In-between two worlds

Currently, demolition waste constitutes the largest waste stream worldwide. By considering cities undergoing renovation, I propose a physical dissection of the panel housings from the Socialist era that are currently under demolition plan, their fragmentation, and recycling through robotic automation based on their structure, material, and condition. The resulting new product can be integrated into the urban fabric as a space intimately engaging with the landscape.

Diagrams of Operational Stages

To design this hypothetical process of the mechanical fabric, I derived its core stages from the well-established recycling realm: demolition and extraction, the rhythmic transit of materials, the art of sorting and grinding, and the virtual archival through 3D scanning, that breathes life into cherished memories, while also unfurling a captivating new dimension of the past.

Operational Matrix

I wanted to challenge the linearity of industrial mass-production assembly line methodology through the lens of the Post Fordism theory. Therefore, my project consists of discrete nodes of flexible specialised stages within the overall glass recycling. Those processes are further subdivided into two operational fields. The first one is fracturing-where the initial extracted elements are prepared for the second group of processes where the new glass tectonic elements are fabricated.

Ephemeral Glass Utopia

Glass has a certain beauty in its fluidity and potentialities; the fact that something so piercingly cold and sharp can be twisted, stretched, and sculpted will always possess an element of pure alchemy. Generally, nowadays architecture that is being built consists of typical prefabricated housing estates that are restrained by fixed industrial and engineering processes. In this project, I aimed to deliver specific uniqueness to the ordinary systems of recycling and glass construction by formulating a new continuous flow of automated processes of material recycling that introduces new modifications to the end product of material transformational flow. The newly produced glass elements are no longer simply columns, walls or floors, but instead, they become part of the infinite caves, horizontal crystalised landscapes, expanding transparent mazes distorting views and frozen vertical cascades, which starting from the technical analysis toward a variety of forms, colours and psychological responses transform the perception of interiors and exteriors, as well as orchestrate emotions and present a unique opportunity for glass construction. I wanted to go beyond the physical boundaries of visible and proceed to a level of virtual projections to add extra dimensions, optical illusions, and notions of movement onto previously static objects and introduce something unreal into the real world.