Waste-Land: A Bricolage Arcadia

WASTE-LAND: A BRICOLAGE ARCADIA ASHITA PAREKH

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CONTENTS 1. Site Analysis

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2. Essex Londons Dumping Ground

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3. Negotiating City

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4. World Waste Statistics

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5. Case Studies

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6. Waste-Land: A Bricolage Arcadia

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ABSTRACT The proposal analyses current waste disposal problems and looks at alleviating this critical issue by proposing an ‘infinite Waste-Land’ that creates a new type of community around reappropriated waste. It sets aside the misleading notions of danger and impurity around waste, to create a sustainable and self-sufficient Arcadia from other peoples ‘waste resources’. In this city, products would have a vastly increased lifespan: as elements degrade over time, they would be transformed into new objects in the home. Not only objects, but houses themselves would be made of waste. From a design point of view this is very interesting because every time something is thrown away something else would take its place creating an iterative design constantly in flux. This city would produce food, energy and water on site, using resources from the landfill, thus mitigating the issues of contaminated landscapes and water.r.

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SITE ANALYSIS East Tilbury is a village in the county of Essex, in East England, known mainly for its Anglo-Saxon heritage. East Tilbury is very well connected to the city of London, via road and rail, making it a very popular commuter village. The Bata Shoe factory was one of the highlights of East Tilbury and continues

to even after its closure in 2006. East

Tilbury was once an economic hub in Essex, but is now infested with landfills that have been under use since the 1900’s. East Tilbury faces a real threat of contamination since most of the landfills it sits on were not calibrated to the standards of ‘correct’ waste disposal, as they were being used before the Environmental Protection Act of 1978 was in place.

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M25

40

km

A13

EAST TILBURY

ESSEX TO LONDON

Essex is a county in the East of England.

Situated 40 kms from London. It is well connected to the capital by rail and roads. When Crossrail opens it will further solidify Essex’s role as a commuter haven for London 9

SOIL MAP

FIRM SOIL VERY DENSE SOIL

MAPPING EAST TILBURY Tilbury, just like all the other areas on the Essex coastline, is plagued by the issue of flooding.

The constant rise of water levels, due to climate change, is only worsening the current situation.

Tilbury is also an important site for landfills since it takes in waste from cities in the UK as well as overseas. However, with the rise in production of waste, the issues of waste disposal are worsening. Landfills are no more the answer to waste disposal and new sustainable strategies have to be devised soon.

STIFF SOIL AREAS VULNERABLE TO FLOODING INLAND RIVER

FLOOD MAP

LANDFILL MAP

HISTORIC LANDFILL SITES AUTHORISED LANDFILL SITES HABITATED LAND

HABITATION MAP

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EAST TILBURY CLIMATE

The county of Essex experiences typically mild weather throughout the year, August being the warmest month and February being the coldest. The county also experiences rainfall almost throughout the year. The county of Essex experiences strong winds, mostly due to depressions in the air stream, travelling towards the UK from very warm or very cold regions.

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BATA TOWN

Bata town was best known for being a selfsufficient city. Despite its factory like setting, the community at Bata was very strong since they had good living conditions and lots of other social activities to engage in. It had a work force of 45,000 people and a 16-storey-high HQ. It was designed by František Lydie Gahura, and by Vladimír Karfík.

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EAST TILBURY BATA ESTATE TIMELINE

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EXAMPLE OF BATA RECYCLING SYSTEM IN MALAWI

BATA: A RECYCLING PRODIGY From the 1930’s until late 1950’s Bata reclaimed rubber from car tyres to reuse in footwear production. Reclaiming tyres continued until steel reinforcing was used to strengthen tyres and the operation became unprofitable. PVC became a widely used material in footwear production and East Tilbury reclaimed over 80% of its waste to reuse in footwear production. Over the years many materials were reclaimed for use by other companies, these included scrap fabric, leather and cardboard.

