City as garbage as City
An inverse representation of the Statue of Liberty, from Terreform's proposal.
A design proposal that seemed almost inevitable: New York-based architects Terreform propose the employment of automated robots in reusing garbage sited within the Fresh Kills Landfill to construct buildings and islands. The robots, refashioned from existing industrial equipment, would compact garbage into stackable units and be assembled like building blocks.
Wall-E, anyone? The firm’s proposal, Rapid Re(f)use, bears uncanny similarity to the animated robot’s activities, of course; their cleverness is really rendering the film’s scenario in real world architectural terms to reflect meaningfully on the relationship between the city and its waste. Terreform posits that the entire volume of the Fresh Kills Landfill, in addition to waste newly generated and collected, could be used to construct seven landmasses equivalent in size to Manhattan island. A provocative idea, for sure, and fodder for further academic discourse.
To be clear, though, we’re sticking to the park project.
(via Inhabitat)
