DESIGN FOR DISASSEMBLY

Spring 2020

To take apart a concrete structure, we pulverize it.

To deconstruct a welded steel frame, we cut or torch it.

To disassemble a wood-framed house, we saw it apart.

Today’s construction methods prioritize permanent techniques of statically casting and welding, or, irreversible methods of fastening and adhering materials together. These processes of construction allow very little opportunity for reuse of materials. Current methods of construction not only use building materials in a non-circular way but are also responsible for the consumption of massive amounts of them. The construction industry consumes approximately 30% of all raw materials in the world today.1 With the average lifespan of a building using concrete construction techniques being only 60 years2, this leaving us to question: what happens after the building’s intended function has concluded?

Design for Disassembly (DfD) posits that nothing built should exist in a state of assumed permanence, but instead, as temporary compilations of future building materials. Through this lens, the seminar will more be interested in how things come apart, rather than how they go together. The seminar explores historical and contemporary examples of buildings and other objects that have been designed for disassembly. Students actively engage in the making of a series of small physical constructs that apply these concepts with materials harvested from the local region.