Opalis Global Tools to encourage the recirculation of materials and building components where you live - Architectural Association School of ...
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Le the t’s ch ma gear ange teri al e s of th con e om y! Opalis Global Tools to encourage the recirculation of materials and building components where you live Diploma 18 2020-2021 AA School of Architecture Aude-Line Duliere James Westcott with Rotor
Diploma 18 unit brief, 2020-21 What are the potentialities of This work will be the foundation for two On both the macro and ‘micro’ scale, understanding architecture as a system connected design projects. The first: a students’ designs could operate within that orchestrates flows of materials masterplan for redesigning the material existing frameworks -- the so-called ‘real’ and resources, with a building as just reuse system. What stimulus package, world -- or they could be drastic proposals a short-lived freeze-frame? How can infrastructural upgrades, legal changes, for ‘ideal’ conditions, buildings, or architects design with deconstruction and cultural shifts would facilitate the practices. Rooted in the reality of a chosen and demolition in mind, and take increased use of used materials in building material or framework, students’ proposals responsibility for shepherding a projects, ensure their reclamation from could even delve into the surreal, satire, material towards a potential second doomed buildings, and encourage a or science-fiction if it offers a critical and life? thriving economy of reuse? constructive perspective. Previous generations of Diploma 18 The second design project will be a Students will be encouraged to work students have begun the systematic zoom into a particular component of this physically wherever possible, away from documentation of the architectural salvage masterplan. It could be a communication Zoom, away from the computer entirely, industry in the UK through building the campaign, an architectural project as case engaging with a material, a company, or website opalis.co.uk. This year, students study, a rescue/stimulus package for a a policymaker in the development of their will take their country as a subject of neglected or wasted material, a hands-on designs. research, starting with visits to scrapyards, DIY home improvement project whereas warehouses, and other kinds of re-sellers specific material reuse is put into practice, Diploma 18 aims to plant seeds for of used building materials. Informal, illegal, the promotion of a particular regional (or students’ professional lives by building and indigenous material processes will be vernacular) practice... local professional relationships and of interest too. Students will start building developing concrete expertise and a database -- opalis.global -- of reuse Students will be supported at punctual obsessions. This unit calls for a fluency resources spanning different nations. points throughout the year by the expertise with a pre-existing system and the of Rotor, a cooperative design practice imagination to rethink it. Students will then expand their research, based in Brussels which investigates the exploring the entire material reuse organisation of the material environment. ecosystem where they live: the laws, Workshops and consultations will be industry regulations, government policies hosted on various aspects of reuse in and incentives, the key institutions and architecture, on policy and philosophy, players, academic research projects and and on opportunities for growth within the NGOs, the activism and advocacy for secondhand material economy. circularity in the building industry in their country or region. AA Dip 18, 2020-21: Opalis Global Page 2
Rehabilitation: Cleaning cement and other Bottleneck: Materials for which no reuse solution Waste: Ashes from the waste-to-energy incinerator adhesives from tiles reclaimed from demolition sites, can be found today under the current policy and in Brussels; a waste product of the so-called circular at Rotor DC, Brussels. A labour-intensive process economic frameworks. economy. making tiles fit for re-entry into the material economy. PEDAGOGICAL NOTE: Diploma 18 -- when we meet on Zoom (or any other encouragement can be exchanged to typically calls for group work and platform), we will often endeavor to do it in enrich each other’s projects collaboration. This year, our global spread the format or a live report, where students (especially in Term 1) presents a challenge will stream from a location relevant for -- Diploma 18 fosters conviviality, to this collective ethos. We will attempt to reuse, giving their colleagues a tour transparency, self-responsibility, and meet it through range of methods: flexibility. The following plan for the year -- as well as the normal studio and tutorial will evolve through our discussions and -- students will be encouraged to work in sessions, students will have ‘face-to-face’ mutual discoveries… the field as much as possible, not bound to meetings with their peers without tutors their desks or the internet present to simulate the natural studio habitat, where informal feedback and AA Dip 18, 2020-21: Opalis Global Page 3
