MOMA | Material Worlds: Given Condition

LECTURE / PANEL

Material Worlds: Given Conditions

Tue, May 16TH 2023, 12:00 p.m

online

GIVEN CONDITIONS

There’s a chance your gold earrings were mined by someone in AD 100. For ages, tons of gold have regularly been excavated and added to the global pool, constantly being melted and reshaped into coins, watches, rings, and bars. But for the first time in human history, gold is leaving the supply loop: People are burying hundreds of millions of dollars worth in landfills because it’s easier to dispose of smartphones than deconstruct them for the 30mg of gold they each contain.

It’s not limited to smartphones—entire buildings are being buried with valuables inside. The most recent report by the US Environmental Protection Agency suggests that the volume of building construction and demolition debris dumped in landfills was six times more than the volume of fresh concrete poured, with 90% coming from demolition, surpassing all other forms of waste. As many have said, the most sustainable building is the one that is already built. Our ability to divert material from the landfill, avoid demolition, and create processes for reuse is one of the most environmentally just values designers and clients should embody.

80% of the buildings that exist now will still exist in 2050. As the built environment contributes almost half of global greenhouse gases, our approach to these given conditions will strongly impact whether we meets any of our established climate goals. What kind of possibilities arise when designers reorient their practice, pedagogy, and mindset to focus on materials that are already there?

Panelists:

Charlotte Malterre-Barthes

Keller Easterling

Jay Sae Jung Oh

Moderator:

Lindsey Wikstrom