Archinect - News

New York's Center for Zero Waste Design is hiring a project manager to shape sustainable waste strategies

2023-08-09T14:24:00-04:00

Following our previous look at an opening for a Public Interest Design (PID) Fellowship at the University of Detroit Mercy, Detroit Collaborative Design Center, we are using this week’s edition of our Job Highlights series to explore an opportunity on Archinect Jobs for a Project Manager at the Center for Zero Waste Design.

The role, based in Brooklyn, New York, calls for an individual with architectural experience who will split their team between the center and consultancy ThinkWoven. Responsibilities will include managing consulting projects, developing waste strategies, and researching the context of waste management in different cities.

Related on Archinect: Testbeds is giving discarded architectural mock-ups new life in New York's community gardens. Image courtesy: Testbeds.

Why the role interests us

The open role at the Center for Zero Waste Design offers us the opportunity to explore the work and background of an organization dedicated to sharing knowledge on zero-waste strat...

From dirty diapers to clean concrete to affordable housing

2023-06-14T18:55:00-04:00

In a novel approach to sustainable construction, a team of researchers led by Siswanti Zuraida, Bart Dewancker from Kitakyushu University in Japan, and Romi Bramantyo Margono, have pioneered a method to utilize non-degradable waste, notably disposable diapers, as composite materials for building low-cost housing. This compelling study is attracting substantial interest within the architectural community, providing an enticing alternative to traditional building materials, which can account for up to 80% of a dwelling's overall worth.

The research centered on the potential of disposable diaper waste in the construction of affordable housing, adhering to Indonesian building standards. The results showcased that disposable diaper waste could make up to 10% of structural components and 40% of nonstructural and architectural components in a housing unit. A prototype housing structure demonstrated that approximately 1.73 m^3 of disposable diaper waste could be repurposed for a housing are...

Green construction startup Nexii achieves zero-waste certification with Squamish Manufacturing Plant

2023-03-31T13:21:00-04:00

Nexii Building Solutions Inc. has become the first construction manufacturing company in North America to achieve the Total Resource Use and Efficiency (TRUE) Gold Certification for Zero Waste for its Squamish Manufacturing Plant in British Columbia, Canada.

Administered by Green Business Certification Inc., the TRUE Certification for Zero Waste evaluates a company’s waste reduction efforts, including the use of extensive recycling and composting programs, materials used, and the diversion of waste from landfills.

Previously on Archinect: Startup raises $155 million to become ‘rising star’ in prefabricated construction

As stated in a press release, Nexii was able to significantly reduce waste produced by its plant by diverting over 90 percent of waste from landfills. The company also reached this milestone by developing business and education resources for all of its staff and creating a zero-waste purchasing policy.

"We're extremely proud to have achieved the Zero Waste certificat...

Testbeds is giving discarded architectural mock-ups new life in New York's community gardens

2022-12-08T12:13:00-05:00

A new project from New York-based duo New Affiliates is making headlines in the Queens neighborhood of Edgemere, where architects Ivi Diamantopoulou and Jaffer Kolb have invented a radical new way of reusing one of the design processes’ most wasteful customs – discarded architectural mock-ups.

With the help of Columbia GSAPP doctoral candidate Samuel Stewart-Halevy, the pair have begun a pilot program called Testbeds that takes the temporary structures and repurposes them as toolsheds for community gardens around the city.

Previously on Archinect: The Founders of NY-based New Affiliates Discuss How Their Love for Arguing Betters Their Work

Beginning with the generally underserved neighborhood located on the Rockaway peninsula, Testbeds has been experimenting with a new way of adapting the notion of a “circular economy” into the built environment. The program got off the ground in 2018 with the blessing of officials from the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation's GreenThumb program, u...

Researchers have found ways to use mushrooms to decarbonize construction waste

2022-10-21T14:59:00-04:00

Megadeveloper Lendlease is one of the entities behind a new study into the use of mushrooms as a means of decarbonizing construction waste through their application on discarded asphalt roofing shingles.

The company teamed with Rubicon Technologies, Mycocycle, and Rockwood Sustainable Solutions to complete a pilot project at the latter’s facility in Lebanon, Tennessee.

