Values of Waste: Social and Material Histories of Bio-based Construction
Date: Friday 17 October
Time: registration 9.30am, start 10am, end 5pm.
Location: School Of Arts Library, University of Liverpool, 19 Abercromby Square.
'Values of Waste' will bring together architects, historians and activists to discuss how histories of labour and production can inform architectural uses of bio-based and waste materials.
At a time when architects are increasingly re-evaluating the relationship between the built environment and materials like agro-industrial by-products, mineral tailings and discarded construction materials, this event will facilitate challenging interdisciplinary dialogues, posing questions such as:
• How are 'natural' and 'waste' materials valued, produced, and transformed?
• Do recycling efforts in architecture and related industries address or inadvertently conceal histories of labour exploitation, and what are the alternatives?
• What lessons can designers and building scientists working with natural and waste materials learn from history or contemporary grassroots experience, and vice versa?
• What new historical narratives might emerge from design experimentation? And what new possibilities in design and construction could result from archival and oral histories of labour and materiality?
