Concrete Data: Modeling Information to Reuse Demolition Waste

"Concrete faces significant reuse challenges. Demolished buildings are often crushed and used as road fill. While this process is termed as recycling, it actually resembles landfilling and fails to reduce the construction industry’s massive carbon footprint.

Concrete Data reframes this issue as an information problem stemming from the lack of data on the material’s properties when broken down. The construction industry relies on digital modeling tools optimised for standard components, necessitating the tools’ expansion to integrate waste materials. The project proposes a sequence of transformations: from waste to 3D scans, information models, searchable databases, and assembled built structures.

A video installation uses projection mapping to merge physical concrete waste with its digital twin. Viewers can visit concretedata.org, a platform that aggregates insights from a collaborative network of researchers and practitioners in architecture, engineering, construction, policy, and data science into a repository of principles and guidelines. Together, these outcomes present a proposal to redirect concrete waste’s informational and material flows."