WastedLA is a satirical critique of wastefulness in our current culture, mimicking the very methodologies that reinforce systems that contribute to unnecessary waste. In this dystopian future waste is no longer viewed as just a byproduct of the human condition, but as a rich potential source of materials, and design is used to create positive economic and environmental change. The project is set in an industrial part of a parallel Los Angeles; grungy and dirty, where the commodification of design itself has the majority of the population operating as cogs in a hyper-wasteful society.
Upcycling, by definition, is the process by which items are reused and altered in innovative ways to make them higher quality or more valuable. Everything from the building itself, to the items that enter and subsequently leave it, to the people that work there are a part of the upcycling process.
At the ground level, the wastedLA HQ functions as a factory, but instead of raw materials entering and products leaving, products that have gone to waste, such as furniture, old technology, out of style clothes, etc., enter the factory. These products are then broken down and taken apart into raw materials and move upward to the next level of the cycle. The systems inside look similar to that of a traditional factory, with assembly lines and efficient machine flows, however the lines are for de-assembly, and the direction of the fl ow is inward and upward.
The second tier of the building consists of single family homes that have been stacked atop the factory, connected to the lower level through a chaotic network of structure and chutes that suck materials upwards. The raw materials that are received on this level are not the raw materials you would get from the traditional recycling process, rather they are the dismantled components of all the waste products the factory receives; old screws go to one house, the leather coverings of old couches go to another house, and so on and so forth. The third tier of the building consists of more single-family homes that function as small artist studios and boutique factories, where the Trash Tribe and their disciples design and make new products out of the raw waste materials from the second tier. The top tier of the building consists of more single-family homes, functioning as a mecca for trend seekers,
with each house offering a selection of ultra-chic, hipster handmade goods to be sold at exorbitant prices.
The entire colony is built on an abandoned warehouse that the founders discovered in the industrial district of East Los Angeles. The houses that make up the spaces above the factory are in fact condemned homes, saved by the Trash Tribe at the last minute. Rather than tearing down these houses and letting their materials and value as a space go to waste, the houses are strategically upcycled. Each house is analyzed, carefully cut into chunks, and then trucked to the warehouse site. These pieces are then lifted by crane onto a steel and reassembled to form new
spaces. The building and expansion of the creative colony is in and of itself an act of upcycling, and the systemic flow of the building is in an upward motion to physicalize this idea of elevating materials and waste.