Recomposing Paper Architecture
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[Thesis Statement] Waste gas emission and waste material generation in construction are causing major environmental issues nowadays. The use of modern materials, such as concrete and steel, contributes a significant part of it. This thesis challenges the norm of using unrecyclable materials in construction and explores recyclable paper as an alternative material to create structural prototypes. With an aim to create a waste-free environment, this investigation of prototypes seeks to find a solution that does not negatively affect the environment.
[What and Why]
Fig 1. Construction waste left on site after demolition In present, most of our buildings are shaped by the modernist movement which concrete and steel materials play a big part in our lives. With no doubt, these two materials have pushed the limit in the construction field and have made a lot of architectural designs possible. Using concrete and steel in construction seems to become a norm in the building industry. Nonetheless, having enjoyed the advantage concrete and steel has offered, we often overlooked their downsides, the making and the aftermath of these materials. On one hand, concrete and steel industries are responsible for the most significant amount of greenhouse gas and chemical emission. In particular, concrete produces carbon dioxide during its manufacturing process while steel emits volatile organic compound and creates heavy metal as a result of torch cutting, welding process. On the other hand, these materials are not recyclable, meaning that buildings leave a huge amount of industrial waste after demolition. Today, we are facing the biggest challenge of climate change in the history and we have to take note of the environmental issues that these materials may have caused. Therefore, the choice of building materials should be well considered, especially for buildings that are built to cater ephemeral event/events.
Fig 2. Summary of construction-phase impacts for steel and concrete Taking the life cycle of buildings into consideration, using recycled paper material can be an ideal choice for temporary structures. Paper is basically a biodegradable material that mainly composes of fiber, a stiff substance that is often incorporated in some of the strong materials such as carbon fiber. Through the paper recycling process, pulps, a type of fibrous raw materials, are produced. We can manipulate the physical properties of pulps by controlling certain aspects during the process, that is, the paper types, the water ratio, and the materials which added into the water mixture etc. In addition, the making method of recycled paper is low-tech and low-cost comparing to other structural materials, meaning that it has the potential to be broadly applied in building construction.
Fig 3. Pulp is a fibrous material produced by separating waste paper and fiber during its recycling process.
Fig 4. A brick made out of recycled paper pulps and rice glue.
[How] Step 1: Blend papers into pulps to create moldable paste. Step 2: Experiment with the pulps to mold different prototypes. Step 3: Incorporate other materials into the pulp mixture to experiment prototypes of hybrid materials. Step 4: Test out the structural abilities of the prototypes. Step 5: Explore the tectonics of the design of how each component assembles, disassembles and reassembles.
[Bibliography] Journals/Articles: Angela Acree Guggemos and Arpad Horvath, Books: Shigeru Ban, Paper in Architecture |
