Phoenix

Studio Shajay Bhooshan

Tutors Ariadna Lopez, Leo Bieling

Team Yi Li, Zhu Yasheng, Devansh Goshar, Gim Kwok, Yuhan Li

As London continues to grow, buildings are being demolished and replaced with new developments to meet the needs of ascending population. According to the London Plan for 2021, in 2015 there were approximately 9.7 million tons of construction waste produced in the city. This presents a significant opportunity for the reuse of materials, as it is estimated that this massive waste can be reused in creating as much as 4 million sqm of spaces. To take advantage of this, we propose project Phoenix which employs structured demolition to efficiently allocate resources in an environmentally and economically responsible manner. 

Many buildings are being crushed down prematurely before their material expiration, especially reinforced concrete buildings. Concrete, the most common construction material worldwide, is also the major source of construction waste and carbon dioxide emissions. However, concrete can continue to absorb carbon dioxide even after being demolished.  

Instead of powdering concrete, which consumes a considerate amount of energy, the Phoenix involves cutting concrete into quads and reusing them in new construction. To investigate the potential of the reused concrete panels, we used Curved Crease Folding (CCF) as our primary design method. We created component-based spatial modules using CCF frameworks as a unique property of CCF allowed us to produce 3-D geometries using 2-D shapes that are composed of reused concrete quads. To optimize the efficiency of the reused materials, each material component is given an ID to track its status in the material bank. 

We propose a gamified platform that helps stakeholders reach consensus and implement  architectural proposals physically, enabling users to visualize and interact with their environment in a virtual space.  

Phoenix promotes the densification through spatial geometry. Our platform provides an interactive way to engage in the process of demolition and reuse, incentivizing participants to customize spatial environment with reused materials. The spatial geometry builds up a foundation which is further implemented in a virtual platform, ensuring the process is economically and pertinently ecologically viable.