The Plastic Co-op

Idea by

Zara Adler

https://www.zaraadler.com/

Copenhagen, Denmark

Architect Zara Adler explores how architecture and our perception of it, can be transformed when placed in environments that are out of balance. Her work explores dynamic constellations of materials that are in constant flux and interaction with the context they are placed in. From locally harvested building materials to plastics found in the ocean, they all form part of a narrative that invites to assume responsibility for the future environments we create and inhabit.

Call for ideas 2019

Turning recycled plastic waste into a building material of the future.

# Construction

Systemic changes

Our world's oceans are drowning in plastic. When seeing the areas where this pathogen accumulates, it seems delusional and out of scale. Plastic has already invaded the ecologies of the ocean to the extent that it has created a new polluted ecology.

Plastic Co-ops are a place to start collectively redesigning the future of this material. They work as a hub for education, experimentation, and construction with this material - turning it into a valuable resource.

Using recycled plastic as a building material in these hubs is possible. Recycled plastic can be shredded into pellets and converted into 3D printing filament. Larger scale 3D printers can then create construction elements, that reduce waste and lower the carbon footprint from traditional building methods.

Another future for recycled plastic in construction is possible - if the current culture of consumption and use has transformation as a tenet.

POLLUTED WASTELAND
... from the diverse landscapes we ventured into, one element kept appearing, gradually becoming a pathogen that had been extracted from a different context and inserted in the landscape ... no matter how deep we ventured into the wild, traces of this element was present ...