SCRAP FABRIC

LEATHER

TYRES

CARDBOARD

PVC

BATA SHOES MADE OUT OF RECLAIMED MATERIAL

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ESSEX LONDONS DUMPING GROUND The ‘great agricultural depression’ (John Pam, 2004) of 1874-96, caused due to the industrial advancement in North America, pushed Essex into a major economic crisis from which it was never able to fully recover. The devaluation of Essex, due to industrialist capitalism, caused land prices to plummet

considerably, making it one of the

cheapest places to conduct land intensive businesses such as disposing off waste. Essex soon came to be known as the dumping ground of London, where all of London’s detritus, from garbage to corpses, were dumped (Burrows, 2016). East Tilbury, one such economic hub of Essex, is now infested with landfills that have been under use since the 1900’s.

East Tilbury, in particular, faces a real threat of contamination since most of the landfills it sits on were not calibrated to the standards of ‘correct’ waste disposal, as they were being used before the Environmental Protection Act of 1978 was in place.

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COLCHESTER LANDFILL

Tonnages accepted: 75,000 tonnes per annum

BARLING LANDFILL

Tonnages accepted: 30,000 tonnes per annum

OCKENDON LANDFILL

Tonnages accepted: 750,000 tonnes per annum of Non-Hazardous Industrial & 100,000 tonnes per annum of Inert Material Site scope: Leachate Treatment Plant

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SIZE OF SITE (hectares)

130

150

170

RAINHAM LANDFILL

PITSEA LANDFILL-

Tonnages accepted: 1,700,000 tonnes per annum.

Site scope: 70,000 tonnes per annum Materials Recovery Facility. 35,000 tonnes per annum green waste, soil washing, roadsweeping recycling plant and leachate treatment plant. Also generates electricity from landfill gas of up to 15MW power.

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Tonnages accepted: 800,000 tonnes per annum Solid Waste Inputs Site scope: Landfill Gas to Energy Plant producing 11.2 MW for the National Grid

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250

TYPES OF WASTE Non hazardous

Inert

Commercial

Domestic

Industrial

Contaminated

LANDFILLS IN ESSEX

The devaluation of Essex, due to industrialist capitalism, caused land prices to plummet considerably, making it one of the cheapest places to conduct land intensive businesses such as disLANDFILLS IN ESSEX posing off waste. Essex soon came to be known The devaluation of Essex, due to industrialist capitalism, caused land prices to as the dumping ground of plummet London, where all of it one of the cheapest places to conduct land inconsiderably, making tensive businesses such as disposing off waste. Essex soon came to be known London’s detritus, from garbageto corpses, were as the dumping ground of London, where all of London’s detritus, from garbage dumped to corpses, were dumped

Mucking Marshes - Inert - Industrial - Commercial - Household - Special

Bata Town

Predicted flooding

Love Lane, 1934 - Inert - Industrial - Commercial

East Tilbury Marshes, 1932

- Industrial - Commercial - Household - Sewage Sludge

SITE MODEL 1:1500

HISTORIC LANDFILLS

AUTHORIZED LANDFILLS

SITE MODEL

East Tilbury faces a real threat of contamination since most of the landfills it sits on were not calibrated to the standards of ‘correct’ waste disposal, as they were being used before the Environmental Protection Act of 1978 was in place.

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355 mm Main Header

125 mm Main/Lateral Header

90mm Well Flowline/Lat. HDR

Furze Hill

LANDFILL SITE VISIT

A visit to one of the landfill sites in Essex highlighted the fact of that landfills are artificially curated ‘hills’. Contour maps are strictly followed to create ‘waste-landscapes’, establishing the fact that all ‘hills’ in East Tilbury are man-made landfill sites

CREATING WASTE LANDSCAPES

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NEGOTIATING CITY Coming from the concept that when something disappears or is “gone� it actually reappears somewhere else, maybe in a different form, but it reappears. This is best explained by the up-down movement which shows that when something goes up something has to come down.

