DLR Artifacts : Beautifully crafted ‘green’ furniture

Crafting is his passion but not just any type of crafting. Yannick Delaire creates new and contemporary furniture using recycled materials. The young entrepreneur who opened DLR Artifacts gives new life to old and used objects.

We may consider some used materials as garbage but he perceives them as usable pieces that can transform into new furniture items. Passionate of artisanal work, Yannick Delaire launched DLR Artifacts which manufactures different types of furniture using recycled products. The young entrepreneur also offers customers the opportunity to have their own custom-made furniture using their own used objects.

But how did that ecological mindset developed in the young entrepreneur? Aged 29, Yannick explains that he was influenced by his grandfather who was a contractor. “Since I was a teenager, I would often help my uncle, who was an electrician, during my school holidays and do various manual works for the neighbours for pocket money. At the same time, my passion for artisanal work grew while I was in secondary school. We had one of the best workshops on the island and I just loved being there. I have always been passionate about creating objects with my hands and this is what made me choose this route; doing what I love doing,” he tells us.

After his Higher School Certificate studies, Yannick joined a shipping company where he worked for four years. He then moved to South Africa to complete a BSc in Construction Studies and a BSc (Honours) in Quantity Surveying at the University of Cape Town. Back to Mauritius in 2014, Yannick started to relive his passion. “I started remodeling and fixing things around my parents’ house. And to minimise the costs, I would always use the materials available around. My parents and girlfriend started speaking about it and we thought that this is a service that could be provided on a larger scale. This is when I decided to launch the ‘DLR Artifacts’ project.”

Yannick says that he is simply driven by his liking to get the best out of everything. “The recycling of our waste is not up to par as there is much that can be done with what most of us consider as garbage. When driving around the island, I always find machines, furniture, among others, that have been thrown away. For example, we see a lot of used washing machines lying at street corners. In most of the cases, the motors are in perfect condition and can be used on another machine. This made me think about the re-use and recycling of products that could be put to better use instead of them ending in a landfill,” he explains.

DLR Artifacts aims to find a new purpose for old furniture, scrapped materials, machines or anything that they can work with to make a product fit a purpose. “Customers can present us with what they have and what they would like us to do with their objects/materials. We will then offer a tailor-made product with the look and finish that they wish. This also means that the timber for example can be re-sawn and made to look like new timber to manufacture a piece of furniture.”

But how is the creation and work done with the recycled materials? Yannick explains that once a product has been commissioned, concept drawings are made to give the customer a better sense of what the final product will look like. “Then comes the materials selection, some customers prefer the rough look of seasoned wood and others prefer a cleaner finish. In either case, we either use the material that we have collected around the island and stored or we buy the scraps from demolition companies and wood workshops. We then proceed with the build-up and later the delivery of the product,” explains the entrepreneur.
Through his work, Yannick hopes to sensitise people on the importance of recycling. “At DLR Artifacts we have several purposes namely the creation of beautiful, useful pieces, greener manufacturing processes and material sourcing. And by using this, people will hopefully start putting more thought into how the things they are throwing away could be re-used,” he says. He trusts that recycling is the future. “Our resources are limited, especially for an island like Mauritius. We do not produce many raw materials for the manufacturing and construction industry and in my opinion, recycling is the only way forward. We need to reduce our ecological footprint as our environment is taking a toll and we are leaving less and less of the world for the future generations to live on.”

Yannick is proud to say that he has received lots of encouragement and many positive feedbacks since he started creating green products.” A lot of people have been surprised that the products are made of recycled materials as the timber used on some pieces were stripped down and cleaned to look like new timber,” he states. The young entrepreneur has various projects in mind. “I have several concepts in mind but the main one that I would like to launch one day is the creation of a “Makers’ Hub”. It will be a space/workshop where we will offer access to the members of the Makers’ Hub to tools, equipment and machinery for the creation of their own products. It will also be a learning space for the community. If someone is willing to learn how to use a specific machine, how to do basic woodworking, metal working, simple electric troubleshoot or how to repair a broken fan, this will be the place to meet other minds to solve problems and share knowledge.”