phase 01

01 What does it mean to
design with waste?

BIO

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WASTE

AS

ARCHITECTURE

IN COLLABORATION WITH ANNIKA YU
ADVISED BY PROFESSOR RONALD RAEL

the problem:

BUILDING WASTE IN
THE LINEAR ECONOMY

Natural resources are currently being extracted from the Earth at an unsustainable rate. The United Nations reports that the extraction of primary materials has more than tripled in the last 40 years, and that this extractive process is expected to soar alongside global population growth.

Common building materials have negative impacts on the environment both through the extraction process and the disposal + removal process. Many of these materials are toxic and create massive volumes of waste, often damaging surrounding ecosystems.
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Discourse surrounding sustainability and climate change have become increasingly more prominent in the realm of architecture in the last 20 years, and an emergence of adaptive reuse and circular design has created opportunity for a revolution in regards to how we think about architectural materials.
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Creating biodegradable alternatives for common building materials will provide the opportunity for buildings and their related materials to be truly circular and create opportunities for life to grow from them once more.

phase 01
MATERIAL LIBRARY

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phase 02
MATERIAL CRAFTING

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jump to PHASE 03

phase 03
MATERIAL OUTCOMES

01 ---- MATERIAL LIBRARY

Primarily using food waste and kitchen products, we've created a material library of biodegradable sheet goods. By adjusting and experimenting with their contents, we were able to produce 50+ different samples that vary in flexibility, strength, opacity, and color based on the ingredients used.

The library and framework act as an educational tool in democratizing material production, as activism in support of alternatives to petroleum based materials, and as a stepping stone towards future explorations into ideas of bio-fabrication, the circular economy, and repurposing waste.

material library labels (2)

material library labels (1)

material library labels (26)

material library labels (2)

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SHEET GOOD PRODUCTION PROCESS

sheet good process - beet dye and gelatin

02 ---- MATERIAL CRAFTING

Phase 2 lightbox with new samples that have been lasercut, pleated, molded, and extruded to produce three dimensional forms.

First pass at using a lasercutter to create cutout patterns on a gelatin-based spinach dyed bioplastic sheet.

Experimentation with scoring and pleating turmeric dyed bioplastic to create a three-dimensional form.

Monstera leaf preserved in alginate and folded in quarters to act as a shelf.

Monstera leaf preserved in alginate and folded in quarters to act as a shelf.

Transparent leaves encased in alginate and cast onto a mold to create a three-dimensional form.

Transparent leaves cast onto a balloon to create an operable light with the leaves acting as a lamp shade

Prototype- transparent leaves cast onto a balloon to create an operable light with the leaves acting as a lamp shade

Alginate mixture was pushed through a caulking gun and submerged in CaCl2 to produce an alginate thread.

Crocheted alginate after curing the solution.

Extruded alginate through a caulking gun with a larger diameter nozzle.

After creating a comprehensive material library, we began to experiment with ways to manipulate our sheet goods by pleating, cutting, molding, and extruding our materials.

These manipulations created avenues of opportunity to imagine how these new materials could have practical applications in which they would not only act as an alternative to petroleum based materials, but as unique materials in their own right.

Auxetic pattern laser cut onto beet dyed gelatin-based bioplastic. Negative Poisson's ratio allows the material to expand in all directions when stretched.

Circular pattern laser cut onto spinach dyed gelatin-based bioplastic. Curved patterning allows for the flat sheet good to stretch in the z-direction.

AUXETIC PATTERN CUTTING

In order to manipulate some of the more rigid bioplastics, we chose some auxetic patterns to laser cut into them. These patterns allow for the materials to stretch in ways that they wouldn't normally be able to, creating new opportunities for applications of these materials.

APPLICATIONS ------ sewn garments

auxetic pattern sewn tank

structured biodegradable purse

03 ---- MATERIAL OUTCOMES

Using the materials that were crafted during Phase 02, we created 12 architectural models, playing with scale and using our materials as replacement for traditional building materials.

Spinach-dyed bioplastic pleated and positioned as a gable roof.

Onionskin-dyed bioplastic lasercut in circular pattern and stretched to create an enclosure.

Carrot-dyed bioplastic poured into wooden frame to create a stained glass effect.

Cabbage-dyed bioplastic cut and pleated to create a structure.

Carrot, beet, and spinach dyed bioplastic poured into wooden frame to create a stained glass effect. Seeds have been added in so that when the structure eventually biodegrades, it can make was for life to grow from it once again.

Carrot, beet, and spinach dyed bioplastic poured into wooden frames to create a stained glass effect.

Spinach-dyed bioplastic laser-cut into interlinkable pieces.

Beet-dyed extruded alginate wrapped around columns to create an enclosure.

Spinach-dyed bioplastic lasercut with an auxetic pattern and stretched to create a dome.

Carrot-dyed bioplastic cast into a wire and twisted to form a 3d structure.

Carrot-dyed bioplastic sewn to create a sling chair.