Using “more grey matter” in order to use “less raw material” is one of the main concerns of this exhibition that calls in the collective intelligence to reconsider the material we use in our buildings.
75 projects prove the potential of reuse and the possible new lives that worn out materials from all areas of the construction industry can enjoy. In Brussels, second-hand bricks build today’s houses; in Massachusetts, freeway viaduct gantries give structure to a villa; in Saint-Denis, the cladding that has been turned down for a mall now covers the prestigious National Contemporary Academy of Circus Arts; in Madrid, yesterday’s tiles divide and transform an avant-garde cultural site; in Bali, hundreds of clerestory windows adorn a hotel; in Alabama, 72000 carpet slabs bear Lucy’s home; even the future headquarters of the European Council in Brussels attires itself in a frontage made of 3000 saved windows…
Re-use incredibly opens up the field of possibilities : prefabricated concrete, maritime piles, railway crossties, cable reels, plaster slabs meet daily waste to become foundation, siding materials, acoustical insulation, structure, frontage, etc.
