Library of Reuse

Expert craftsmanship is indispensable, but having access to optimal tools can transform approaches to design. Andreas Rhyner, woodworking technician and event manager at Shaper Tools, talks with Ana Bendiek-Laranjo from the CEA Lab about his own training as a joiner and how he challenges himself to find new possibilities using digital technologies. His experience using new machines, software, and...

Kevin Kimwelle, a Kenyan architect and researcher, was never convinced that megastructures and massive development projects are the best way to serve African communities. Yet teaching sustainability to communities who already live it seemed hypocritical. As a result, he now practices community architecture, which foregrounds local knowledge as its greatest asset. From rural villages where reuse is...

Biology might seem like a discipline unrelated to construction. But nature self-organizes to build itself in fascinatingly complex ways. Gizem Gumuskaya brings togethe r design aspects from synthetic biology to advance engineering methods that could one day construct self-organizing structures. She talks with Catherine De Wolf about falling in love with lab work as an architecture student, which l...

Reuse in construction requires experimentation. The lack of established protocols and standard materials opens new realms of engagement for architects and engineers alike.  Anna MacIver-Ek and Axel Chevroulet  discuss how working with like-minded colleagues in the architecture collective  La Clique  gives them invaluable freedom to experiment with new ideas and designs. The gue...

When people work with circular materials, they don’t get to start with a blank canvas of unlimited options. But Latifa Alkhayat, a teaching fellow at the MIT School of Architecture, describes how creative constraints can inspire new directions. She talks with Ana Bendiek-Laranjo and Catherine De Wolf from the CEA Lab at ETH Zurich about finding hands-on and bottom-up opportunities for creating the...

Digital manufacturing, material processing methods, and modular systems can help us create more circular structures. But how far can 3D printing and automation really take us? Marirena Kladeftira, Design Tech Innov ation Fellow at Cornell Design Tech, talks with Ioanna Mitropoulou, a postdoctoral researcher at the CEA Lab at ETH Zurich about the benefits and drawbacks of new technologies and tradi...

When people think of 3D printing, they often think of plastic structures. But Virginia San Fratello, Chair of Design at San Jose State University, experiments in printing with materials like sand, clay, sawdust and even bonemeal to create haptic and comfortable structures made from local waste. Vanessa Costalonga, a PhD candidate at the CEA Lab at ETH Zurich, talks with her about how her multidisc...

Observation and imagination enable Ana Vargas to transform informal settlements together with their inhabitants. In this episode, she talks with Catherine De Wolf about her methods and designing together with children to co-create the playgrounds of their dreams using recovered materials. Ana Vargas is the founder and executive director of  Trazando Espacios , a civic association for transfor...

Increasing impact in the circular economy depends on investment and entrepreneurship. But how can companies and startups design a world without waste and help us stay within our planetary boundaries? Ditte Lynsgaard Vind, chair of the Danish Design Council and founder of The Circular Way, seeks out business models that ensure more product circulation and reuse. Brandon Byers, a recent PhD graduate...

What if construction waste were considered the result of a design error? Elma Durmisevic suggests that innovating adaptable, dynamic and innovative building systems would help create a circular value chain to prevent waste from ever being produced. Durmisevic founded 4D Architects, a firm that focuses on transformable structures, design for disassembly and system development. She also founded the...

Rotor  is a non-profit research and design practice based in Brussels. It was founded to better understand material flows in the economy, and foster reuse strategies. Its spin-off company  Rotor DC  specialises in the salvage and supply of reusable building components and furniture. Michaël Ghyoot, project manager at Rotor, discusses what is involved in reusing building materia...

The current construction sector is not sustainable. The sector produces 30% of global waste and 40% of human-generated CO2 emissions. It consumes 40% of the resources and energy we use. There is a lot of potential for improvement. Dr. Guillaume Habert is professor of the ETH Zurich Chair of Sustainable Construction. In this podcast, he talks with students Natalie Feakins and Noah Pasqualini about...

 Many of the current efforts to mitigate climate change and its effects rely on digital solutions. But what would our designs for landscapes and buildings of the future look like if we slowed down and paid more attention to the traditional knowledge that humans have acquired over millennia? Julia Watson is an urban designer and best-selling author on nature-based technologies for climate resilienc...

Human consumption far oversteps planetary boundaries. Limiting consumption and economic growth seems like an obvious strategy for cutting emissions and protecting the environment. But Alessio Terzi , economist for the European Commission, explains why degrowth is not feasible for achieving our sustainability targets. He also discusses his 2022 book, Growth for Good, Reshaping Capitalism to Save Hu...

Digitalisation is crucial for making construction more sustainable and circular. But the sector is slow to digitalise its processes and often relies on fragmented data. Martin Fischer , professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, explains how digitalisation improves project management, automation, and building information modelling to better navigate tradeoff decisions...

Human habitats and their infrastructure require a lot of space and resources. Could mixed reality help architects and engineers build spaces that put less pressure on our urban environments? Iro Armeni , professor at Stanford University, leads the Gradient Spaces Lab , where she combines computer science with architecture and engineering to create more circular, multifunctional, and reusable space...

Life cycle assessments (LCAs) are necessary for understanding the environmental impacts of buildings. André Stephan , associate professor at the University of Melbourne, researches how to scale up life cycle assessments so that they can be used to better understand the carbon footprint of the construction sector. In this podcast he talks with Prof. Catherine De Wolf about computational tools, chal...