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.
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, using first a facade fragment meant to entice buyers to a new luxury condo development in TirBeCa that would later be installed in the latest in the city’s 5,000-strong network of gardens, according to the New York Times.
The three-room structure is now in use as a classroom space and will soon be featured in next year’s MoMA’s exhibition Architecture Now: New York, New Publics, which opens in February. The team says it has received some fiscal sponsorship from the Architectural League of New York and will look to solicit donations from the real estate industry, as well as additional funding and or in-kind material donations for more build-outs, in the future.
“The mock-up can become a new tool that foresees a circular economy,” Cornell AAP assistant professor Felix Heisel told the Times of the project’s potential. More information about contributing to Testbeds can be found here.
4 Comments
What a great idea! If waste cannot be substantially reduced, then at least put these mockups to use after testing.
An interesting recycle. But is this a New York thing to have discarded apartment display suites lying around? I struggle to believe its design processes’ most wasteful customs- discarded architectural mock-ups.
I don't think anyone would dispute attempting to reuse building materials is a bad idea, but it is the cost of dismantling, transporting, and storage that are typically the reasons it's cheaper to scrap mockups.
“one of the design processes’ most wasteful customs – discarded architectural mock-ups.“ LMFAO
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