Circularity presented by RMIT, Polestar and Green Magazine – Re-Extraction

“Circularity: Materials + Form” will run from June 27-29th in Fitzroy, Melbourne, showcasing projects from the RMIT Master of Architecture Design Studio and Research Elective

Re-Extraction from RMIT Architecture on Vimeo.

Our cities are littered with shrines of extraction. ±40 billion tons of sand annually is ripped from the earth and processed into our cities forming landscapes of concrete, asphalt and glass. Gargantuan structures fuelled by this shift of resource represent a new landscape of material, and opportunity.
What if we sourced material from the buildings we inhabit?
60 Collins Street represents this experiment. A concrete office building falling into redundancy is metabolised rather than demolished. Carved by the path of the sun, wells of material are excavated away in favour of complete demolition to reveal an interior landscape that is light and machinic. Remnants of this process become embedded features within the building as the scars of the extraction are treated as necessary elements to design around.
Portrayed in a series of provocative interventions, this project does not explore a complete product but rather an indefinite process of existence that could become necessary. A self-sustaining system of growth looking inwards rather than outwards.
SHAMISO SHAMU & SCOTT PRESTIDGE