ABOUT

This house is based on tires and other upcycled solid wastes such as washing machine parts turned into chandliers.

You can find a sofa, a bed, a sink made out of tires, even flooring.

Look closely - you can see this chair was once a completely different object.
Watching TV in his downtown apartment, Ibrahim Abougendy sits surrounded by his own hand-crafted furniture.
Three years ago, the 27-year-old architect launched his own interior design line, Mobikya, with the intention of reducing human dependency of wood-based furniture.
But his main aim is to protect the environment from toxic vapours given off from burning disused tyres - so these became his main material.
"We are trying to offer an environmentally friendly alternative to whatever furniture you need, whether at home, at your office or at a coffee shop," explains Abougendy.
He started out making poufs. But over the last three years Abougendy has designed and delivered ten different types of product including couches, beds, tables, chairs, desks, dressers, cabins and sound systems.
So far Abougendy has upcycled 1,000 tyres and says his project turns them into products of higher economic value without producing any pollutants.
"To recycle a rubber-based tyre and bring it back to its initial components, I have to melt it and hence it emanates cancerous vapours," he says.
"We look for the smartest ways to cut tyres with minimal industrial intervention in order to have it serve users and offer them a better experience. In the meantime, the tyre does not get much processed, hence, it does not produce any vapours."
He adds that it's time we all thought about relinquishing conventional furniture to help save our forests.
"We will end up with no trees and these trees are in charge of renewing oxygen and taking away the carbon dioxide," he says.

Abougendy started off his company with the equivalent of 5,000 US Dollars - an amount he says was needed to finance a trip to Europe.
His price list for local sales ranges from 170 to 830 US dollars, and 1,000 to 3,000 US dollars for international sales.
"Our customers are people who want to buy something different," he says.