Manon Darde

"REUSING PROCESS OF
CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS"

Bachelor Thesis

Humans have practiced reusing since their first constructions in an economic interest. However, today with the industrialization of materials production this practice is back again thanks to a paradigm shift about the concept of waste and her management. Reuse seems to be a possible answer to the problematic of waste reduction. It is therefore necessary, more specifically here, that I will focus on these materials, about what varieties and other potentialities they represent in comparison with “classical” materials, in addition to their ecological benefits?

Can we believe in a deep transformation of the architectural design process to give more emphasis about the selection of materials inside?

I want to interrogate the new aesthetic that these materials can invent to encourage architects to integrate it into their creative process. This comeback of reemployment of building materials have to create desire and therefore spotlight this waste of the new millennium. Make public - more sensitive to the aesthetic part - want to support this new process. Create enthusiasm. It is through the communication of these new aesthetics models that it can be reinstated in the same way as new materials. Today, in our society, the image is a powerful gateway, like architecture photography of glossy magazines, to communicate with the public.

In all its applications, there is a common point in this reuse manifesto, the continuity of our collective memory. The reemployment of building materials forges link between the past and the present. Indeed, there is no economic interest to import old Chinese temple’s materials in Europe, so the reuse dynamic is more realistic and workable at a local scale. Therefore, this is an opportunity to build a new circular economy in local area. More than an ecological interest, reuse allow to enhance traditional skills and culture as well as vernacular aesthetics. In a context of globalization and homogenization, we need to take the time of rediscover the landscape of locale. We are all at the origin “children of our landscapes¹”.

I am fully aware of the difficulty of integrating in the design process, at first sight, this less reliable materials, rather than materials at the cutting edge of technology. These assembly experiments covered in this thesis highlight the ability of the architect and his team to design the project differently with another process to involve materials already present. It promises to be a solution to reduce the energy impact and our waste; especially we need to take steps to prepare for the growing number of new constructions. What seems now an experimentation will be in a few years a tradition.

Reconsider project’s temporality to insert a reuse approach still a challenge for contracting owner who still favour to pour concrete with a view to the economic viability and deadline compliance. Rotor or Bellastock actors provide support and teaching on reuse materials to boost this circular economy by creating reliable fields. Then the design process is overwhelmed with new variables: the availability and the quality of these materials. Reuse is a first step to raise awareness about the reversibility of our constructions. Thanks to these efforts a real economy will can be invented. “Screwing and not gluing²” the materials to allow them to circulate and think a removable architecture remains challenges of tomorrow...