RECOVERY AND RE-USE OF BUILDING MATERIALS AND COMPONENTS IN ARCHITECTURE

Studies about reusing waste materials in architecture have produced in recent times unexpected and very original results.
Anyway, this is still an unexplored field, that could be prosperous in certain geographical contexts and economic conditions or limited to few experiences of experimentation in others. In both these contexts, the limits for the spread of building systems that reuses waste products are basically two: the first one belongs to the cultural sphere, the tradition and the difficulty of accepting ways of building and living radically alternative (unless they’re not limited to academic experiences, temporary uses, or in any case, when they don’t interfere with traditional living); the second one includes the absence of specific regulations and the need for certification of building components. It follows that structures built with waste will be very different, depending on the environment inclination to experimenting in this field. Temporary shelters, pavilions, installations, experimental prototypes, street furniture and equipment for parks are common examples wich testify the success of the reuse of waste almost everywhere, but just in few cases and few countries it is possible to see examples of efficient waste architetture (not temporary), such as residences, offices, restaurants, places of workship, sometimes built simply adding natural materials, typical of the geographical context (like earth, straw, bamboo), to waste.
And since building, among the industrial activities, is the first for environmental impact, consumption of resources and territory, pollution and waste generation, it is also our task and our responsability, as architects, to take, where possible, new ways of investigation and experimentation on the theme of reuse.
The contribution analyzes the different approaches to this theme and the resulting currents of reuse in architecture, distinguished in: reuse for emergency, reuse for ecological sensitivity, reuse for creativity.