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. According to the Worlwatch Institute, the renovation and demolition of buildings in the U.S. accounted for more than one-fifth of our total annual waste stream. New construction contributes at least another 11 million. 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.

Prototypical Design

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 Outdated phone books became a wonderfully textured insulating wall.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.

Comprehensive Advocacy

Public Architecture also engages in advocacy and research centered around the 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. 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. In the end, we hope to see what began as a simple demonstration project lead to a far reaching movement within the sustainable design industry.

Visit www.scraphouse.org for more information.