Rebirth: Transforming Waste into Public Seats

Product Design R&D Center of SWJTU's Innovative Approach to Urban Furniture

The inspiration for this design came from the pressing issue of building waste. In urban areas, discarded materials from dismantled buildings often pile up or are buried, occupying valuable land resources and contributing to environmental problems. The Product Design R&D Center of SWJTU saw an opportunity to increase the use value of this waste through innovative design methods.

The uniqueness of "Rebirth" lies in its ecological design philosophy. The tree pool seat, made from recycled concrete, utilizes building waste and reshapes it into a functional and visually appealing piece of urban furniture. The U-pattern design serves dual purposes, providing seating and protecting trees. This curved pattern also adds a unique texture to urban public furniture and mitigates the visual coldness often associated with concrete furniture.

The realization of "Rebirth" involves grinding waste concrete from dismantled buildings into pieces of a certain size. These pieces are then used as aggregate for new concrete and formed into models. The process is simple and cost-effective, making it a viable solution for managing building waste.

The project, which began in April 2016 in Chengdu and concluded in January 2017, was exhibited at the College of Architecture Southwest Jiaotong University. The research underlying the design focused on China's building waste, which currently stands at around 3.5 billion tons, with a comprehensive use ratio of less than 5 percent. The Product Design R&D Center of SWJTU identified this as a significant blind spot in waste recycling and sought to address it through their design.

Despite the challenges of using recycled concrete as a basic material for outdoor public infrastructure, the team successfully conducted a series of experiments to ensure the environmental protection property, tectonic strength, surface quality and color, installation convenience, and transportation of the design. The result is a series of outdoor public infrastructures that promote the reuse of building waste and are well adapted to the environment.

The "Rebirth" project's innovative approach to waste management and urban furniture design has not gone unnoticed. In 2017, it was awarded the Golden A' Street and City Furniture Design Award, a prestigious accolade granted to creations that reflect extraordinary excellence and significantly impact the world with their desirable characteristics. This recognition underscores the potential of design to address pressing environmental issues and contribute to a more sustainable future.