Radical Tectonics: A multi-scalar approach to material circularity through community empowerment, building re-use, and material regeneration

Radical Tectonics – a multi-scalar approach to material circularity through community empowerment, building re-use, and material regeneration.

1 INTRODUCTION
The urgency of climate change and the growing ecological crisis require new ways of thinking across communities, disciplines, and material practices. In the construction industry, this moment of crisis, calls for critical reconsiderations about which materials to use, what to build (if anything?), and the impact of building on communities. How do we design and build architecture that is attentive to material scarcity, achieves significant reductions in CO2 emissions, and addresses our environmental concerns? And what sort of approaches are needed to reach maximum sustainability in material circularity, where lifecycle scenarios, reuse, and upcycling are crucial?

2 METHOD
This paper adopts a multi-scalar approach for proposing an integrated answer to the ques-tion of sustainability. Critical analyses of architectural case studies are conducted across three scales—that of the macro, meso, and micro—combining historical sources with recent data and theories. The case studies address specific circumstances in how what is built impacts the health and wellbeing of communities, in how structures are considered for re-use and adaptation, and in the way building materials are produced for achieving circularity. The risk that building poses to community is discussed through the lens of diversity and political empowerment; the topic of building reuse is theorized through the work of Stewart Brand and his concept of ‘shearing layers’ for the afterlife of buildings. And fi-nally, results from empirical studies that test clay as a fire retardant for thatched construc-tions are presented and discussed in regards both barriers and opportunities for effecting policy changes that redefine our understanding of craftmanship, regionalism and industrialization.

3 CASE STUDIES
This collectively written paper presents Radical Tectonics as a multi-scalar approach to improving the short- and longterm outcomes of sustainable design and circular economies in architecture. Community empowerment, building reuse, and material regeneration are three fundamental principles which operate simultaneously at the macro, meso, and micro scales. Three tactics define our integrated approach to radical tectonics; building material choices and labor practices which favor the health, safety, and prosperity of communities; urban design policies which favor the re-habilitation, re-use, re-programming and re-mining of existing structures; building construction innovations that channel the adoption of traditional, craftbased, local, low-energy, and regenerative materials.
The most macro of scales addressed in this paper is that of the community at large. It asks how the concept of circularity can be deployed for the benefit of communities and how, in doing so, it is ready to acknowledge its own limitations in the face of diversity, multiplicity, and systemic injustices. The definition of radical tectonics discussed in this paper speaks to a form of built justice that considers how building material choices and labor practices should favor the health, safety, prosperity, and empowerment of under-represented communities. The main themes discussed include the risks to human health by fossil fuels, abuses of the human rights of workers in the building industry, the disem-powerment of the communities and the loss of cultural memory by construction projects.
At the meso scale the argument: ‘the longer structures last the more sustainable they are’ is presented as a radical thought. Aspects of urban mining in regard the conversion of office districts into homes are addressed as vital. The spatial and structural conditions of existing office buildings are reviewed for their reuse and refurbishment potential.
At the micro scale, industrialized building technologies are declared insufficient in terms of what they offer sustainability since they maintain the status quo in construction. In response, innovative aspects of material culture and regional craft traditions are studied as part of an ongoing research project that tests clay used as fireresistant for thatched structures.
Not only does each scale introduce an original interpretation of tectonics but their integration speaks to the question of ‘radicality’ which at its simplest form references change or action with essential, and allencompassing outcomes.

4 CONCLUSION
This paper demonstrates how the principle of Radical Tectonics offers a multi-scalar approach to improving the short- and long-term outcomes of sustainable design and circular economies. Community empowerment, building reuse, and material regeneration are three approaches that operate simultaneously at the macro, meso, and micro scale. Not only does each scale introduce an original interpretation of tectonics (as a form of built justice, a practice of urban remining, and regenerating matter), their integration speaks to the question of ‘radicality’ that seeks profound change and action, with clear and articulate out-comes. This collaboratively written paper has introduced a methodological approach whose multiscaler insistence on circularity makes of it a transformative agent. It establishes a critical framework for facilitating discussions about the potentials and limitations of a truly radical tectonic – one that considers cultural memory, context, and ethical concerns.