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Saood Shariff, ‘The Overlapping City’

Stavros Kot of Depe

Eleni Pourdala, ‘Unfolding Book’

Steve Percy, ‘Blue Steel’ Maria Prodromou, ‘DIY Echo’

Federica Terenzi, ‘Moving Roo

Ashita Parekh, ‘Gone but not Forgotten’

Eleni Vagianou, ‘Shifting Territories’

Bowen Zuo, ‘POPS Pop Up’

Xun Dong, ‘ Ant Tribe’

Minjia Hu, ‘Shifting Boundaries’

tsikas, ‘System endencies’

David Guerrero Valenzuela, ‘Rip-Off’

Shalhavet Visner, ‘Rhyzomatic Territories’

ots Pinball’ Bing Chow, ‘Service City’

Jakir Noor, ‘Animated Landscapes’

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ITERATION 1- ELEMENT OF SURPRISE Starting with the base idea, that when something goes up, something has to come down, this model also suggests that this rhythmic movement usually reveals things unseen otherwise. Landfills often look clean and covered from the above, but its consequences are usually felt in many other forms. People in First World countries believe that once they throw their waste its gone, but it often turns up in poorer countries where it plays a role in shaping peoples lives.

ITERATION 2- CREATING LANDSCAPES Taking the idea of this movement further, this concept model looks at how it would impact landscapes. A landfill is more planned than one thinks. Waste landscapes are perfectly curated, and this is what the model conceptually tries to convey. The thing that is thrown away doesn’t only live for another million years but creates artificial landscapes with that lifespan.

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MODEL ILLUSTRATION

MECHANISM ‘Playing’ the instrument creates rhythmic movements that change the ‘cloth’ landscape. The movement is symbiotic, thus laying stress on the concept of something appearing when something else simultaneously disappears Medium: Wood + brass pipes+elastic fabric 37

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WORLD WASTE STATISTICS The issue of waste disposal is one of the most daunting issues facing the world since it impairs public health, pollutes the environment and threatens to drown some poor countries in toxicity. This problem of waste disposal and contamination plagues most of the developed and developing countries mostly due to the capitalist attitude towards consumption that modern societies follow, “where the dream is of endless supply of goods, while neglecting the aftermath of consumption generated waste�.

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PROJECTED WASTE PRODUCTION FOR 2025 tonnes/day EAST ASIA + PACIFIC (1,865,379) OECD (1,742,417) LATIN AMERICA+CARRIBEAN (728,392) SOUTH ASIA (567,545) SUB SAHARAN AFRICA (441,840) MIDDLE EAST+NORTH AFRICA (369,320) EUROPE+CENTRAL ASIA (354,810)

$ 175 billion Increase in annual waste is projected to raise the annual waste management global costs from $205 billion to $375 billion

0.9 billion tonnes/year The projected rise in the amount of waste, from 1.3 billion tonnes per year today to 2.2 billion tonnes per year by 2025

70% By 2025, the World Bank projects a 70% global increase in urban solid waste

2.5 million tonnes/day Solid waste is projected to rise from 3.5 million tonnes per day in 2010 to more than 6 million tonnes per day by 2025

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>60% 50.1-60% 40.1-50% 30.1-40% <30% RECYCLING STATISTICS UK

HIGH

LOW FLY-TIPPING STATISTICS UK

RECYCLING STATISTICS UK

England produces almost 335 million tonnes of waste annually with the most waste coming from construction & demolition sites, followed by household waste, and commercial & industrial waste. The UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s landfills are rapidly filling up as a result of low recycling rates and it is predicted that by 2018 there will be no landfill space left.

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CASE STUDIES Case studies surrounding waste-based communities as seen in the present world are analysed and crucial findings are directly applied to the design proposal.

The design proposal is inclined towards establishing a new infrastructural model that facilitates this repurposing agenda whilst creating closely knit communities. This proposal critically analyses and learns from case studies, like Dharavi in Mumbai, and Alang in Gujarat, how waste is reappropriated to create distinct kinds of livelihoods, around the world, where the landfill is the main resource and creatively reappropriating waste is the only means of survival. Crucial findings from these case studies are then applied to the fantastical proposal to ensure its synergistic functioning.

