Turning waste into building blocks of the future city + Critical Reflection

Turning waste into building blocks of the future city 

Review of Article from BBC Building Tomorrow written by Mitchell Joachim, 28 May 2013.

(Resource: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130524-creating-our-cities-from-waste)


SUMMARY

Today the consequences of the post-industrial city have had an incredible impact on the environment. It is widely accepted cities impinge on areas well beyond their borders. Waste streams in cities are the leading factor in pollution of the areas outside their geo-political boundaries.

Now is the time to design waste to regenerate our cities. What are the possibilities for urban environments after our aged infrastructure is recalibrated? How might bigger cities and waste mix? One key idea is that waste is not recycled through infrastructural mechanisms but instead up-cycled in perpetuity.

Super-sized waste

The first credible step is to reduce trash by considering the life cycle of objects we make. Things that are designed for obsolescence should be outlawed. Additionally, products must be manufactured with the intent to reuse, disassemble, take back or upcycle.  For instance, instead of tossing out bottles we could adapt them for use as planters, lighting fixtures, building wall elements.

‘Smart trash’

The envisioned city would be derived from trash; not ordinary trash, but ‘smart refuse’. A significant factor of the city composed from smart refuse is ‘post-tuning’ – and we would have to adapt this raw material for use. Integration into the city texture would be a learning process. In time, the responses would eventually become more attuned to the needs of the urban dweller. This new city may be built from trash, but it will also be connected via computers. The buildings blocks will learn.

(extracted from the original article) 

CRITICAL REFLECTION

This article suggests a new way of thinking the direct application of cradle-to-cradle approach in the built environment. It is hard to deny rapid development of industrial/commercial process has brought convenience to our life and increased the living standard. However at the same time it has blindfolded the result of a waste impact on environment for a long time which is quite astounding. The idea of smart trash is not only considering the reuse of the product to reduce the waste but also to dig out the potential of it and contribute further on diverse industries. As an architect's point of view this suggests a new challenge of technology and design approach. There is an issue left to be considered before the actual application of this idea. The actual demand of the product in market and a way to promote it. Of course ethically it is recommended to use eco-friendly items which would reduce impact to the environment but in my opinion it is hard to appeal in a direction focusing too much on its making process. To overcome the prejudice of re-used material is less attractive aesthetically or being a low quality, designers need to experiment integrating the 'old' material into 'new' city and suggest as a part of new concept for next generation. Good example of this is a growing trend of using industrial style in interior design.

This style of interior design discovers the beauty from its focus on manufacturing process and appreciation of the raw and unfinished materiality. Recent years it became part of the vintage trend. Lots of products produced under this style re-uses old bottles, lamps, woods, metal to express its quality. This is very effective effort to increase the demand in the market giving a new image of eco-friendly consumption.

Past is irretrievable but we can learn to avoid another fatal mistake. Giving new image of being eco-friendly can also be aesthetically appealing can lead a new direction to the public and passively change their act at the same time.