Recycled Materials in Architecture. History of use, current projects and thoughts on future improvement (PDF)

Project Report from the year 2015 in the subject Art - Architecture / History of Construction, grade: 12 - Danish equals to A, University College of Northern Denmark (Technology), course: Architectural Technology, language: English, abstract: This research project is concerned with the question what influence and possibilities recycled materials have in building construction and architectural appearance.

Material in this case by definition is substance that things are made of. Recycled materials automatically is represented as substances of things that are re-used for other or new purposes. The whole world is compiled out of billions of different materials, some of them are considered to be renewable and some of them unfortunately are unendurable, which leads to the coherent idea that sooner or later the Earth will lose the natural capability to meet human-society needs in terms of amount of existing materials.

Most of materials used in building industry are either organic or human-made goods, which for the records, the majority of time are made out at least partly out of organic natural substances, for instance concrete, brick, glass. It has already been about 8 thousands years, how people are building houses which requires a certain amount of materials. With an increasing number of population, the quantity of building supplies gradually raises, which leads to the concern of dwindling natural sources. For that reason, increasing information amount is becoming essential, explaining the possible ways of saving the sources as well as why is it important, what outcomes may or may not possible come if we do or do not take certain actions.

Since building industry is one of the dominating existing industries, it undoubtedly pursue to the idea that recycled materials usage into building industry for both construction and design might be one of the key actions to be taken in order to achieve sufficient results within the time and to aim more sustainable self-conscious society.