Earlier this year, an alarming report regarding the amount of waste in our oceans was published by the World Economic Forum. From their findings, they said that by 2050 the oceans will have more plastic than fish by weight. To bring awareness to this problem, architecture firm Spark, split between London, Singapore, and Shanghai, wants to make permanent structures out of garbage found in the ocean. Their concept proposal envisions making several elevated pinecone-shaped huts along Singapore’s East Coast Park, which would serve as shelter for tourists and campers alike, while they can learn more about the effects of waste and how to prevent future waste.
According to research at UC Santa Barbara’s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, about 4.8 million metric tons of plastic waste are poured into the world’s oceans from land each year. A huge portion of this waste is high-density polyethylene (HDPE), which is a non-biodegradable plastic used for manufacturing items like plastic bottles or yogurt pots. To construct these projects with this very material and still make it aesthetically pleasing, the firm will collect the waste and sort them into colors, and then shred it. The smaller bits of the torn apart plastic would then be poured into individual moulds, and reheated to create a new piece that would be be similar to cladding tiles traditionally used for the exteriors of buildings.
The angled sphere-like huts would be formed by an interior timber frame for the upper section of the buildings, which the plastic tiles would be mounted onto. Stephen Pimbley, director of Spark, says they chose to make the structure resemble a locally found seed pod from the Casuarina tree found in the beaches of Southeast Asia.
For support, a precast concrete stem would be configured offsite, and serve as the base. Guests can enter the huts by climbing up a retractable steel rope ladder hanging from the bottom. At night, guests will be able to see by interior light fixtures powered by photovoltaic cells.
See more about this project at Dezeen.
See more of Spark's environmentally conscious projects on its site.
