RE–USE; RE–MIX (dubtracks) reclaiming “the WASTELAND”

Now that we are (hopefully) passing the time of arrogant stylistic gestures with their neglect of environmental concerns; we need to re-work the reputation of the architect). It’s time to take WASTE seriously – as the construction industry generates 38% of current CO2 emissions – and turn it into “new” material.

Studio 16 aims to build a re-worked architectural language with this thesis; “there is no necessity for new materials, and no need to expand our cities in terms of development because we already have all that we require; what needs to happen is to identify, classify, and re-assign the existing materials to projects in existing places. We can re-make parts of the city without producing new construction materials while at the same time create another idea for beauty – a beauty that rises out of the re-assessment of what is called “useless”.

It’s an experiment; the thesis + associated testing will create a toolbox that will (theoretically at this stage) re-build a section of the north Laines in Brighton without any demolition of existing fabric + will place our re-usable materials in a re-mix that also investigates the political and social aspects of space in the city. NOTE; this thesis obviously includes the re-appropriation of neglected space(s) in our selected territory. It’s a project which is supra-contextual. It’s a project that brings value to what is generally considered valueless. A “hybrid” model of a re-mix of re-use + “catalogue” materials will evolve in our projects.

We will be contesting standard Planning Legislation and developing both more useful and more joyful scenarios for composing our city.

Ethics will replace aesthetics as the creative impulse for this new architecture.
remember, “technology is a design tool”; a new “joyful wisdom” – Nietzsche