Image courtesy Mycocycle

Shingles removed from a total of 214 homes following a recent re-roofing project at the U.S. Army’s Fort Campbell installation in nearby Kentucky were then broken down thanks to an infused mix of three different strains of fungi in a process called mycoremediation.

"Every asphalt shingle from those 214 homes would have gone to a landfill," Sara Neff, Head of Sustainability at Lendlease Americas, said of the 11 to 13 million tons of the product the EPA estimates winds up in landfills annually.

Image courtesy Mycocycle

"There was simply no viable use for them," she continued. "We understand the i...

Facade of new Manhattan residential building comprised of bricks made from waste materials

2022-05-05T17:54:00-04:00

Let’s play Spot The Difference, urban edition. You’re on West 47th Street in Hell’s Kitchen, a Manhattan neighborhood known for its industrial vibe. Like much of the area, the street is lined with brick buildings; despite some color variations, the facades mostly look the same. There is, however, one striking difference.

The difference lies within the gray brick facade of The West, a new residential building that is made up of nearly 580,000 pounds of demolition and industrial waste.

The architects, Dutch firm Concrete, teamed up with Amsterdam-based company StoneCycling to use their recycled bricks patented under the name WasteBasedBricks. This is the first time the companies have worked together and the first time the bricks have been used in the United States.

StoneCycling works to reduce waste streams in the construction industry through sustainable materials while also meeting the aesthetic requirements of designers. The bricks are made of at least 60% waste from sources including ceramic toilet bowls, roof tiles, and steel. In fact, the waste streams themselves, determine the hues and textures of the bricks, with tones ranging from Pistachio to Radish.

For The West, Concrete chose the Truffle WasteBasedBrick for the sake of blending the building with its industrial surroundings. The archit...

Deconstruction of building made of alternative concrete resulted in just two buckets of waste

2022-03-30T17:07:00-04:00

Two buckets. That’s all that was left at the end of the day when Nexii, a concrete alternative start-up, tore down one of its first demonstration projects. A 700-square-foot showroom and model home displaying Nexii’s building technology was constructed in 2019 near Vancouver to prove the buildability of the new material, which has far lower emissions than conventional concrete.

Combining their sturdy panel-based construction system with their concrete alternative, Nexiite, which produces about 35% lower carbon emissions than conventional concrete, Nexii was able to deconstruct the showroom in six days, saving almost every part of the building for future reconstruction. In contrast to conventional concrete, Nexiite doesn’t use Portland cement, which is a major source of emissions worldwide. The company’s building panels are designed to be continuously reused, with assembly simply requiring craning the pieces onto a foundation and bolting them together.

The waste produced from the showroom’s disassembly consisted only of the sealant used to connect the panels, small sections of weatherproofing, “a couple of screws,” and some waste generated by the people on-site, such as lunch waste. The building will be reassembled next...

Developer Fabrix employs urban mining to cut carbon footprint in its projects

2022-02-01T17:46:00-05:00

When old office blocks are demolished, their steel frames are typically smelted down to be recycled, emitting thousands of tonnes of carbon in the process. But at One Broadgate, the steel beams that once framed the London headquarters of inter-dealer broker TP Icap Plc will instead be salvaged from the site and recycled by developer Fabrix. Chief Executive Officer Clive Nichol says the example proves it’s possible to “apply the circular economy to structural elements of buildings.”

Fabrix has purchased 139 tons of steel from the contractor behind the demolition of One Broadgate and plans to use it on other projects in London. The process, known as urban mining, recovers and resells raw materials from waste products.

As reported by Bloomberg Green, engineering consultant AKT II estimates that reused steel could reduce the carbon impact of a building by up to 80%. The U.K. is attempting to encourage this practice, in which construction materials with large carbon footprints would be resold through a marketplace. This move comes at a time of ballooned steel prices in the U.K.

Cocoon-shaped lamp made from plastic bags wins Pratt Institute School of Design 2020 Material Lab Prize

2020-08-26T20:00:00-04:00

The inaugural Material Lab Prize is an initiative that aims to foster the study of materials and material reuse. A $1k grant is given to the student that best exemplifies innovative ways to reuse and redesign waste. According to Pratt, "the prize seeks to celebrate and exhibit student work that re-envisions the design process and considers waste streams as a springboard for new design thinking."

