Before and After Sand

This exhibition explores the value of sand, from its formation over time to its harmful extraction today and its potential role in a regenerative future.
Sand is omnipresent in construction, for example in roads and glass, as well as in electronics and microchips. It is essential to the way we move around the world, how we see it and how we live in it.
Sand is not only a material in itself, but also a temporary state in the production of other materials.
Viewed in this way, the conditions before and after sand become more important, not as isolated periods of time, but as means to complete the value of this raw material.
However, its apparent abundance belies the fact that very specific types of sand are required for particular uses. Sand is the second most exploited raw material after water, and its consumption continues to rise rapidly.
Before and After Sand tells the story of sand through a series of exhibits, including a timeline of sand formation and its contribution to the ecosystem; a table showing the main uses of different types of sand in construction today; examples from the Sitterwerk material archive and the HSLU T&A material library made from various types of sand; and the film After Sand, which portrays a quarry on the outskirts of London.

Before and After Sand was conceived by the Sitterwerk St. Gallen material archive in collaboration with the London-based architecture group Material Cultures and PhD fellow Emma Rishøj Holm from the Aarhus School of Architecture, and features a film by Leo Dawson. The Gewerbemuseum Winterthur, the ZHAW and the HSLU T&A are expanding the exhibition with additional projects, stations and exhibits.