re-appropriation

Being able to re-use materials, give them a new meaning, a new life is important. If there is a way to re-use or re-appropriate a material it will be better off used than using more energy to melt it, mold it, shred it, and/ or transform the material into a new material or product.

This image of an architectural project from architectural duo, D'Acosta and Turrent, re-claims materials found in the local area within Mexico. This project is a winery/ olive oil school. Since resources are limited in Mexico it is essential to re-use/ re-claim materials that are available. These architects have re-appropriated wooden crates, boxed spring mattresses, wine barrels, etc. to create this institution.

While building an adobe house in the slums of Mexico, as concrete, brick and rebar houses were going up nearby I was surprised to hear that the local materials (adobe) were not valued and un-appreciated. It is concrete that is valued. The people living in the slums want concrete homes, so they think, until they experience the properties of this material. Some will build a concrete house and after encountering the lack of circulation, heat given off they will go back to their grass/ found material huts. This so called lucrative material of concrete is not the way to go in this particular area. There is a reason it is not available.

In areas where resources are limited, using materials and goods that are available is essential. These available goods may not be desired but, are resources. In developing countries like Mexico, innovation and creativity come into play to take advantage of specific resources. As a designer, we should be looking at these approaches to harnessing valuable resources. There is much to be learned by studying the re-use/ re-appropriation of materials.

By understand the basic method of harnessing resources present, we as designers can narrow down and focus on alternative materials and solutions. We are able to be creative when the knowledge of materials is available.

I find Chris Lefteri’s approach to bringing/ sharing knowledge and awareness on materials to designers a valuable asset in the process of design. We as designers need to place importance and parameters on the materials we are using. Seeing and understanding the available materials, at our grasps, is essential in our decision making process.

A new spatial divider, this box springged mattress, is a captivating image especially understanding that it has been re-appropriated. This is one of those beautiful instances where the material/ product qualities are unique and when applied out of its intended context the beauty in its unfamiliar use creates a new transformed spatial quality. Maybe the beauty is in the re-appropriation? We should be looking at available resources when designing, as unique and beautiful materials/ products are at our fingertips.

http://www.latimes.com/features/home/la-hm-0418-escuelita-pg,0,6833153.photogallery

Footprint of Materials

Roselle's Random Thoughts

Within the realm of architecture I typically work with materials that are composite. Some of these materials consist of plaster, foam core, and cardboard. Foam core seems to be the worst of these materials. The ingredients of foam core consist of polystyrene in the center with white clay coated paper or kraft paper on the outside. Polystyrene is one of the most commonly used petroleum plastics. Where is this made? What is the difference between polystyrene and polyethylene?

Is there a way similar to Caroline’s work, that we can use foam core as a composite. Foam core takes a long time, if it ever disintegrates in landfills. It is important to look at the Life Cycle of these products and the ecological footprint of them. Where are they being made, who is making them? Where do the materials of these composites come from? Are these companies out sourcing and providing jobs for people in the community with good/ safe work environments or are they the next Walmart?

As an architect it is important to know/ understand these ideas of Life Cycle which ecological footprint falls under. Do you use materials that are mined/ harvested in the area? Or do you specify an exotic wood that comes from Costa Rica? I get to decide these things in my architecture as I get to also decide which materials to use in models. As clients come to me it is my responsibility to specify materials that I think are ethically responsible. I would choose the Zumthorian approach to materials using local materials in the area, with a small ecological footprint, where the ones mining/ harvesting the materials are treated right.

At the large scale of architecture I understand the importance of social justice, life cycle, and “sustainability.” As far as the materials we currently use at RISD in the architecture department it is far from these ideas. I have no clue where the materials I am using come from. Is plaster better to use than foam core? What is the best mold making material? What is the best for the maker to be breathing?

I am interested in exploring ways of recycling foam core or other non-recyclable materials that end up in the trash as part of a composite or hybrid material. I am not sure that melting petroleum products is the way to go, but there has to be another process of re-using. Even thinking about plaster, how can it be broken up and used with another material to achieve a certain effect. We could create the new CesarStone with casted material scraps.