"Cocoon" by Sophia Yimeng Sun. Image courtesy of Pratt Institute's Material Lab

This year's grand prize winner was awarded to Sophia Yimeng Sun (MID ’21) and her project "Cocoon." Sun used HDPE plastic bags to create pleated lampshades. She shares with Material Lab that the project, "reuses waste plastic bags, and provokes minds to contemplate how we deal with waste. I named this project COCOON, not only because it visually compliments a cocoon, but also the project is an homage to 'rebirth.'"

(L) "Homeware Using N...

The artful repurposing of industrial wastelands

2019-05-22T14:31:00-04:00

What should we do with industrial sites after they have fulfilled their original purpose? Considering the fact that so many of the now disused sites are so close to city centers, the answer to this question can determine the quality of city life for many places around the world.

Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord. Photographer unknown.

In Germany, the answer has frequently been to artfully transform these sites into places of public use. Take Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord, a former coal and steel production plant that ceased operations in 1985 and was reopened in 2002 as a public park. According to its designers, Latz+Partner, the intention of Duisburg Nord was "to integrate, shape, develop and interlink the existing patterns that were formed by its previous industrial use, and to find a new interpretation with a new syntax. The existing fragments were to be interlaced into a new “landscape”.

Stairway to Heaven, by sculptor Herman Prigann. Photographer unknown.

In Gelsenkirchen, the Herman...

Print Your City launches its first Zero Waste Lab in Greece

2019-01-17T15:18:00-05:00

Since 2016, the Rotterdam-based research and design studio The New Raw has been experimenting with using plastic waste to create public furniture. Through the 'Print Your City' project—which just launched its first Zero Waste Lab in Thessaloniki, Greece—the firm turns public waste into raw material that is then 3D printed into benches and other street furniture meant to enrich a place.

Zero Waste Lab. Photo by Stefanos Tsakiris.

Equipped with a robotic arm and recycling facilities, residents can bring their plastic waste and design custom urban furniture, shaping the designs and uses of each unique object according to their needs. Residents can pick out the shape and the color for their piece as well as things like which public space to place it in or whether or not it might feature a bike rack or a tree pot.

After settling on a design, Print Your City provides information on the quantity of plastic that will need recycling in order to generate enough raw material. Their initial pro...

Startup Pod(o) proposes a tiny-architecture solution to the festival industry's waste problem

2018-11-13T22:17:00-05:00

With the increase in festival events and attendance, one company strives to fix the waste problem these highly attended festivals make. Based in Christchurch, Dorset, Above All C6(n) is a sustainable technology company that is using recycled plastic water bottles to create sustainable alternatives to tents found at festivals. Pod(o) is an accommodation unit that is reusable, stackable, and lockable. It is capable of incorporating solar-power components, an eco water supply, as well as its own bio toilet. Currently holding a capacity of 2 person(s), the team at Above All C6(n) is working on a pod that can accommodate more people.

Pod(o) Image © Deep South Media

At the core of its construction are single use plastic flakes that make up its MESR TECNIC (Modular, Extensible, Scalable and Reusable) building components. These lightweight structures are made to reduce the production of more plastic waste. Event organizers claim that many of the tents that are available for rent at festivals...

Researchers propose concrete mixed with plastic for India's rapid construction

2018-09-19T16:28:00-04:00

Researchers say India could alleviate its growing shortage of sand, which is needed for concrete, by partially replacing it with waste plastic. Research carried out by the University of Bath in the UK, and India’s Goa Engineering College, has found that concrete made with an admixture of ground-up plastic bottles is almost as strong as traditional concrete mixtures.

With India's rapid urbanization, concrete construction has dramatically increased causing a shortage in the country's sand used to make the building material. Mixing in plastic bottles focuses on solving both the issue of a sand shortage and the accumulation plastic waste on the streets. While the plastic added material is not as strong as concrete, it could still be used for lower tech functions such as paving slabs.

