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lifecycle - 2007
Sponsors: Cleveland Public Art and Great Lakes Science Center
Sponsors: Lifecycle Building Challenge
Dru McKeown
Honerable Mention
A simple call for entries to develop a building, building system or building component that maximizes the use of the embodied energy need to implement or create said system or component. TOIstudio decided that the competition was a little silly when confronted with the enormous local building stock currently in danger of being torn down and thrown out and instead offers a case study in reusing components from an existing building for new structures.
While the idea of being the one who creates a whole new way of designing and building would do much to stroke my ego, I find the idea of developing and replacing (sometimes regional) traditional building practices rather preposterous. Instead I would rather we find a way to reuse the structures that are already at our disposal and are being torn down anyway.With this in mind I offer the re-use of one of Cleveland's more iconographic structures currently being slated for demolition by a rather obtuse county government in order to ironically replace it with a structure that more embodies the spirit of the 'green' movement. The hope is to re-awaken the childhood spirit of rearranging given building blocks in an attempt to create something entirely new.
I could go on into why re-using existing structures is better for the local economy, creates more jobs and stimulates growth all while allowing the existing fabric to continue to define the sense of place but space and time are limited. Instead, I offer a simple solution to the problem of energy and material conservation, disposal costs and loss of 'image'.- Submitted project description.