Infozentrale auf dem Vollgut - Circular Construction for a Post-Fossil Society

Abstract

The "Infozentrale auf dem Vollgut" was designed and realised by a group of 36 students as part of the BUILDinG CYCLE design studio from the Natural Building Lab at the Technische Universitt Berlin. In co-operation with the research project RE4 [1], a building embodying circular construction principles was realised from waste materials as a DesignBuild project, offering an answer to questions relating to resource-positive construction in an urban context and embodies a new method of architectural production for a post-consumer society. In the opening weeks of the project the student groups undertook a material research, where innovative low-tech constructive elements were created using a wide range of waste materials Through this research the groups established a network, through which they were able to source larger amounts of the waste materials used for the building - recovered timber and cardboard. The load bearing structure of the building is formed from timber recovered from local demolition sites and a dismantled architectural installation from the International Garden Festival 2017, thus providing a second usage cycle for this valuable resource. The 5.5m x 7.0m roof structure is formed by a pre-stressed grid of layered and interlocking re-used timber beams with reversible connections designed for disassembly. For the wall elements an experimental system was developed utilising stacked upcycled cardboard fruit boxes filled with shredded paper as insulation and covered with recovered large format posters and plot drawings - common waste materials within the architecture faculty. The project embodies circular construction principles and serves as a prototype for a LowTech post-fossil architecture based on the realities of resource scarcity and climate change.