*This project was done in collaboration with Kelsey Howryla and is still in progress.*
Sited in the "South of Market" district of San Francisco, this project looks to highlight the importance and value of deconstruction on both residential and commercial scales, with an end goal of reducing embodied carbon in future construction. To achieve this, the project focuses on deconstruction education for two groups: Contractors and Clients.
Contractors are the first group of individuals who need deconstruction education due to their constant hands-on involvement in demolition projects. Contractors need to be interested and motivated to learn about deconstruction in order to pass laws regarding the disassembly of structures.
Additionally, educating clients about deconstruction is arguably just as important as contractors. If clients are not willing to wait a little longer for a building to be deconstructed, then deconstruction will not happen in the first place. The project aims to educate the clients by providing a gallery space which features salvaged materials, repurposed into usable household items such as cabinets, furniture, fixtures, finishes, etc. In addition to the gallery spaces, there are also more traditional retail spaces which allow clients to browse a large collection of salvaged materials such as dimension lumber, wall boards, and windows.
Overall, cooperation from both clients and contractors will be essential to starting a larger conversation about deconstruction, and this project aims to assist this conversation.
East Perspective
South Perspective
Demonstration Area
Experiential Stair
Atrium
Atrium
Site
Program + Circulation
Systems
Structure + Skin
Opposed to demolition, deconstruction is a method which emphasizes the careful dismantling of a building’s structure, skin, finishes, etc. in order to salvage or recycle as much material as possible. Deconstruction policies are emerging around the country that require a certain percentage of building materials to be salvaged or recycled through the dismantling process.
