A free-standing scale model of a fictional neighbourhood constructed from discarded building materials.

The Architecture Triennale in Oslo, themed The Architecture of Degrowth, exhibits Under Construction by Daniel Norell and Einar Rodhe in collaboration with Josefin Wangel. This year’s theme, The Architecture of Degrowth, responds to an era of climate emergency and social inequality by proposing alternatives to the paradigm of economic growth.

Under Construction imagines a city that is constantly being rebuilt using the same stock of materials. At the Triennale, the project is exhibited in the form of a large model, constructed of materials found on demolition sites in Stockholm. Reuse of building materials is not just a problem of logistics and material flows. It is as much a cultural and architectural problem. One of the most persistent architectural conventions is to consider abstract space before objects and materials. Building elements and furnishings should be subservient to a larger whole. This approach is aligned with a view on the world that is inherited from industrialism, in which any materials could be sourced anew and moulded into shape indefinitely. Reuse, as a conceptual approach to architecture, is different in that the starting point is a specific and limited stock of elements and chunks of materials. Each piece of material comes with a set of qualities – a character – that may be amplified, subverted or altered. In addition, depending on the relation between the context of the original structure and the new structure, reused objects may be charged with different cultural value and meaning.

Under Construction is a fictional neighbourhood constructed from discarded building materials. It begins with a scavenger hunt where we visit demolition sites and collect building materials: fractions of concrete, plastics, bits of plaster board, steel studs, and a sink, and so on. By playing with the scale of this kit of parts, we imagine a neighbourhood constructed from reused materials. Armed with hot glue guns we erect a bustling city with a rich and varied materiality. As structures grow, interiors, furniture and infills between fragments are 3d-printed with recyclable filament.