Aliyah Baerg

Advisor: Liane Veness

grid of 18 images of salvageable materials and their codes, including windows, wood, brick and glass
Quantity surveying and categorization of salvageable materials from local ‘harvest’ buildings resulted in the compilation of a ‘material bank’ and a set of playing cards which linked valuable material information with imagery and a unique material code which is used to track the history and future cyclical use of each material. Images and material codes from the cards are pictured here.
depicting a long list of salvaged materials along with their respective ages and codes.
A condensed version of the compiled ‘material bank’ resulting from the site visits and quantity survey of three disused Winnipeg buildings (a small reflection of the process and possibilities of a widespread local material tracking and reuse system). Colour coding was assigned to major material categories, and these colours along with material code tags were applied to each individual member in the scale modeling stage.
sample brick square structures from 5 different perspectives
Scale models of the ‘harvest’ site buildings were constructed to physicalize the material pool and deconstruction process. Here, the carriage house from 198 Alexander Ave. is pictured, with deconstruct-able brick modules, which evolved into the development of a mortarless brick stacked wall assembly which is easily deconstruct-able for maintenance or reuse.
hand holding up playing cards of building instructions
Playing cards draw out the complexities and interactions between various ‘players’ and elements of a cyclical building system. These cards were also considered as a tool to educate the wider public about the processes and importance of material reuse.
2 storey framed structure with staircase up the middle
Scale model final iteration of a small ‘granny suite’ test project used to explore the difference in design and building processes when they begin from the perspective of the materials. The scale model was built using entirely salvaged material pieces from the three existing ‘harvest building’ models.
section drawing of 2 storey structure with angled roofline
Collage section drawing incorporates large-scale detailed drawings which aim to highlight the materials and their storied qualities within the design. Colour coding and material code tags are maintained throughout.
timeline of the life cycle of building materials with structure images to support the descriptions
Collage diagram explaining the processes and future opportunities of a local material reuse system.

(De)Constructing the Material Cycle

The earliest intentions for this thesis work were framed by the realities of the capitalist and consumerist systems we exist and work within, where ideals of endless economic growth and unlimited resource availability have driven us to the incredibly wasteful and unsustainable economic practices which shroud our profession and construction industry. The North American construction industry still consumes 40 percent of total raw material resources each year, funneling these globally sourced materials into buildings which become material graveyards.1  In a time of climate crisis and future uncertainty, our culture is largely indifferent toward the life of materials beyond their use in an assembly and subsequent disposal into the waste stream.

I was driven with the ambition to challenge and examine these practices, to question and begin to understand how we can move away from our current wasteful linear economy, and toward a circular economy that pushes past our current methods of material reuse.

Reflecting on the energy and resources that go into the production of materials, and the extents of its impact on our world now and into the future, this work questions; how we can shift our thinking to honour this sacrifice and place the value on the life of materials (rather than the economic value) through conscious and active steps within our design process. Can become active agents within the design process. Is it possible to think of materials as autonomous, assigning “passports” to them at “birth” to claim identity and name them as they move throughout their lifespans? These questions guided the thesis through a process of exploring the complexities of a future cyclical building system. Through material harvesting, surveying, categorization and tracking from local disused buildings to an iterative design process and drawing, this thesis seeks to reuse these materials in an efficient and relational way.

1. Mark Gorgolewski, Resource Salvation: The Architecture of Reuse, (New Jersey: Wiley Blackwell, 2018), 8.