Razing Questions: Keeping What We Tear Down
Open Access
- Author:
- Bhagat, Puja
- Area of Honors:
- Architecture
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Architecture
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Darla V Lindberg, Thesis Supervisor
Christine Lee Gorby, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- Deconstructable Design
Jointed Building Systems - Abstract:
- In the age of technology, the built environment is constantly transforming. With better materials, resources, and equipment, we have the ability to build buildings that can stand for a lifetime. Despite all of these advancements, buildings rarely ever reach their intended structural capacity. Instead, buildings are demolished much sooner. This constant overturn of structures wastes good quality materials that could be used for years to come. Instead, a majority of this material is directed straight into the landfill. Thus, the intent of the thesis is to redesign the way we build structures to redirect these “waste” materials’ pathways and give them a second life in the bult environment. The thesis proposes the use of a new system of designing and building in order to more seamlessly integrate good quality waste materials into new structures. This includes a systematic change of material pathway movement on a large scale, down to a detail-level change in the way we construct walls. In doing so, materials which would have traditionally been demolished and sent to the landfill can instead be given a second life for new purposes. The end goal in this concept is to create a completely deconstructable future. The thesis makes strides towards this ideal future by proposing a change in the way build, which lays the foundation for that potential reality in the near future. This paper presents the development of the thesis, major precedents which informed the project, the proposed system, and a case study application in Pittsburgh, PA.