Location: Two Bridges

Instructor: Marc Tsurumaki

In Collaboration with : Eva Jiang

Columbia GSAPP Fall 2020

xxAtlas is a replicable systems approach to architecture that mines the relationship between new architectural production and recycled materials. In particular, the project proposes the reuse of construction and demolition (C&D) materials from one site to another as a methodology for designing for productive uncertainty.

C&D Material Recycling

C&D waste constitutes 60% of New York City's solid waste stream. Analysis of the waste stream of Manhattan revealed that the city only provides collection of residential, government and non-profit wastes. Further, inefficiencies in collection practices of commercial and C&D waste cause only half of the waste to be captured.

xxATLAS proposes a new system of recycling on-site, reducing the material waste as well as the carbon footprint lost in the production and transportation of materials. Pre-collection of waste from the neighborhood, regardless of whether it is residential or commercial, allows for easier filtering to protect the materials that can be reused as building materials.

While researching on current demolition projects in NYC, we came across this massive demolition project of taking down 270 Park Ave, which is going to be the tallest building demolished. Given its location, materiality and size, we identified it as an ideal source of original materials for our recycling system. Given the demolition schedule, now we know how it will start with removal of street level landscapes, construction of protections and scaffoldings and then going through a top-down demolition process. This gives us an idea to construct our system in the reverse order, where we deal with the curtainwall panels first then to the fixtures and drywalls, then eventually the steel frames. Since the Gordon Bunshaft skyscraper is relatively old, we were not able to find a documentation of the specific materials it used but we assumed these materials can be reused directly. Also, wastes such as plastic wraps and paper produced during the demolition process can be turned into new construction materials such as stronger plastic concrete, insulation, bricks and even façade.

Our test model, a mixed-use development in Two Bridges, reuses construction materials from the 2020 demolition of 270 Park Ave in Manhattan. The phases of the new site project come in the reverse order of the demolition. The first phase is the conversion of an existing on-site commercial building into a recycling plant used to process 270 Park Ave's materials. The C&D waste is recycled as platforms for public activities and the structural frame for housing.

Residential waste (paper/plastic/metal/glass)is up-cycled into modular units that are plugged into the frame. As the demolition of 270 Park Ave progresses to phase two, a new housing tier is added, repeating for all three phases.

When the project is finished, and the demolition of the 270 Park Ave also finished, the recycling plant transitions to function as an on-site residential waste re-purposing system to further expand the existing units.

xxATLAS's Two Bridges site acts as a prototype to be implemented elsewhere where the demolition of buildings occurs. After building the structure grid, new residents can gain agency to participate in the designing process to customize their unit using an open-source toolkit. They can negotiate and design collectively, producing private and shared spaces that can be used for education, community and commercial purposes.

Panorama View