Caroline’s work is great, very inspiring. I am excited to start thinking about ways in which we can re-use our materials and make a new composite material.

Roselle's Weekly Reflection

At an Art and Design School where materials are being explored and used in many ways I would have to say that very little fall under the 3 principles of development; including, no waste, environmentally considered in every stage, and valuable.

In the architecture department most of the materials I use and see are not ecologically responsible, cardboard can be recycled and is a recycled product, although most of the time I see scraps of it in the trash can, not in the recycling can. The laser cutter, exacto blades, scissors, glues are all made of composite materials, cooked materials which are not responsible. Therefore, everything we use in the architecture department is cooked.

Architecture has so many pre-existing ideas of what a topography model is and what material it has to be made of. No one goes beyond what they don’t know and explore another material, we use what we are familiar with. As long as this investigation of alternative, valuable materials is not done then the cycle of using foam core, chip board, cardboard, or any other sheet material will always be used. Perhaps that is the problem; maybe there are not enough sheet materials out there that are eco friendly and responsible.

In addition to the models as a mode of representation in architecture, there is digital drawing. We spend lots of money on ink and paper, which all ends up in the trash at the end of the semester as we clean out our desks. In the computer lab there is a recycle trash which is full of paper at the end of the day. It surprises me how people just toss paper, why not use it for sketching ideas or notes? Printing and drawings are great ways of communicating ideas but, we need to be more responsible with the end life of our drawings.

As the architecture department is full of composite and hybrid materials, I would have to guess that most other departments use them the same way, I would assume the jewelry department to be one that saves all their scrapes. I especially appreciate RISD as a campus informing us to recycle and using recycled materials, containers at the food locales around campus. Providing (selling) stainless steel water canisters instead of plastic bottles. RISD is really trying to make an impact and do their part by reaching out to the students as well.

I think it is important that we start looking at the materials we buy to use as designers and even within our personal lives at the life associated with the material, buy local, and be more ecologically responsible.

Landscape Department

Photography Department: Roselle Curwen

Reflection:



Composite materials make up the photography department. Each chemical used has a specific behavior which is followed by another chemical reaction which also has a specific behavior and so on.



The process of photography involves chemical processes from start to finish. Photographic film is “a sheet of plastic (polyester, nitrocellulose or cellulose acetate) coated with an emulsion containing light-sensitive silver halide salts (bonded by gelatin).” (Wikipedia) The film undergoes a number of other chemical processes to get the finished form, a photograph, an acetate, fiber or resin coated paper coated with gelatin silver. Every material from the film to the light sensitive paper, the fixer which contains silver halides (which are insoluble in water) and developer solutions are composite materials. Metol is one of the 4 chemicals that make up the developer, which is very harsh on our skin. Since Metol is so toxic many modern developers use a replacement chemical, which in turn changes the outcome of the photograph occasionally. Metol, as well as, some of the salts used in the chemicals are soluble and change state from a solid to a liquid.



One can see the transformation of a photograph as it undergoes chemical processes. Watching the process of an image slowly appearing, in the dark room, as you transfer the photograph from one solution station to another is quite beautiful in the transformation of light, negative, paper, chemicals to photograph.



The chemicals used in the process of developing the film, to the developers and fixers used in the process of the photograph are not ones that you want to touch your skin. Wearing gloves is essential in the developing. Fixer, the most toxic of the chemicals, requires a waste basin which stores the liquid and properly disposed of. But… The other chemicals aren’t toxic enough to be specially disposed of and are dumped down the drain to our sewers which lead to our water systems??!@#!@#



Other chemicals should also be taken seriously and disposed of carefully or should be treated properly before being dumped down the drains. Can this cause problem in the sewer systems which create a reaction with another chemical creating a larger problem?



The chemicals come from the manufacturer in cardboard boxes with a plastic liner and a plastic spout at one end. Most of the equipment used with the developing process is contained in plastic. These types of plastic must not have a reaction with the chemicals it is housing. The enlargers are also made from plastic and steel, composite materials that have gone through processes of heating and molding.



It is quite fascinating how this science has become so specific with the materials/ processes it uses. The art of photography is in the process itself. How can photographers use these chemical processes to their advantage and create a new process?