Archinect - News

Construction is feeding a global sand crisis, says new study

2021-07-02T13:13:00-04:00

A new scientific paper has warned of the looming environmental and social consequences of the world’s appetite for sand. The study, headed by Aurora Torres at Michigan State University’s fisheries and wildlife school, notes that the global demand for sand and gravel is set to double by 2060, driven by the construction and expansion of cities and infrastructure.

The study, published in the journal One Earth, notes that “sand, gravel, and crushed rock, together referred to as construction aggregates, are the [world’s] most extracted solid materials. Growing demand is damaging ecosystems, triggering social conflicts, and fueling concerns over sand scarcity. Balancing protection efforts and extraction to meet society's needs requires designing sustainable pathways at a system level.”

In total, around 50 billion tons of sand, gravel, and crushed rock are used by humankind each year. As a key ingredient in the production of concrete and glass, sand plays an important role in the constr...

BIG imagines a future for metal production on land and sea

2021-05-18T12:18:00-04:00

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has unveiled their design for the future of metal production, combining land and sea-based elements. Collaborating with The Metals Company, a developer of lower-impact battery metals from seafloor rocks, BIG sought to bring innovative, sustainable, whole-system design processes to critical battery metals. The resulting suite of BIG’s designs includes seafloor mineral collector robots, carbon-neutral vessels, and waste-free metals processing and recycling plants to enable a circular supply chain.

Aerial of system. Image: Bjarke Ingels Group

The Metals Company’s production process centers on polymetallic nodules — fist-sized rocks containing battery-grade nickel, cobalt, copper, and manganese found on the ocean floor. BIG’s brief called for an integrated suite of assets that work together to lift nodules off the seafloor and up to a purpose-built production vessel, before transferring them to a hydrodynamic shuttle carrier, and onward to a land-based plant. Th...

Can "phytomining" help meet humanity's need for metals with less environmental destruction?

2020-03-02T15:30:00-05:00

On a plot of land rented from a rural village on the Malaysian side of the island of Borneo, the group has proved it at small scale. Every six to 12 months, a farmer shaves off one foot of growth from these nickel-hyper-accumulating plants and either burns or squeezes the metal out. After a short purification, farmers could hold in their hands roughly 500 pounds of nickel citrate, potentially worth thousands of dollars on international markets.

A thought-provoking report from Ian Morse of The New York Times highlights a burgeoning approach for harvesting necessary (and toxic) metals like nickel from soil through "hyper-accumulating" plants.

Morse checks in researchers from the University of Melbourne who are farming nickel-rich soils in Borneo using metal-absorbing plants that eat up the substance. Nickel is a key ingredient in a variety of electronic products and in building materials like stainless steel. The approach can extract metals from the soil directly with minimal processing and can potentially be used to clean up abandoned mining sites, as well.

Subterranean theme park: photographer Richard John Seymour captures the new life inside an ancient Transylvanian salt mine

2016-01-18T15:11:00-05:00

Deep in the Transylvanian countryside lies an ancient salt mine dating back over two millennia. Today Salina Turda has become an unlikely tourist attraction, with thousands of visitors descending its vertical shafts each year to play mini-golf, go bowling and row around its underground lake. [...] British photographer Richard John Seymour recently travelled to Salina Turda in his quest to document human-altered landscapes.

Forget it, Jake, it's Antarctica: nations jostle to establish influence at the world's end

2015-12-30T12:48:00-05:00

More than a century has passed since explorers raced to plant their flags at the bottom of the world, and for decades to come this continent is supposed to be protected as a scientific preserve, shielded from intrusions like military activities and mining. But an array of countries are rushing to assert greater influence here, with an eye not just toward the day those protective treaties expire, but also for the strategic and commercial opportunities that exist right now.

Water, oil, krill: Antarctica isn't just an ice-locked science station any longer, but a giant potential resource center hotly pursued by several strategic-thinking nations. Is the pursuit of scientific inquiry being stripped away in favor of the extraction of raw materials? Um, it would appear so, at least according to this New York Times article which predicts changes in the Europe-plus-sized continent's status: "The treaty banning mining here, shielding coveted reserves of iron ore, coal and chromium, is expected to come up for review by 2048 and could be challenged before then."

Britain's last deep-pit coal mine closes — the end of the industrial revolution?

2015-12-18T12:25:00-05:00

The last deep-pit coal mine in the U.K. plans to shut its doors here next week, heralding the end of a centuries-old industry that helped fuel the industrial revolution and build the British Empire. The shutdown [...] represents a victory for advocates of reducing carbon emissions after world leaders gathered in Paris to discuss how to combat global warming, with coal in the cross hairs. It also reflects a glut of energy on world markets, from crude oil to natural gas and coal itself.

As mining threatens Kiruna, the city plans for possible demolition and relocation two miles east

2015-08-03T19:57:00-04:00

In a highly unusual case of urbanism, the whole town centre and its surrounding neighbourhoods are to be demolished...The 3,050 homes that would be affected by the impact of the mining – in addition to shops, offices, schools, the city hall and the hospital – will all be bought by [the LKAB mining company], knocked down and relocated. The process of moving the city will happen in phases, with the majority estimated to be completed by 2040.

Rapid mining activity in Kiruna is already posing a serious threat to the city, to the point that the mining company LKAB plans to relocate the entire municipality two miles eastward to prevent buildings from collapsing into the mine. The Guardian gives an overview on how locals are reacting to the relocation proposal, and how those two miles could completely change everything.

Chinese coal mining company destroys nearly every building in protected village dating back to Ming dynasty

2015-02-26T14:37:00-05:00

The Chinese government has promised to protect a rural mountain village that contains some of the country’s oldest temples and residences. [...] Despite designating Banpo as a protected heritage site in 2007, the Jincheng city government nonetheless allowed the Shanxi Jincheng Anthracite Mining Group to displace the village later that year. [...] Nearly every building was destroyed and those that remained were left in ruins.

“Corporations are people, my friend.”

Winners of Transiting Cities - Low Carbon Futures Competition

2013-01-21T14:42:00-05:00

A few days ago, we published one of the finalist entries of the international design ideas competition, Transiting Cities - Low Carbon Futures. The competition was open [...] to develop innovative visions for Latrobe City, in eastern Victoria, Australia to make the transition from a singular economy dominated by the power industry (coal mining and electricity generation) into a diversified economy and prosperous low carbon regional city.

Urban mining-the future

2011-06-15T20:32:23-04:00

The demand for special metals used in the manufacture of electronics is booming, but a few countries control much of the world's supply. Germany is looking to reduce its reliance on imports by exploiting the metal that is thrown away in trash. Urban mining could become big business.