Relevance

As issues of environmental sustainability rise in prominence, it is evident that the building and construction industry makes a significant impact. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that buildings produce almost half (48%) of all greenhouse gas emissions annually. Construction and demolition waste accounts for over 100 million tons disposed in U.S. landfills annually, representing almost 40% of the total amount of municipal solid waste produced. And yet, if just 25 percent of the buildings demolished every year were deconstructed, approximately 20 million tons of debris could be diverted from our landfills. Clearly, this is an issue on which design community can play a major role in shaping the debate. 

Prototype

With walls sheathed with everything from street signs and shower doors, ScrapHouse drew tens of thousands of passersby. Built in conjunction with World Environment Day 2005, ScrapHouse illustrates the possibilities—as well as the challenges—of green building, recycling, and reuse.  Over the course of just six weeks, a team of volunteers scoured Bay Area dumps and scrap yards. A group of architects, landscape architects, lighting specialists, and metal fabricators repurposed the materials, giving them new life. Solid core doors recovered from a school construction project became an interesting floor material. Outdated phone books became a wonderfully textured insulating wall. Retired firehoses from the San Francisco Fire Department were deployed as wall paneling, dramatically transforming a double height living space. And when it was all said and done, "scrap" had taken on a whole new meaning.

ScrapHouse was not allowed the luxury of a permanent foundation; instead, it was built on plywood platform, and disassembled following the World Environment Day celebrations.  However, Public Architecture continues to explore the ideas raised by the project. In our work with the TAF Community Learning Space, we are pursuing the next interation, exploring the potential of integrating salvaged materials as vehicles for creativity and sustainability within the permanent building process. 

Advocacy

Public Architecture also engages in advocacy and research centered around issues of green building, recycling, and reuse. ScrapHouse lives on in print, film, and online, continually attracting inquiries from around the world.  Originally conceived as a documentary film, Emmy award-winning filmmaker Anna Fitch filmed every step of the way for a documentary that was broadcast on the National Geographic Channel in September 2006. A DVD of the documentary is available for purchase through Green Planet Films.

Public Architecture has also formed a partnership with the Building Materials Reuse Association (a leading nationwide organization specializing in issues around deconstruction and reuse), StopWate.org, the California Integrated Waste Management Board, and the US Environmental Protection Agency to produce a Design for Reuse Primer. The primer will focus on case study projects involving material reuse and offer tools as to how to further integrate material reuse into standard building process. The project was recently one of 13 projects across the country awarded a USGBC first ever Green Building Research Fund grants. The project has also received monetary support from the construction firm Bovis Lend Lease and technical support from the construction firm Webcor Builders. To learn more about the Design for Reuse Primer,  listen to a USGBC Podcast with Public Architecture's Liz Ogbu. 

In partnership with Webcor we also have been facilitating the convening of stakeholders to launch a pilot Commercial Reuse Materials Exchange in the Bay Area.  The dialogue has brought a diverse group to the table (municipal officials, contractors, designers, reuse businesses, workforce development nonprofits, and deconstruction and reuse consultants); though often interested in the idea for years, this is the first time that many of them have been at the same table.  It is our hope that the exchange will launch by Fall 2010.

Visit www.scraphouse.org for more information.