Bradford Environmental Action Trust (a charity running various projects across the waste and conservation sectors) run an online business and construction waste exchange – www www.whywaste.org.uk. The purpose of the exchange is to find new uses for material otherwise deemed as waste and therefore condemned to landfill. As part of the awareness-raising campaign for this Yorkshire and Humber-wide service, BEAT is commissioning the design and construction of a building made wholly (or as near as is possible) from material derived from www.whywaste.org.uk. .The material available on the website at the time of design (from 1st October 2007) will be a crucial dynamic of the process and will have a significant influence on the finished building. It should be noted that BEAT has a source of timber through its timber reuse project as a supplement to material available via Why Waste. The building will be constructed and on display in Tudor Square, Sheffield and will be open to the public from 12th November 2007 for one week. The building should be architecturally striking as its purpose is to prove that waste is a rich and untapped resource and that it is possible to make something beautiful from someone else’s rubbish.
For the project to be successful and to fully exploit the message that ‘one person person’s waste is another’s ’s resource’ it is essential that members of the press and public be impressed by both the quality of the design and build and the ingenuity and adaptability in the use of materials. Other cities in the region have expressed an interest in exhibiting the building and it is BEAT’s intention to tour it af after ter the Sheffield build. Therefore an element of the brief is that it be as demountable as possible and relatively easily transportable. The live project will both design and build this structure; there will be a project manager with experience in self-build coordinating the final two weeks of the build, and we will have support from Arups and also contruction help from students at Sheffield Hallam, but nonetheless this is an ambitious timescale for a high-profile project.