Trump family's NYC properties are embarrassing energy hogs

2017-04-04T12:43:00-04:00

Wasteful, inefficient, and pointlessly expensive to operate: most of Donald Trump's namesake properties, as well as his son-in-law Jared Kushner's new "666" edifice, are oozing energy by virtue of their poor design and indifference toward conservation. A report by the IBTimes noted that:

As of 2015, Trump Tower in midtown used more energy than 93 percent of large residential buildings in Manhattan, according to the report. Trump International Hotel and Tower used more energy than 70 percent of large hotels in the city, while Trump SoHo used more energy than 79 percent of large hotels in the city. The report also detailed Kushner’s office at 666 Fifth Avenue, which used more energy than 85 percent of large office buildings in Manhattan.

Tracing New York's waste management

2016-10-27T13:27:00-04:00

Each day, New York’s public garbage trucks collect nearly 7,000 tonnes of residential mixed solid waste. After finishing their routes, most of these trucks will deposit the garbage in one of New York’s waste transfer stations located throughout the city. From there, the garbage will eventually be loaded on to a barge or train and carried as far as 600 miles to its final stop. For most of New York’s mixed solid waste (about 80% of it by tonnage), this last stop will be a landfill.

"The remaining 20% will end up at a waste-to-energy plant, where it will be incinerated and converted into energy."

For more on the infrastructure of waste, follow these links:

This man is building an entire village from recycled plastic bottles

2016-09-16T14:37:00-04:00

"Humanity went through stone age, went through ice age, and today, going through plastic age. We need to find solution,” explains Robert Bezeau, the man intent on amending the global reach of plastic waste by building houses out of it. A transplant to Panama from Montreal, he has started building an entire village from discarded plastic bottles, placing them inside metal cages, and then stacking them into a simple house structure.

A recent scientific study estimates that currently, there are over 150 million tons of plastic waste in our oceans, and by 2050, that amount could outnumber fish. In places like Bocas del Toro, where Bezeau is building his plastic village, a rapid influx of new residents produced waste at a rate the city couldn't handle, resulting in an overflow of plastic garbage.

To cope with the issue, Bezea began gathering plastic bottles from locals and using them as building insulation. Check out The Atlantic's video below for his story.

Bezea isn't the only one buildin...

Shitting bricks: researchers experiment with making concrete from sewage

2016-07-13T13:52:00-04:00

Malaysia has too much sewage sludge and not enough concrete, a problem which naturally prompted an "aha!" moment among researchers. By burning and drying wet sewage sludge cake and then grinding and sieving the dry cake to produce Domestic Waste Sludge Powder (DWSP), the Malaysian researchers are attempting to create an additive that can be mixed with cement to produce concrete.

So far, they've found a mixture of between 3% to 15% DWSP in cement produces fairly strong concrete, although the higher percentage of DWSP, the less strong the concrete becomes. Variables abound: according to this report, higher incineration temperatures can produce better DWSP, and the more DWSP in the concrete, the higher the water absorption.

More waste-related news:

A cardboard and carbon-emission economy: the long-term effects of our desire for instant gratification

2016-02-16T14:00:00-05:00

A handful of scientists and policy makers are...grappling with the long-term environmental effect of an economy that runs increasingly on gotta-have-it-now gratification [...] The environmental cost can include the additional cardboard — 35.4 million tons of containerboard were produced in 2014 in the United States, with e-commerce companies among the fastest-growing users — and the emissions from increasingly personalized freight services.

As internet retailers compete to provide as-close-to-instant services to satiate our increasing desire for rapid gratification, our collective ecological footprint grows. The problem isn't just the cardboard boxes piling up on your doorstep, but also the carbon emissions required to get that Postmates or Amazon Prime delivery into your hands.

And according to experts (or at least those profiled by the Times), the responsibility lies equally with consumers as it does with the companies providing the services. In short, we need to "slow down consumption," states Robert Reed, spokesman for Recology, the main recycling processor in San Francisco.

