Piles of discarded metal, rubber, wood, and plastic greet workers and visitors alike to Asmara’s Medeber market. Here, scrap material is repurposed by welders and craftspeople to make new kitchen appliances, furniture, bicycles, household utensils, and more in Eritrea’s capital city. The open-air workshop was used as a caravan trade post in pre-colonial days, until Italian architect Odoardo Cavagnari redesigned the city of Asmara in the early 1900s, about three decades after Italy occupied and colonized Eritrea. From the very beginning, Medeber market was an upcycler’s dream of scrap metal…
