As part of Climate Action Week Sydney, a landscape of discarded plasterboard was positioned in the centre of Martin Place on 11 March, serving as a call to action to address needless and excessive waste generated by the construction sector.
The installation, titled Shattered Topography: A Monument to Waste, was developed by the University of New South Wales Arch Manu team, ScaleRule and Prevalent, drawing on industry research. Using plasterboard offcuts and demolition waste supplied by contractors Built and Mirvac from their active construction sites, the installation manifested a single tonne of the one million tonnes of waste generated by the local construction sector each year.
“This project is fundamentally about socialising an ecological crisis that typically remains hidden from public view,” Prevalent director Ben Berwick said.
According to the project team’s media release, commercial office fitouts are a prime culprit in generating construction waste, with “perfectly viable interiors … stripped and landfilled simply to satisfy arbitrary leasing standards and property valuation metrics.”
Berwick added, “Martin Place is one of the busiest pedestrian spaces in Australia. By placing this 30m long line [of discarded plasterboard] directly between the ASX and the Commbank building, we confront the financial sector with the physical consequences of its demand for the new.”
The project team argues that the problem of construction waste cannot be solved by individuals alone, instead requiring systemic policy shifts that make retention of existing building fabric the most economically viable option.
“The only way to reduce material waste is to change the legislative and economic system itself,” the release states. “Without robust governmental policy, such as councils incentivising material reuse and penalising demolition, the industry is forced to rely on technocratic fixes that do not address the root causes of ecological collapse.”
Through their installation, the project’s authors invite the architectural profession, construction sector and local policy makers to engage in a discussion around the legislative change needed to reform the construction industry.
Berwick commented that the installation, which concluded with an industry roundtable on the entanglements between circular material loops, economy, climate, energy and culture, garnered wide interest.
“The response to the installation during its 24-hour run was overwhelming, sparking conversations with thousands of pedestrians and even drawing representatives from the office of the Premier,” he said.
Shattered Topography is a collaboration between the UNSW Arch Manu team, including Prof. M. Hank Hausler, Dr. Ivana Kuzmanovska, Farnaz Fattahi, Dr. Christopher Bamborough; Scale Rule, including Annabel Koeck and Andy Watts; and Ben Berwick of Prevalent. Further information on the project is accessible online.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
