Which potentials exist to build sustainably? Surely, constructing energy-efficient structures is one possibility. But what about the materials that are used? Especially temporarily built buildings are doing poorly in this case.
A remarkable counterexample was the People’s Pavilion in Eindhoven. Temporarily built for the Dutch Design Week in October 2017, the structure consists of 100% borrowed materials. The Dutch architects of the bureau SLA and Overtreders W developed this innovative approach, which follows the paradigms of the new circular economy. All of the building materials needed to construct the pavilion were borrowed – not only from traditional suppliers, but also from Eindhoven residents.
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Recycling at its best
The 250m² building consist mostly of concrete, wooden beams and plastic cladding. All materials – even the glass roof, glass elements and the lighting – were borrowed and were returned completely unharmed. Only the striking cladding, on the Pavilion’s upper façade was coloured. The tiles were made from plastic household waste, collected by Eindhoven residents. They were distributed among those residents at the end of the Dutch Design Week. The architects even disclaimed the usage of screws, drills, glue or saws, which lead into an innovative design with new collaborations and construction methods.
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Cutting-edge Design
While the ecological footprint is insignificant, the physical is special: It is cross-shaped, dividing the interior into four parts. The sections are equipped with seating furniture, while the centre accommodate a stage for performances during the Dutch Design Week. The construction itself consist of twelve concrete piles and nineteen wooden frames which were held together by 350 tensioning straps. Glass and wood materials are mostly in standard dimensions and are leftovers from other buildings. They will be used again on various projects after the event. Only the coloured plastic cladding of the People’s Pavilion will not have any practical use afterwards. They’ve become keepsakes among the Eindhoven residents who participated in the project.
A pavilion made entirely from recycled materials was built on Governor’s Island just off Manhattan: aluminum cans, wood and cracked clay from construction sites. The pavilion was the winning entry for the 2017 City of Dreams competition, designed and built by Team Aesop, a group of five architects and engineers from New York. The competition was held by the not-for-profit arts organization FIGMENT, the AIANY Emerging New York Architects Committee, and the Structural Engineers Association of New York. FIGMENT organizes an all-summer arts festival on the city-owned island — a fortress during colonial times turned tourist destination — with the pavilion as the centerpiece.
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AESOP wants to promote the protection of the environment and sustainability, says Powell Draper of Team Aesop, who works in the New York office of the German-based firm Schlaich, Bergermann, and Partner. The pavilion consists of 15 large panels entirely built from pre-used materials. Wet clay from a construction site in Queens was poured into a one-inch-deep mold made from recycled wood. The clay was left in the sun to crack. After about a week, melted aluminum was used to fill the cracks. Team Aesop used 150,000 cans altogether, most of them donated by the Brooklyn-based recycling company Sure we Can. “This is approximately the amount all the citizens of New York drink in half an hour,” says Draper. After the aluminum became solid again, the clay was removed. Now, a silvery panel remains that resembles a large spider web. “This was a new and experimental way of construction, also for us,” says Draper.
The competition came with a $3000 reward, but since the pavilion did cost about $30,000 to build, most of the money had to be sourced from Kickstarter. When the summer is over, the pavilion will be recycled again, this time into park benches.
Pictures: Eva Schweitzer
