Waste Not, Want Not

WNWN is a research project led by JT Bachman, Assistant Professor of Architecture at the University of Virginia School of Architecture and Co-Founder of Office of Things. The mission is to reduce the amount of waste that goes to landfill by reprocessing discarded materials and transforming them into either new building material prototypes or long-lasting functional objects. The research began as a study over the Summer of 2023, and the exploration carried over into the Fall Semester as part of the course ARCH 5500: Processing the Anthropocene.

Processing the Anthropocene

Processing the Anthropocene is a fabrication-based elective seminar in the UVA School of Architecture. The course focuses on waste as a resource for new building material prototypes or long-lasting functional objects. As part of the course, we met with many waste management professionals and visited local recycling facilities around Charlottesville. Throughout the semester, students explored a range of materials, prototyped possible uses, led material workshops, and ultimately produced a final project at 1:1 scale.

Open Source

Waste is an inherently local problem. The materials, explorations, and solutions that work in Virginia may not make sense in other locations. That said, we believe that the best way to scale is by sharing knowledge and making connections. All of our studies, explorations, successes, and failures are shared here for all to learn from and build upon.