Plastic Fantasy

Sector

South Works Factory

Location

Ithaca, NY

Year

Spring 2023

Instructor

Felix Heisel, Margaret Kirk

Team

Jun Hu + Xue Bai

Introduction

Based on Ithaca Green New Deal, the project is a response to the current single-stream waste collection system in Ithaca. The site is regarded as the turning point at the transfer station level, which convert the existing wastes into new resources and elevate it into new products. Hence, the workforce development concentrates on material design and product design from wasting resources. Finally, the whole building takes advantage of the workforce by showcasing their products as its own building materials. The layout mimics the historical construction process of the existing site, inspired by utilizing sequential modules for the movement from waste processing to public engagement. The project adaptively reuses the existing steel structure system as the immortal part of the building. Through adding ephemeral characteristics, such as remade plastic tiles and varied massing operation with structure, thebuilding demonstrates the potential adaptive reuse and sustainability strategies for the possibilities of architecture.

Process & Program Diagram

Basic Design Logic

Process & Program Diagram

These diagrams respectively illustrate the entire processing journey of plastic, from its recycling to the final formation as a product entering the market and the second diagram detail the specific machines and methods used for processing the plastic and how each step is managed.

Form Generation

The former site of the building used to be a factory producing aircraft and automobile bearings, but it has been abandoned due to changing times. Through our on-site investigation, we found that certain portions of the original factory space, both in terms of size and structure, still meet our requirements for a plastic recycling plant. Consequently, we decided not to entirely demolish the existing structure but rather preserve some components and proceed with renovations and extensions. For instance, we altered the dimensions of certain structural elements, replaced large sections of sealed concrete exterior walls with glass and semi-transparent materials to enhance transparency, and relocated some building blocks to free up space on the lower levels, among other modification