Info︎

Living with Less Waste

South Bronx, New York
Fall 2019, Columbia GSAPP
+ 2019 AIANY John A. Notaro Memorial Scholarship Winner

Collaborator: Nelson de Jesus Ubri
Critic: Daisy Ames, Studio Ames

Each day, New York City produces 33,000 tons of construction and demolition waste- doubling the daily trash thrown out by residents and businesses. This compelled us to decide that older buildings do not have to come down for new buildings to go up.

The goal of this project was to improve light and air quality in existing buildings while providing new housing stock using construction techniques designed to densify and offset carbon emissions. We enhanced our site strategy by providing the infrastructure to deal with organic waste on-site in a closed-loop composting cycle.

By choosing to preserve and work within existing buildings, 1,600 tons of solid waste was saved from entering a landfill: equivalent to 54,431 metric tons of CO2 entering the atmosphere. Our approach included other tactics to reinforce our efforts to reduce waste on site: planted balconies, community gardens, green roofs, and mass timber construction, among others.