Too often buildings around the world are completely demolished or gutted only for another building to take its place less than thirty years later, despite the strength of its original design intent. This human fascination with replacing the old with the new has led to a disastrous climatic situation. According to the EPA, in 2018 more than 90 percent of total construction and demolition debris generation in the U.S. alone came from demolition, and around 145 million tons of it was sent to landfills. Building design and redesign decisions must become even more conscientious when it comes to planning for the future, not only in the materials that are chosen, but how they are connected. Designers must plan on how projects not only get built, but also how they will inevitably be taken apart. / Master of Architecture / Too often buildings around the world are completely demolished or gutted only for another building to take its place less than thirty years later, despite construction standards in place to ensure buildings may withstand a hundred years of use. This human fascination with replacing the old with the new has led to a disastrous climatic situation. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, in 2018 more than 90 percent of total construction and demolition debris generation in the U.S. alone came from demolition, and around 145 million tons of it was sent to landfills. There is only so much land left to bury more trash, and most of it is poisoning the planet's resources, especially thanks to the exorbitant amount of plastic that is continuously created and discarded. This thesis seeks to study an underutilized building within a city, and discover ways to redesign it in a conscientious way that will offer future occupants opportunities to remodel or upgrade the structure with as little waste as possible. This idea of deconstruction is utilized in not only the materials that are chosen, but how they are connected, as well as in how the existing components are discarded or repurposed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/113217 |
| Date | 17 January 2023 |
| Creators | Gedeo, Adele Marguerite |
| Contributors | Architecture, Kelsch, Paul J., Piedmont-Palladino, Susan C., Emmons, Paul F. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ |
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