DESIGN/BUILD RECYCLING CENTER
LOCATION: STATE COLLEGE, PA
SIZE: VARIES
COMPLETION: 2011
This Design/Build prompt required us to design a concrete block wall for the Penn State Recycling Center in State College, PA. As a group we compromised on a modular block design, created formwork for each variety of block, formulated and poured our own concrete, coordinated the location of the wall, transported the blocks to the site, and assembled the blocks into the wall. The main goal throughout the entire project was to be as sustainable as possible.
Due to this goal, we designed a completely mortar-less block. Instead, the blocks were threaded together by precast holes and repurposed steel rods that we removed from recycled stadium seats. The formworks for the blocks were made entirely of recycled, stacked, and glued cardboard. The shapes were bound together with recycled bicycle tubes and then wrapped in old tarps to protect them from moisture, making them concrete ready. We used fly ash (a normally useless bi-product of coal production) as an aggregate in our concrete mixture.
To move the blocks from the construction yard to the recycling center we loaded the blocks on a long cart attached to two bikes which could then be pedaled to the site, completely avoiding all energy costs in transportation. Because our system was mortar-less, we made large plastic washers out of recycled garbage bins that we could place between the blocks to compensate for any gaps, keeping the blocks level throughout construction. The wall was constructed in April of 2011, and still stands at the recycling center as an example of a structure that is made almost entirely of recycled material.
