Urban Alchemy
Team
Name: Emily Lalonde
Nationality: Canadian
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilylalonde/
Name: Georgia Temush
Nationality: Canadian
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgia-temush-57a675181/
-EDITORIAL PICK of Community 2050 Competition | Category: Open
Urban Alchemy, a proposal for the site of Ijplien, Amsterdam, is a project that imagines a future city that celebrates and embraces waste. The project takes a look under the rug at the nature of trash and considers ways to elevate what is often neglected and intentionally dismissed by today’s society. Urban Alchemy exposes how waste and production are two sides of the same coin and therefore merges the two together into one cohesive system. This is achieved through the proposal of a vacuum waste disposal system that connects vibrant “trash boxes” dispersed around the community to a “waste and create centre” called the Alchemy Factory. Once waste arrives at the Alchemy Factory, it is processed by the community and utilized as raw materials by creators within a makerspace that is located within the same premises. Along with trash, Urban Alchemy looks at how to celebrate other forms of urban waste, such as run off water. Water towers and filtration systems are located all around the site to collect run-off water and to prevent it from entering Amsterdam’s canals and polluting the waterways. Once filtered, the water can then be used to water plants and trees located in gardens and greenhouses around the community. This project aims to reconnect the loop of production to consumption by utilising data and technology in an effort to tie people together with their neighborhoods. As a collective, we need to regain an emotional relationship with our personal material belongings and raise awareness for the labour and raw materials that go into creating them. We aim to celebrate labour though a creative outlet, and the items we do not think twice about throwing away.
“Our trash doesn’t disappear, it goes somewhere and affects someone” – Lillygol Sedaghat
This proposal acts as a criticism of contemporary society’s relationship with consumption and the value placed on the production and labor associated with material items.
#Trash #Upcycle #Recycle #Closedloop
