Waste was never so useful: reactivating the areas of deterioration

Abstract

We are starting to become aware of the magnitude of the problem caused by the waste produced in the metropolises developed during this first quarter of this century, the result of considerable population increase and contemporary industrial production systems. The amount of territory consumed by urban waste and the environmental consequences of this situation now clearly jeopardize the environmental equilibrium of the planet, with all that this implies. Using a new perspective, we aim to demonstrate that it is possible to recover and transform these infrastructures – abandoned urban waste landfills – which can give rise to new strategic public areas in our cities. They are areas of opportunity for an architectural reactivation of the landscape which is achieved by means of complex environmental engineering processes, emphasizing the importance of the ethical concerns proposed and tackled by architects. We are also interested in urban waste landfills because of their proximity to the city; this makes them sites that have huge potential for change. They are full of possibilities for exploring conceptual and physical relations between city, territory and architecture. Constant expansion of the metropolis means that the distance between the city and the landfill will always be relative. At first expelled, the landfill is then reincorporated.