Rotor “So where are we now? Well, in terms For instance: visibility, access to markets, This unit at the AA started in 2018 as a of reclamation the world has gone or a fluid integration into contemporary preliminary investigation with a focus backwards. Salvage used to be fairly easy building practices. In the context of a on the UK. This year the researched and popular. The quantity of reclaimed European grant application (Interreg), will spread to various points around building material reused in new modern Rotor has partnered with technical the globe, ideally forming an exchange sustainable and eco-friendly buildings institutions, trade associations, research between Rotor’s experience and is now miniscule. While demolition has centres, architecture schools and public radically divergent practices across increased, reuse has decreased. Indeed, a administrations. The effort is rooted in different jurisdictions and cultures. five-star rated green building is allowed to earlier initiatives that were started up, Rotor will act as expert consultants for have no reclaimed building material at all.” successfully, in Brussels. The ambition, students of Dip 18, hosting a series of in the long term (2032), is the diversion workshops on various aspects of the Thornton Kay, on Salvoweb.com of 1.75 million tons of waste on top of the reuse sector throughout the year. baseline, thus creating a value of €300 In the UK today, 90% of materials are million or 4,000 new jobs. “recovered” from the construction and demolition industry, but only 1% of material The effort will require the participation of a is recirculated after its first use. Although wide range of protagonists in the building a large proportion of components are sector: deconstruction professionals, technically reusable, the vast majority end materials suppliers, commissioners, up being either down-cycled or landfilled. consulting engineers, etc. Among these, This results in a high environmental architects hold a particular position. As impact, and a considerable loss of authors of building specifications, they economic value. choose which materials to prescribe in their projects and thus hold the key to whether Rotor has taken on the challenge or not salvaged goods can find second to double, by 2032, the amount of lives. To make this a common practice, we recirculated building elements in Northern think that within a 20-year period it should France, Belgium, the UK and the southern be as easy for an architect to prescribe a Netherlands. This territory houses salvaged material as it is today to prescribe thousands of companies specialised in a new material. the reclamation and supply of recovered building elements. Despite their obvious potential for the circular economy, these operators are facing important challenges. AA Dip 18, 2020-21: Opalis Global Page 4
Compatibility: At a yard for used roof tiles, many Demolition: Currently there is no tax on demolition Pilot project: Coordination between seven varieties sit unsold, struggling to find types they can in Brussels, which amounts to a subsidy for stakeholders was required to organise the reuse of a fit with. How to break through this bottleneck? developers to start from scratch as a default option, tower’s ventilation plant in Brussels. A large opening even for durable materials like concrete. in the facade left a scar as testimony of Rotor’s ground-breaking operation. AA Dip 18, 2020-21: Opalis Global Page 5
Why Reuse “In a crisis we would immediately adopt all mainly performed by small and medium- being discarded as waste. of these [reuse] strategies, to conserve the sized enterprises (SMEs) occupying a 3. a weak demand for reclaimed value in existing materials. In our economy discrete segment of the building industry. products. Today, the demand for at present, manufacturing is so efficient In the countries involved in this project reclaimed products often remains that any reuse requiring additional labour (Belgium, Holland, France, the UK), some limited to small-scale projects, is unlikely to compete with the use of new 2,200 companies facilitate the reuse of because no methods have been material, and therefore most of these opti- 1.2 million tonnes of building components developed to integrate reused com- ons are dormant.” each year. In comparison, this amount ponents in formal contexts such as represents 1.1% of the total construction public tenders or technically de- Allwood, Julian M., and Jonathan M. Cul- and demolition (C&D) waste generated in manding applications. len. Sustainable Materials: Without the Hot the same territory. Reclamation