Abstract

Permanence is not a matter of the materials you use. Permanence is whether people love your building. (Shigeru Ban) Ecological debates in the 21st century have reached an overarching consensus on humanity’s unprecedented impact on natural resources and the emergence of a new/altered environmental reality. Anthropocene (indicating the new geological epoch we live in) has become a widely used term in all circles from science to art and design, to describe our insurmountable capability to change Earth’s climate and environmental trajectory. One very visible issue coming out of these discussions is the amount of solid waste that we generate around the world, over two billion tones annually. A design culture based on the exhaustion of natural resources and use of virgin materials is threatening the social and environmental ecologies that all human and non-human beings rely on for survival. My goal with the Building with Waste prototypical experiments is to challenge the design practice with a linear production trajectory that favors a take/make/waste attitude while ignoring the design industry’s contribution to environmental degradation and climate change. With the prototypical experiments, I pursue conceptual and practical strategies, materials and product ideas with an intention to rematerialize and up-cycle the use of waste as a renewable resource in design. These explorations, ranging from the scale of ornament, object, surface to 3D spatial form, attempt to integrate local waste issues and seek sustainable solutions to create a new language while addressing the environmental degradation through design practices.

Presenters

Filiz Klassen
Professor, School of Interior Design , Toronto Metropolitan University, Ontario, Canada

Details

Presentation Type

Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Theme

2023 Special Focus—Human/Nature: Toward A Reconciliation

KEYWORDS

Anthropocene; Waste, New design language, Re-use, Upcycle

Digital Media

Videos

Downloads