For more on the ecological impact of our consumptive patterns, take a look at these links:

"We have probably hit peak stuff," says Ikea boss

2016-01-19T19:24:00-05:00

The appetite of western consumers for home furnishings has reached its peak – according to Ikea, the world’s largest furniture retailer. The Swedish company’s head of sustainability told a Guardian conference that consumption of many familiar goods was at its limit. “If we look on a global basis, in the west we have probably hit peak stuff. We talk about peak oil. I’d say we’ve hit peak red meat, peak sugar, peak stuff … peak home furnishings,” Steve Howard said [...]

Related:

Dump your old vector files in the Digital Junkyard to be recycled into real-world objects

2015-07-24T21:28:00-04:00

The Digital Junkyard is an experiment in virtual salvage. It is a repository of donated digital information that is used to generate real physical and spatial objects...This project is an embodiment of the growing collective intelligence that technology affords us; and an experiment in ideas about digital ecology. It also honours the time and energy that designers put into testing and making mistakes.

No, this isn't some snarky Craigslist ad. Recently launched by architecturally trained designer and artist Car Martin, the Digital Junkyard is a website with a mission to transform as much of your unwanted vector files into a new physical object or creative idea of sorts, in the real world. In addition to "dumping" their files, users can "salvage" and download donated files, and can eventually check out the resulting "artifacts" -- although that section of the site is yet to be filled.

The Digital Junkyard accepts a maximum of 250 MB and is mainly looking for vector files. More specifically:

Adobe (.ai .eps .pdf)
Autodesk (.dwg .rvt)
Mcneel/Rhino (.3dm .gh.ghx)
Sketchup (.skp)
GIS (.mxd & shapefile folders)
Other (.svg .dxf)

Screenshot via djunkyard.com

While the Digital Junkyard can be a practical outlet for architects and designers to clear up their digital workspaces, Martin's website has an introspective side to it that is greatly relevant at this point in our tightening relationship wit...

Transforming a garbage heap into a public park

2015-07-02T17:37:00-04:00

Since the capping and closure of Fresh Kills’ five mounds, this 2,200-acre expanse of wetlands, marshlands, dry lowlands, forests, and grasslands has evolved into an unusual combination of natural and engineered beauty.

Originally a patch of creeks and marshland on the western shore of Staten Island, the area now known as Fresh Kills became a major landfill for New York City in 1948, once Robert Moses bought the land for housing development. His plan was to solidify the marshland with waste for a few years, and then build. But construction never happened, and for the remainder of the 20th century, the area served as a 2,200-acre garbage heap (by comparison, Central Park covers 843 acres). People hated it, and in 2001 managed to get the city to close it down, and begin the process of transforming it back into its (more or less) former ecological state, to be used as a public park known as Freshkills.

Learn more about Freshkills' storied past:

Tracing how your litter ends up in the ocean

2015-04-03T17:55:00-04:00

Even on a dry day, tens of millions of gallons of dirty water dumps into the ocean through the region’s vast storm drain system. The 3,500-mile network was designed and built to empty streets of rainwater, but tons of litter also flow into the ocean through the intricate system of curbside drainages, underground channels, pumps and creeks. Stormwater pollution puts beach swimmers at risk, particularly after it rains. Marine animals and plants can also get sick or die

This is a really fascinating piece that attempts to trace how a cigarette butt flicked into a gutter in Bel Air could make its way across LA and end up in the ocean via Marina del Rey. Visualizations like this feel important because, while we may notice signs on the sides of the sidewalk saying that the gutter leads to the ocean, it's difficult for the individual to comprehend the complex way in which they participate in a problem like marine pollution.

For a more specifically architectural perspective on this issue, check out Architecture of the Anthropocene, Pt. 1.

Editor's Picks #381

2014-08-19T20:36:00-04:00

Nicholas Korody penned, Shitting Architecture: the dirty practice of waste removal. Therein drawing lessons; from Slavoj Zizek on the toilet and Timothy Morton (of Object-Oriented Ontology [OOO]) on sustainability as the preservation of the status quo, he argues that "Under the weight of the ecological crisis, the world has been flattened. There is no exit".

