Architecture Through Repurpose

“Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We allow them to disperse because we’ve been ignorant of their value.” – R. Buckminster Fuller

In a world which has always taken nature for granted and humans have exploited the earth, we as Architects have a major role to play on multiple fronts, to reverse the impending catastrophe. As sensitive professionals, we cannot divorce ourselves from social and environmental exigencies.  In the past architects have almost always laid the larger focus on building envelope, active and passive energy systems, pure aesthetics or short-term economics of materials.

The latter has not been studied with respect to long term gains and have remained at experimental levels in small sporadic pockets across the globe.

Building materials though are omnipresent. They make up the spaces in which we live, work, study, get well and commute, they create our villages, our cities and our built environment. They have social, cultural, moral and environmental implications and often subconsciously control our behavioral patterns and reactions to a space.

According to World Bank researchers, the world is generating at least 3.5 million tons of plastic and other solid waste per day, 10 times the amount a century ago.

Over the years several experimental technologies have been developed to create buildings that are sustainable, eco-friendly and assisted in the upliftment of the community.

One such example is a floating school in the former fishing village of Makoko, Nigeria that was conceptualized as an answer to the region's frequent floods. Designed by NLÉ, a firm founded by Nigerian-born architect Kunlé Adeyemi, the Makoko Floating School is a prototype that could be applied to other areas in Africa that face infrastructural and social challenges due to climate change. It uses renewable energy from a solar panelled roof, recycles organic waste and harvests rainwater. The school is Built using local help with sixteen recycled empty plastic barrels as buoys and indigenous bamboo as the framework. The school can now cater to those students, who were previously denied education due to frequent flooding. It can hold 60 to 100 students and is Built with a distinctive 3 storey triangular form that provides stability and balance in heavy winds. The structure can also be adapted for community events, clinics, markets and social gatherings.

This year’s IDC 2020 focusses on these issues and seeks to examine the place and use of discarded and recycled materials in architecture, at the same time keeping in mind community spirit and aspirations of the end users. With its 7th edition IDC wishes to encourage the use of discarded or recycled materials that are endemic to the area due to a prevalent industry or lifestyle. Few of the materials that are currently being explored and propagated as building materials on similar pretexts is Ferrock, which uses wasted steel dust from the steel industry to create stronger concrete. Similarly, wooden pallets are often used to create homes in areas where goods are packaged or around docks

Plastic bricks also have several significant advantages over conventional bricks - they're thinner and lighter, have insulating properties which are 5 times more than that of standard bricks, and are just as strong. They're also great at insulating against noise and it only takes 20 bottles on average to make one brick. Each brick helps rid the world of discarded plastic and is cheaper and more fuel efficient to manufacture than conventional bricks. It's also less energy intensive than recycling the plastic into other forms.

The Design Challenge:

This year’s design challenge involves the use of sustainable strategies produced using discarded or recycled materials. Participants need to identify an area where the availability of discarded material or solid waste is high. The material is then used to propose a structure for the local community that will take into cognizance their immediate needs and encourage the integration of the society as a whole. The proposed structure maybe housing units that offer dignity of living standards, a school a community hall or any other public facility.

Entries will be judged on the innovative use of the material, in the response to the need of the community and the final resolution proposed in the design.  The design must exhibit a sensitivity towards the environment and should address the ecology of the area at various levels. After all as architects we believe in the Robert Swan, that “The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.”

STAGE 1:

Online Registration of entries on our website - http://adityacampus.org/idc/

Registration closes on: OCTOBER 31ST, 2020

STAGE 2:

Last Date for online submission of entries is NOVEMBER 07th, 2020.

All Submissions shall be made in PDF or JPEG format only.

Submissions shall be made only through the unique USER ID generated after registering on our website.

STAGE 3:

IDC Jury - 08TH - 30TH NOVEMBER 2020

STAGE 4:

Results shall be declared on December 03RD, 2020.

SITE: Participants shall intervene on a site in the urban/rural and geographical context of their choice.

DESIGN INTERVENTION:

The proposed design intervention could be ranging from built form and landscape to urban renewal and systems. If the chosen intervention fits the scope of the brief, the participants are encouraged to think on multiple scales.

Accolade:

Certificates and prize amount as follows

·         1^st Place: INR 1,00,000/-

·         2^nd Place: INR 50,000/-

·         3^rd Place INR 30,000/-

Citations: Certificates shall be awarded to 4 Exemplary entries.

SUBMISSION:

•             Your reasons for the proposed intervention.

•             The process & method of design.

Representation of Ideas:

•             Participants can choose the adequate drawing scale to communicate their design scheme effectively.

•             They can provide any number of Architectural drawings enough to describe the scheme.

•             Pictures of Scaled Models, Computer generated 3D-Views, Renders, etc.

•             Diagrams, hand-made sketches and other Representational material.

 FORMAT:

•             Submit (Upload) your entries Up to 3 nos. of A2 size sheets, not exceeding an overall file size of 21MB with the submission specifications duly complied.

•             A bonafide certificate from your College/ University/ Institute certifying your admission (NOT exceeding a file size of 1 MB)

•             All participant teams shall be given a Unique IDC code that you shall have to put in all your deliverables.

TEAMS: Participating Teams shall comprise of a maximum of 5 students and a minimum of 1 student.

JUDGING PRODEDURE:

•             After the receipt of all entries by the stipulated deadline, 50 entries will be selected in round 1 by the review team of ACA.

•             Each jury member will be sent 10 entries for evaluation, from which they will choose the best 3.

•             The best 3 entries from each of the 5 jurors will form the top 15 entries

•             These 15 entries will then be sent to the entire panel for a joint evaluation, moderated by ACA where the final 3 winners will be decided on a joint consensus

•             Official Declaration of the 3 winners.

NOTE

Copyright for all material received as part of the competition, its publication and for the reproduction of content shall be solely with ACA.  All the entries will be the property of ACA.