RECYCLED ARCHITECTURE
Why should buildings be built of recycled materials? So much energy isembodied in the products that we use and discard everyday, such asplastic milk jugs, aluminum cans and glass juice bottles. Commercialconstruction in the United States uses 72% of the electricitygenerated, 39% of all energy, and 40% of all raw materials. Wood andcrude oil are examples of raw materials that must be processed andrefined through energy intensive processes to produce those productsthat we discard without a thought. Building materials aremanufactured with the same basic methods. If our waste can bereconfigured, re-purposed, reclaimed, and reformed—all in all,recycled—we can reduce the amount of building products that wouldotherwise need to be manufactured from scratch and, thus, use moreenergy than necessary. There are other items, like shippingcontainers, airplanes and rubber tires, that may simply be deemed"junk" and condemned to sit in a landfill forever. Theskillful reuse of all of these materials, when combined with highlyrenewable sources, like cork and bamboo, can result in anarchitecture that is respectful of the planet's delicateenvironmental balance.
Thisbook aims to reveal the incredible and sometimes unexpectedtransformation from waste to architectural products and creationsthat utilize the embodied energy of their recycled components.
Introduction Booklet, 8"x8"