activities Air, p. 219. generate €250 million per year, directly sustaining 3,000 full-time equivalents, and Reusing building elements is often seen involve 15,000 people in total. Despite as a key feature of a future circular eco- their evident significance to the circular nomy in the EU. In many policies, it is a top economy, these operators face important priority strategy (e.g. Directive 2008/98/EC challenges: on waste). In practice, we see that most efforts in the last decades to ‘close the 1. lack of visibility. Specialists in dis- loops’ in the building sector were limited to mantling, preparing and supplying the promotion of recycling processes which reclaimed products are generally imply crushing or melting materials. Yet overlooked by building professio- there are good reasons to develop reuse. nals. As a result, they operate in a Life-cycle analysis (LCA) studies reveal niche market, when their products that reclaimed elements often have a dras- and services could be applied to tically lower environmental impact compa- large-scale projects as well. red to newly produced equivalents. Reuse preserves most of the economic value, 2. low recovery rate of reusable technical qualities and cultural significance elements. The current practices in of a building product. It also generates demolition favor the sorting of C&D locally rooted economic activities. waste flows, but lack a strategy to manage reusable elements. As a Today in north-western Europe the circu- consequence, large quantities of lation of reclaimed building elements is potentially reusable elements are AA Dip 18, 2020-21: Opalis Global Page 6
Salvage: A Dip 18 project from 2019-20 proposed Hands-on: inspecting material at a resellers’ yard Workforce, working conditions and machinery: pouring waste concrete into formworks that would during a visit for Opalis.co.uk. Dismantling of blue limestone slabs on a be provided to a concrete yard; the resulting blocks deconstruction site for in situ reuse. Design could be used for almost anything... (Sorana Mazilu processes are dependent of the expertise of the and Alice Nobel) workforce and the potential of the machinery. As designers and material specifiers, which type of jobs within the building industry are we, architects, encouraging? Which expertises are we celebrating? AA Dip 18, 2020-21: Opalis Global Page 7
Spolia / Opalis “In the context of the prolific production and plied to architectural salvage and reuse in the outcome of an extensive field research consumption of commodities in mid-twen- later eras. Yet the notion bears an explicitly where every reseller has been visited and tieth century America, the reuse of consu- negative connotation because of its asso- interviewed. mer products was negatively charged with ciation with the idea of spoliation (the act of implications of backwardness and social ruining, robbing or destroying something). Opalis’ vocation is: marginality. New products made of newly The focus is on the loss of the original manufactured materials were promoted rather than on the smart reintegration into - to familiarize building professionals as more efficient, cleaner, safer, and more a new compound. with these companies; to advertise aesthetically appealing. If the discarded their individual competences and products of this and other hyper-productive When Rotor set up, in 2012, the project of expertises societies were reused, it was elsewhere, an on-line for inventory of all professional - to federate the salvage industry, on their own impoverished peripheries, or resellers of salvaged building materials in which, until now, has hardly been in the so-called Third World. By the end Belgium, the idea was to refer to the notion able to push its own agenda of the century, however, concern for ma- of spolia, without suffering the negative - to provide inspiring examples and naging the waste created by the constant connotations. That’s why it was decided to concrete tools meant to facilitate replacement of once-new products by ever use an anagram. OPALIS sounded neutral the integration of reused compo- newer ones was reversing the negative enough. nents in new projets charge one reuse and investing it instead with positive moral value. Yet because the Constantly updated since 2012, and gradu- “psychology of abundance” that accom- ally extending beyond the Belgian territory, panied the earlier “throwaway spirit” is still the online guide opalis.be now lists more prevalent, reuse is noticeably non-confor- than 120 professional suppliers in second- mist, exceptional, and ideological, rather hand building materials from Belgium, than systemic and neutral.” South-Holland and France. The idea of the project is to map out, on behalf of archi- Brilliant, Richard, and Dale Kinney. Reuse tects and commissioners on the lookout Value Spolia and Appropriation, p. 2. for batches of quality reclaimed materials, companies that can Spolia is the term that has been used by supply trustworthy building materials, com- archeologists and historians since the Re- petently salvaged from buildings slated for naissance to designate fragments of Greek demolition. These companies offer quality and Roman monuments that were salva- guarantees and remanufacturing services ged and reused, by subsequent cultures, for a smoother integration of the goods in new buildings. The term was also ap- in a new building. The Opalis database is AA Dip 18, 2020-21: Opalis Global Page 8