In response, Orhan Ayyüce offered up an image of the sublimely absurd, "I am always baffled by big houses that are marketed with +5.5 bathrooms (very common in wealthy neighborhoods) and so on. And of course these host extremely hi end living styles. It is kind of funny to think all these people do all day is shit and shit and shit everywhere in the house".

For the latest edition of Working out of the Box: Archinect featured Francis Tsai, of Francis Tsai Illustration and Concept Design, who received a Master's degree in 1993 from University of Texas in Austin.

Xenaxis "worked with Francis Tsai at Rockstar games and he was one of t...

Mini-robots may outcompete 3D printing in the evolution of construction

2014-06-19T14:59:00-04:00

A team of researchers from Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia are working on another solution: A swarm of tiny robots that could cover the construction site of the future, quickly and cheaply building greener buildings of any size. [...] "The robots can work simultaneously while performing different tasks, and having a fixed size they can create objects of virtually any scale, as far as material properties permit”

Check out the Minibuilders in action below:

Consider the dumpster...

2014-02-25T13:38:00-05:00

The long and varied history of waste and its removal in New York from the 18th century onwards is the subject of Elizabeth Royte’s 2005 book Garbage Land and of the Urban Omnibus City of Systems video she narrates. In the video, Royte describes how her research into where exactly her trash was going after she threw it out has led her to become a more ecological citizen, with “a systems view” of our interconnected processes of manufacturing, transportation, disposal and re-use.

Duke researchers design toilet that turns waste into drinking water

2013-07-26T20:20:00-04:00

It works like this: people empty their latrines into a sewage receptacle (currently, latrines are often emptied into rivers), the waste gets funneled through a series of tubes and is pressurized at extreme temperatures, and the byproduct is clean, possibly drinkable water. Deshusses describes the process as “a pressure cooker on steroids.”

Turning waste into building blocks of the future city

2013-07-12T12:32:00-04:00

What if the rubbish was refabricated to become real urban spaces or buildings? If it is plausible to adapt current machinery, how much material is available? At first sight, any sanitary landfill may be viewed as an ample supply of building materials. Heavy industrial technologies crush cars or to automatically sort out garbage are readily available. 3-D printing has exhausting capabilities if adjusted to larger scales.

150 stories - but no sewer connection

2012-12-30T11:09:00-05:00

'[R]emember that a place like Dubai really emerged in the last 50 years. It was a sleepy, you know, Bedouin town half a century ago. And what you do is when you bring in the world’s, you know, most sophisticated architects and engineers, you can literally build anything, including a building of 140 or 150 stories. But designing a municipal network of sewage treatment is in some ways more complex. - KATE ASCHER

Terry Gross recently interviewed Kate Ascher about her skyscraper book, and ended up discussing the common lack of sewage connections in Dubai - including the Burj Khalifa. So they end up using trucks to cart the sewage to the central treatment plant, where they often end up queuing for 24-hours or more before they can be emptied.

Gizmodo calculated:

'The Burj Khalifa has 163 habitable floors. It's designed to hold 35,000 people at any given time. Now, humans produce 100 to 250 grams (3 to 8 ounces) of feces per day. Let's say 200 in this case, since these people are well fed. That's 7,000,000 grams per day. Seven tonnes of poop per day. Now, add human-produced liquids (pee, bathing, cleaning their teeth...) and the water to push the poop down its miles of sewage pipes. I think a very conservative total would be 15 tonnes of sewage per day.

That's a lot of poop.'

Transforming Freshkills Park from Landfill to Landscape

2012-10-17T12:50:00-04:00

Corner’s plan identifies five main areas in Freshkills, each with distinct offerings, designed and programmed to maximize specific site opportunities and constraints. Planned features include nature preserves, animal habitats, a seed plot, walking and bike paths, picnic areas, comfort stations, event staging areas, and every other amenity you could possibly ask for in a public park.

Plan to build UK's first building entirely out of waste

2012-10-04T19:04:00-04:00

Designed by Brighton-based architect Duncan Baker-Brown, it will be built on the University of Brighton's campus in the city centre from waste and surplus material from local building sites and other local industries. The walls will be made of waste timber products. Ply "cassettes" containing waste material will be slotted in between the timber structure. These cassettes will be removable so that new building technologies can be added easily.