Design from Finite Material Libraries: Enabling Project-Confined Re-use in Architectural Design and Construction Through Computational Design Systems

Paper in proceeding, 2023

This paper presents two cases of material reuse in architectural practice, employing bespoke computational workflows. The first unpacks a complete cycle of from building demolition of an existing building in Jarvso, Sweden, through the design and fabrication of a temporary and mobile pavilion for use at a series of urban events, to its final destination as a wind shelter not far from the forests where the material was initially harvested. The second presents scaled approaches and methods to respond to the competition brief for the redevelopment of a partial urban block in Berlin, using the material stock from the existing building as a material library. Both cases have been developed in constrained project contexts where the resources of the material libraries have been limited and directly associated to the project - rather than being part of an open market of re-used resources - allowing data on availability, amount, and quality to be readily available. In this sense the approach can be defined as a project-confined re-use workflow, providing the opportunity to target the association between the design modelling environment and the material library.