Field work: Dip 18 students visit Bath Reclamation Spolia: Fragments of ruined buildings used by Storage: Used materials must typically be stored to compile data for opalis.co.uk. The yard is run by subsequent cultures. How to rehabilitate this for a long period before buyers or projects can Cary Morgan, who has been in the reuse industry for practice? be found for them. Rotor DC proposes a service 34 years. of consignment sales which offers demolition contractors the opportunity to store material with them, hence encouraging potential recirculation. This, for a fee that is less than the cost of disposal. AA Dip 18, 2020-21: Opalis Global Page 9
Term 1: The reuse sector where you live “In any urban society there is a massive Phase 1: Opalis.global entire reuse system where they are; for stock of available materials from demolition Deliverable: a live functioning website the website itself, we hope to make reused and industrial waste that is currently populated with at least three re-sellers materials more accessible for architects, discarded but has potential value. Although per student (the website should be developers, and commissioners, as well the infrastructure to locate and use these continuously added to throughout the year) as creating a fascinating platform for those resources is currently lacking, some who wish to compare notes on material industry leaders are establishing design As an entré into the material reuse sector reuse across different countries. strategies, materials recovery processes, where they live, students will visit and construction management approaches systematically document used material re- We will need to be efficient and systematic and manufacturing systems to create sellers: scrapyards, warehouses, and even in building this website and populating it. innovative new ways of using them in the more bespoke or boutique set-ups. Their It’s a big task, but only a preliminary one built environment.” efforts will be collated online into a new for the work of the unit. platform, opalis.global. The progenitors, Mark Gorgolewsky, Resource Salvation: opalis.be (for Belgium) and Opalis.co.uk The Architecture of Reuse, foreword. (Dip 18’s first project) will set the template Phase 2: Mini-documentary for our new website, though students Deliverable: a short documentary can propose nuances and innovations suitable for the more varied terrain we Students will plan, shoot, and produce a will be covering. For example, informal, short guerilla documentary on a particular illegal, vernacular and indigenous practices ‘moment’ in the material reuse cycle. with material use outside the mainstream Students might record demolition sites or economy should also be encompassed on other areas to reveal the origin, production, the website. or disposal of a building material. Another approach could be the narration of the Our work will be kicked off by a workshop journey of a material from a resellers yard hosted by Rotor on the concept of spolia, to a site, or from deconstruction site to the innovation of Opalis as a platform, and yard. The film will be uploaded onto an the state of the reuse sector in Belgium. opalis.global channel on YouTube. The aim of opalis.global is twofold: for the students, we hope to lay the foundations for their imminent deeper research into the AA Dip 18, 2020-21: Opalis Global Page 10
Phase 3: Documenting the reuse sector policy, or a policy proposed by an advocate where you are of the reuse sector Deliverable: a booklet Where a material does not fit in well with Students will research the SYSTEM the pre-existing system, the student may -- the constellation of players, policies, well have identified the beginning of their regulations, economic incentives, and design project: a BOTTLENECK. By practices that constitute the material ‘bottleneck’ we mean a blockage in the reuse sector where they live. They will flow of secondhand architectural materials, also document/create a spectrum of used and it could be there for any reason: building MATERIALS, ranging from those that are most successfully reclaimed, -- economic (under current conditions, re-sold, and reused, to those that are reclamation, rehabilitation, storage, and rarely or never reclaimed (and students distribution of a material may cost more must figure out why). Each student will than its retail value) create a detailed diagram / flow chart -- aesthetic (maybe the material is now for each aspect -- the SYSTEM and the unfashionable or considered ugly, or, when MATERIALS. old, it ‘becomes’ ugly, or even almost taboo) Students will workshop their initial findings -- regulatory (for example, it’s very difficult with Rotor for advice on what to look for, to legally reuse steel beams) and what opportunities might exist within -- performance (materials of a certain age the pre-existing system. may no longer reliably serve their original This work be the foundation for a short function) booklet expanding on a few chosen components, for example: Herein lies the opportunity for changing perceptions, demonstrating viability, -- the journey of a brick from demolition site even proposing a change in the law, and to resellers’ yard to new building designing afresh, which will be the focus in -- the metrics of the resale economy for a Terms 2 and 3... chosen material or a chosen reseller -- the impact of a particular government AA Dip 18, 2020-21: Opalis Global Page 11
Term 2: Redesigning re-use “It would not serve my purpose to describe Deliverable: ‘masterplan’ for the reuse -- the fine details of a new subsidy system in detail any fictional community of the sector, early concept design for one aspect for reuse and a prediction of its impact future. I want to provide guidelines for of this system -- the design of an exemplary architectural action, not for fantasy. A modern society, project: a retailer of used building bounded for convivial living, could generate In Term 2, students will switch from materials, a new typology of affordable a new flowering of surprises far beyond research to design, utilizing their new housing, the transposal of a material from anyone’s imagination and hope. I am not knowledge of the reuse sector to either its normal usage to an alternative one... proposing a Utopia, but a procedure that rethink it entirely, or to tweak particular provides each community with the choice aspects of it. Students’ interventions could of its unique social arrangements.” be reality-based, proposing measures that, theoretically, could be implemented Illich, Ivan. Tools for conviviality, 1973. tomorrow. Or students might choose to posit ‘ideal’ legal and economic “We can see our forests vanishing, our frameworks, asserting drastic, ‘unrealistic’ water-powers going to waste, our soil changes. The point here would be that being carried by floods into the sea, and demanding the apparently impossible is the end of our coal and our iron is in sight. often the most rigorous and ethical move, But our larger wastes of human effort, and it’s business-as-usual that is actually which go on every day through such of ‘unrealistic’, since it seeks to hide (through our acts as are blundering, ill-directed, or externalities) its true impact on the inefficient, and which Mr. Roosevelt refers environment, climate, marginalised labour, to as a lack of ‘national efficiency,’ are less etc. visible, less tangible, and are but vaguely appreciated.” In dialogue with their masterplan for the reuse system, students will begin zooming F.W. Taylor, The Principles of Scientific in on one component of it to redesign in Management, 1911, p. 5 detail. Some possibilities: -- an innovative (or long-lost) way of using a secondhand material in architecture -- a government or NGO branding campaign for a new reuse policy AA Dip 18, 2020-21: Opalis Global Page 12
Term 3: Design resolution Deliverable: detailed design & instructions for implementation In Term 3, students will focus on developing and resolving their design “Again: design is basic to all human for a particular component of the reuse activities. The planning and patterning sector. The design should be delivered in of any act toward a desired foreseeable the form of instructions for a third party end constitutes the design process. Any (a contractor, an NGO, a layperson…) attempt to separate design, to make it to implement. This approach demands a thing-by-itself, works counter to the maximum clarity and communicability. inherent value of design as the primary, It also gives a potential second life to underlying matrix of life. Integrated design students’ projects after they have moved is comprehensive: it attempts to take on... into consideration all the factors and modulations necessary to decision-making process. Integrated, comprehensive design is anticipatory. It attempts to look at existing data and trends and to continuously extrapolate, as well as interpolate, from the scenarios of the future it constructs. Integrated, comprehensive and anticipatory design is the act of planning and shaping carried on across the various disciplines, and act continuously carried on at interfaces between them.” Papanek, Victor. Design for the Real World, 1984, p. 322. AA Dip 18, 2020-21: Opalis Global Page 13
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