Equipped for change: Furnishing comfort, reducing waste

When faced with the task of furnishing the empty space in her research lab, uOttawa linguistics professor Tania Zamuner turned to the university’s Furniture Reuse Program, which transplants gently used office furnishings from one part of campus to another.

Photo by Tania Zamuner

Program coordinator Alex Forest gave Prof. Zamuner a tour of the warehouse, and was able to connect her with a set of desks, hutches and chairs that are in mint condition. You’d never know they weren’t brand new, and now Prof. Zamuner’s graduate and undergraduate students have a comfortable and functional space to work.

“I'm very pleased with the results,” says Prof. Zamuner. “Since adding the furniture, the lab is constantly full with students and my research is moving forward because there is a common area from which students are working and collaborating.”

Moreover, the furniture was provided for free, saving Prof. Zamuner and the Centre for Child Language Research approximately $10,712.03 — allowing for reallocation of those funds toward other priorities, such as the important work being done in the lab, as opposed improving the lab itself.


“I found the coordinator of the program (Alex Forest) extremely helpful,” says Prof. Zamuner. “In addition, the people that installed the furniture made an extra effort to ensure that I was able to get matching overheads for the desks. I believe their names were Chris and Jeff.”

Anyone interested in obtaining furniture from the Furniture Reuse Program can contact coordinator Alex Forest via email at aforest@uottawa.ca or by phone at extension 6597. Or check out our webpage which has a copy of the annual report..

~ celeste - communications coordinator
photo credit - jonathan rausseo