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19.0402° N 72.8509° E MUMBAI, INDIA

DHARAVI Dharavi is most commonly tagged as the largest slum of Asia. Housing more than 1 million inhabitants, this informal dwelling is more than just a “slum”. Located in one of the most prime localities in Mumbai, this settlement the greatest example of a thriving work-live community.

The 13th Compound is one of Dharavi’s key neighbourhoods for recycling. This is one of the only ‘factory’ areas in Dharavi where inhabitants don’t live where they work. This is mostly because labour from outside of the community are hired to do the jobs. Around 80-85% of Mumbai’s plastic waste is recycled here. It consists of approx.

15,000 single-room factories, with 5-6 labourers working for each factory.

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WHOLESALE

RETAIL

INDUSTRIES

TOURISM

INFRASTRUCTURE

Located at the heart of Mumbai, this “slum” is one of the most important recycling facilities the city has.

Without this informal recycling system Mumbai’s infrastructure would not be able to cope with the amount of waste it produces. Dharavi has been described by the UK’s Observer as “one of the most inspiring economic models in Asia”.

DHARAVI ECONOMICS

LIVELIHOOD

EMPLOYMENT ECONOMY

Mumbai produces almost 7,025 tonnes of waste on a daily basis, making recycling and waste scavenging important recycling opportunities for people that migrate from rural areas

GLOBALIZATION

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FOOD

TEXTILE

ELECTRONICS

METALS

PAPER/CARD

PLASTIC

80% of Mumbai’s waste is recycled at Dharavi. The recycling business is mainly concentrated at 13th Compound which has upto 15,000 single room factories, employing around a quarter of a million people.

$1 billion

RECYCLING

Mumbai is home to almost 300,000 ‘ragpickers’, that scavenge through piles of landfill and waste to collect recyclable materials.

RECYCLING

LIVELIHOOD

EMPLOYMENT

SCRAP DEALERS

COMMUNITY

$200 million revenue

TANNERY

POTTERY

FISHERY

ALANG Alang is one of the major shipbreaking destinations in Asia. Located in Bhavnagar district, in the state of Guajarat, India, it has a mere population of approximately, 18,500 inhabitants.

The ship-breaking yard at Alang stretches across the beach for 10 kms. The beach is divided up into hundreds of plots that are privately owned by different ship-breaking companies. It is one of the largest ship-breaking yards in the world and it can dismantle almost 450 ships in a year.

The items from the ships are broken down and recycled or reused till their smallest possible scale.

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BOATS AND FISHING SUPPLIES

UTENSILS AND ELECTRONICS 55

ELECTRONICS AND CLOTHING

UTENSILS AND ELECTRONICS 57

The Alang market sells all the items that are too expensive to recycle, from lifeboats to engines, and furniture to cutlery. They also sell electronics, pipes, clothes, food, cleaning supplies and video games.

Alang is one of the largest shipbreaking yards in the world, where almost 80% of the worlds waste ships come to die. Here every single element of the ship is sold, from steel to gases and machinery to cutlery. It has one of the most linear economic models of dissection

ALANG ECONOMICS

STEEL

NON-FERROUS

GASES

$100,000

SUNDRY

TOURISM

RECYCLING

LIVELIHOOD

EMPLOYMENT

COMMUNITY

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EDUCATION

INFRASTRUCTURE

HEALTHCARE

TAXES

Shipbreaking companies have to give the government almost 35% of their proďŹ t in taxes. This goes towards the improving amenities in India.

$30 million

The steel re-rolling industry fetches around $25 million, the gas industry around $10 million and the non-ferrous metal industry around $5 million

$13 million

Alang directly employs close to 40,000 employs and indirectly around 160,000 employs associated to further upstream activities.

CLOTHING

INDUSTRIAL USE

$800,000

SHIP BREAKING COMPANY

FOOD

Ships are sold to dismantling yards for as less as $800,000 since their condition is quite desolate and third world countries are the only market for such ships

$85 million

HOUSING

$40 million

OWNER

GLOBALIZATION

INFRASTRUCTURE

ECONOMY

WASTE-LAND: A BRICOLAGE ARCADIA In the near future the ‘Waste-Land’ passes through the dark skies, looking for resources, which it draws from old landfills, to power its city. Although floating orbs are not an unusual sight for the time, the ‘Waste-Land’ stands out — an all human settlement, closed off completely from the outside; a contaminated, virtual reality world that exists beyond its bounds. Once the ‘Waste-Land’ finds a suitable ground from which to collect resources, its tentacles extend beyond its overwhelming frame, puncturing the surface of the earth toextract as many resources as it can. It digs into the landfills to build up.

