious hospitality. Archigram’s dream of nomadic pod arch…

MRS Space Station

Miele Space Station Developed in partnership with 2012 Architecten (now Superuse Studios Rotterdam), this modular mobile architecture unit emerged for…

.Refunc Periodic System

The Periodic System as Design Tool Refunc’s Periodic System inverts the design portfolio: instead of showcasing finished projects, it creates a …

Design for Succesion

Design for Succession Every manufactured object contains latent functions through standardized dimensions, engineered durability, and modular assembly…

Genius Loci Workshop The Genius Loci workshop explores how site-specific architectural elements and vernacular construction techniques can be studied …

Our dedicated website for silo projects  …

Workshop Lissabon

Caldas da Rainha In 2008, Refunc conducted a one-day material transformation workshop with students at Caldas da Rainha School of Arts and Design. Dis…