The 3 R's.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle…words that echoed in my first year as an environmental science student. It seems elementary at first but I quickly learned that these 3 words allow humans to arrive at a defendable conclusion of ways in which they might interact sustainably with the environment; and the best part is these words allow creativity. These words have reached many in the design industry and hopefully will continue to do so.

Last December I was lucky enough to take a road trip down to Hale County, Alabama with a group of architects and designers (5 of which graduated from Auburn University and participated in Rural Studios). Rural Studio’s is quite an inspirational place, not only for architecture but for a rural community and creative reuse. In 2002 a group of students completed The Lucy House, a collaboration of Rural Studio and Interface Americas. The main part of the house’s walls are built from 72,000 individually stacked carpet tiles with the roof load transferred to metal posts running through the middle of the tiles. The carpet tiles were reclaimed from office buildings in the US. This is not the only structure the students have built out of material to be landfilled, in fact many of the completed projects incorporate material reuse.

Recently on Design ℮2, SINGLE speed Design’s Big Dig House was featured because of its use of over 600,000 lbs of recycled materials including concrete and steel. The reclaimed material was once a temporary ramp on I-93 while the Central Artery was being buried underground.

It is obvious to see that these are both creative projects, more creative than the average building. Perhaps designers who are creating a sustainable building have to be more creative. There are more limitations so the designer is forced to think outside the box.