Urban mining. Scoping resources for circular construction

Abstract

Operating with an abundance mindset – rather than from a place of “scarcity” – is a new paradigm, relevant to the practices of design and construction, which expands the definition of “resources” as well as where resources, both raw and non-raw materials, can be found and “mined”.

Within three scales of design and planning, the current research – developed at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) – examines the applications of computational technologies and life cycle assessment with the goal of setting up protocols for enhancing processes of urban mining and material reuse in future circular construction. In the material scale (i), selected projects experiment with up-cycled waste for the creation of new engineered composites for construction. In the building scale (ii), robotic technologies and computer vision are used to scan and sort the materials from existing buildings or demolition sites. Finally, in the urban scale (iii), google images, satellite data and ML are used to index the existing material stock in building façades in cities.

The research calls for agents involved in design, planning and construction to shift their focus to the anthroposphere as a source of, rather than just a destination for, processed goods. The concept of “urban mining” is revisited to manage the material stock in urban systems and the use of anthropogenic resources in new production cycles.

Through a multi-scalar approach, the outcome challenges the foundation of our material practices, presenting the potential to disrupt linear patterns of design and making in the built environment.