UN-ASPHALTING TO REFURNISH
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
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Project Description
During the last decade and from now on, our cities are experimenting and will experiment an urban transformation to make them more green and porous to the water rain, introducing more green areas where before were asphalt rails for cars, and adding new urban furniture for our citizens. But, where does go all this existing asphalt that we take out of our streets?
This is a proposal to use this bast existing material and re-use it as an arid to create urban furniture for the cities of the future
Project Region
EU Programme or fund
Description of the project
Summary
The idea of this project is to design a modular urban bench made off the waste coming from the demolitions of the car's platforms asphalt. Considering that our cities are changing and transforming areas that nowadays have a huge amount of sqm covered by asphalt and transforming these urban areas into new pedestrian and greener zones, this proposal offers the opportunity to use this excedent of material (the asphalt) and re-use it in the same urban space where it was but now transformed into a new shape, an urban bench, for social life.
In order to create cities with more porosity allowing the water rain to go into the soil, we do need to remove all the asphalt surface that covers a huge part of our cities, making them completely impermeable. Removing the asphalt and transforming it into arid we could use it again for new proposals.
This bench is proposed to be a modular bench, made of units. Easier to carry and to move by small tracks. Units to create shorter or larger benches for different accommodations depending on the urban designs and necessities. The versatility of this urban furniture and its modularity allows easier transportation of it, and a decrease of the C02 emissions of the shipping.
Taking as an example a regular street cross of the Eixample neighborhood in Barcelona; designed by Idelfons Cerdà , these crosses have a total area of 2000sqm, of which 1600 sqm are asphalt (80%). Considering that the asphalt has a thickness of 15 cm, that means that a regular street cross of Barcelona has 240 m3 of asphalt. The design of this bench consumes 0.08 m3 of asphalt for every unit of the bench. That means that from one urban transformation of Barcelona city of one of its crosses we could manufacture 3000 units of benches.
Key objectives for sustainability
Re-using the same material that is in the streets nowadays, to create new urban furniture for these same streets, is basically a radical statement to not only use recycled material to produce new objects. It is a km0 strategy, where the recycled material comes from the same site where the urban transformation is going to take place. Reducing significantly the carbon print of their manufacturing.
The bench uses the asphalt as an arid for the new monolithic shape. Asphalt, which in the past, would be discarded in some landfill. This arid is mixed with an organic resin (or recycled plastic waste for resins) that works as a binder for the new bench. Giving an aspect of solid stone.
The idea of using organic resins as a binder comes from the wish of reducing the c02 emissions and only use carbon-neutral materials. The asphalt that we want to recycle for this design, has already thought away from the atmosphere huge amount of C02 emissions and has consumed an enormous amount of material resources. We do have to balance this equation with the correct design of the bench. The resins will offer a soft touch to the bench surfaces. The other possibility of using synthetic resins coming from recycled plastic waste also opens an opportunity to reduce the Co2 print foot.
A solid formwork creates a monolithic bench unit that joined together with other units can create an infinity of variations of urban furniture for all different kinds of urban spaces.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
In terms of aesthetics, this proposal starts from the point to give an honest aspect to the benches that are going to make off from this recycled asphalt. "Honesty" as a value to not hide the aesthetics of the asphalt in the benches. This idea is very important, this design is an opportunity to use this object as a didactic tool. the fact that the benches remind our citizens that once there was a huge amount of sqm covered by this asphalt and that now, where it was black now there is green, this is a link to the past, a link to remember the importance of the urban transformation for the city and for the citizens.
The benches, even if their wish is to not hide the asphalt that they are made off, they want to be soft and comfortable, they want to be smooth and welcoming for their users. The round shapes of it, give extra doses of amiability and sensibility, two values that were way far when this material was used for the cars.
the modularity of the benches apports practicality to the use them. they are made off 100% with the same material. The idea is to cast and build them on the same site with only recycled asphalt and organic resins. This saves an enormous amount of economic and material resources, but also C02 emissions to the atmosphere. The way this design is conceived, with no extra material apart from these two mentioned before, saves time in the manufacturing process of the benches, but also saves time and personal resources in the process of enabling them and shipping them into the urban space. Non-mechanic ens assembly is needed.
Each unit has a cylindric supporting point, when two or more units are ensembled together the bench becomes self-supporting without the needing of any mechanic fixation to the pavement or similar.
Key objectives for inclusion
Transforming the existing asphalt (only for motor vehicles) into urban furniture (for everybody) is already an inclusion statement. The idea of designing a bench with this recycled material does not forget the necessity to create an urban piece for everybody, according to all necessities for all kinds of citizens. That is why their shapes suggest amiability and comfiness. The design of the bench wants to create a sitting area-wide enough in order to have a bench that could be used for both sizes.
Because adaptability is also a way of inclusion, the modularity of the bench offers an easier use of it, giving a lot of ways to use it, for all kinds of design configurations depending on the urban context where it would have to land.
Innovative character
This is a design that apart from being built with 1100% recycled materials or organic materials, it is a design that could be manufactured in the same spot on the urban work site. The way that is designed (only two materials combined and cast in a small unit) makes the manufacturing very easy.
Using a recycled material and combining it with an organic one, already reduces the carbon print of this product considerably, but the fact that this is a design that apart from being built with 1100% recycled materials or organic materials, it is a design that could be manufactured in the same spot on the urban work site. The way that is designed (only two materials combined and cast in a small unit) makes the manufacturing very easy. This innovative fact could reduce the carbon print even more. If we get to use the correct resins for the binder we could achieve the point where the new urban bench would be carbon neutral.