Not only do these exploited landfills provide the ‘WasteLand’ with resources, but the heavy contamination also serves as an energy source to keep the orb floating while fuelling the services and functions of the city, until all resources have been depleted. A fully selfsustaining city, its inhabitants draw from the landfills to grow their own food and create household items. Once all such exploitable resources have been stripped of the particular landfill, the city goes into hibernation until it finds the next landfill off of which to feed.

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SLUDGE MINES Water from the River Thames is diverted into the mainland through a canal, where it is mixed with sludge from underlying landfill. This water is the converted into ‘nutrient’ water by passage through graphene sieves and selective filtration systems. ‘Nutrient’ water is used for farming, aquaculture, and is further purified for domestic use.

METHANE MINES Biogas is extracted from Mucking Marshes Landfill and transported to the Waste-Land via balloons. This energy runs industrial + domestic functions in the Waste-Land. It is also traded in the form of batteries, to neighbouring settlement, in exchange for waste resources.

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EXTRACT

CREATE

TRADE

WASTE-LAND PRINCIPLES

The foremost function of the Waste-Land is to extract resources from ‘waste-mines’ so that the ‘discarded’ commodity is brought back into use as a resource in a different setting. Waste-Land then uses the extracted resources to create new materials, economies, and livelihoods. Items are then traded amongst the Waste-land and outside, from neighbouring settlements to establishments in London.

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WASTE-LAND FUNCTIONS

Inspired by the waste-based socio-economic models of Dharavi and Alang, the Waste-Land takes on a linear system of functioning. Resources are sorted on the first few levels, and then transformed or repurposed into newer objects that are either traded or utilized in the WasteLand system

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ANATOMY OF WASTE-LAND

The core is the backbone of the Waste-Land.

Encased within a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Xâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; capsule made with reclaimed timber, the core has a Digestor, filteration unit, and electricity generator. The digestor separates sludge into dry waste and water. Dry waste is burnt to produce biogas, whereas the water is filtered through the filteration system for domestic purposes 71

TILBURY STOCK EXCHANGE

Waste-Land encourages a trade system that facilitates the creative production of items to sustain livelihoods, from waste, by the consumers and for the consumers. Waste-Land becomes a centre for waste trade; trading amongst the inhabitants of the micro-city and also facilitating trade outside of it, eventually minimising discrimination based on social hierarchy of waste.

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NEWSPAPER BALE HOUSE DETAIL

Constructed from crushed and compacted bales of newspaper, this house iteration is a great example of sustainable, waste, super-insulated units. The unit uses waste paper, recycled timber, and mud plaster.

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Xâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; FACADE DETAIL

The facade is made of yard trimmings, one of the highly discarded materials, using wood joinery.

The facade alters its form depending on density of the different levels 75

WASTE-LAND HOMES

The housing units in Waste-Land are all unique, ranging from appliance homes, to cabinet homes and window units to cargo units.

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WASTE-LAND: A BRICOLAGE ARCADIA The Waste-Land proposal is a sustainable communal model that would alleviate global issues surrounding waste generation and disposal, by taking something ‘destructive’ and turning it into something ‘creative’.

Waste-Land is envisioned as city that creates a new socio-economic model with waste at the core of its functioning. The main objective of the Waste-Land is to create a self-sufficient, autonomous, and closely-knit model of a cyclical waste livelihood. Not only does Waste-Land serve as a model showcasing the consequences of uncontrolled waste generation, but it also provides a way to deal with it in a socially, economically and environmentally beneficial way. It localises the economy of waste to the neighbourhood of East Tilbury and makes it the new locus for all recycling and repurposing activities in England.

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