Project Title: transFORM

Type: Competition

Categories: Architecture, Material System, Urban System

Location: London

Credits: Marco Danesi, Alessandra Peroni, Pradeep Devadass, Sushant Verma. 

 

THE INSPIRATION

Recycling of waste products has been an over-rated phenomenon in the production industry when it comes to environmental consciousness. Much of daily use products end up their life cycle as waste, which partially gets recycled that uses a considerable amount of energy in the process, and partially gets dumped as landfills or in other such alternative ways. This further leads to burden the environment in a number of ways, making the entire production & recycle industry less efficient. A considerable amount of research is being carried out since many years to make the process more environmental friendly but a conscious effort to re-use waste in a creative & functional way has been missing widely.

 

We are trying to deal with the issue by introducing a design strategy, followed by a usability process, for one of the most widely used (and supposedly recycled) home products: Plastic water bottles and aluminium cans.

 

The problem is tackled by introducing a new kind of bottle & can system that is manufactured with an embedded origami pattern on its skin, with pre-defined score lines (valleys and mountains). This part of the system can be torn out after use, flat-packed into a sheet, and actuated to form a new geometry. The varying degrees of actuation can lead to differentiation in geometries that emerge from the re-used bottles/cans, and can be further used to combine in a number of ways to form products such as small-scale household items (vases & lampshades) to large scale urban interventions that exhibit intricate geometrical patterns in a pavilion space.

 

By introducing this new life cycle with a simple alteration in existing manufacturing process, we are able to tackle the widely increasing problem of recyclability by maximizing the life cycle of a product, and minimizing the need for recyclability. Additionally, the idea of re-using a simple daily used product as another object in an urban setting raises the awareness in society about re-usability and waste, incrementally solving a large scale problem in today’s world.

 

 

THE FUNCTION

The design (which is more of a system & usability life-cycle) serves to impact the perception of re-cycle and re-use in the society by showcasing the simple idea which can produce large scale urban pavilions from a number of re-used plastic bottles or aluminium cans. A large number of permutations and combinations of the way one object aggregates with others can lead to a varied number of results. The methodology aims to serve as a starting point for a new way of thinking towards waste products.

 

The product (or methodology) operates as a manufacturing alternative where patterns can be embedded at the time of production. These patterns also create a sense of tactility which stimulates a sense of realization to the users about the life cycle of the product, after its conventional usage. The second stage of usage in the life cycle is for making vases and lamp shades, which require 15-25 extracted sheets from plastic bottles or 30-45 extracted sheets from aluminium cans. After its usability as these products, the sheets can be disassembled and re-assembled at large scale to create pavilions as urban interventions in public places to create awareness among people about re-usability of daily used products. 600 or even larger number of flat sheets can be combined to form large scale pavilion structures. The leads to a larger environmental agenda targeted through a simple design intervention.

 

A multiple number of combination strategies can be used to form different objects, followed by another layer of permutation by changing the magnitude of actuation forces.