Architecture Beyond Waste: Redirecting Urban Consumption

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Title of Thesis: Architecture Beyond Waste

Degree Candidate: Stanley Mathurin

Degree and Year: Master Of Architecture, 2010

Thesis directed by: Assistant Professor Hooman Koliji, Chair

Assistant Professor Micheal Ambrose

Professor Emeritus Ralph D. Bennett, AIA

The rate of our consumption is rapidly transforming our planet's biomass into human mass, which equals more trash. The U.S. is estimated to generate 225 million tons of trash a year. Each one of us generates about 4.3 pounds of waste per day. As a country we generate more garbage than any other country by far. About one-third of American garbage will be recycled or composted, leaving about 150 million tons of garbage to be managed by other methods.

This thesis aims to foster new developments in the design, construction and operation of municipal systems in urban areas. This architecture will respond to the cities rate of consumption and the disposal of waste by alternative methods that produce energy, such as turning waste into fertilizer, biogas, electricity, recyclable materials and distributing it back into the surrounding community.