RAND LIBRARY BRISE SOLEIL

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2019. Design for Disassembly Course 

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"Today's construction methods prioritize permanent techniques of statically casting and welding or irreversible methods of fastening and adhering materials together. These processes of construction allow minimal opportunity for the reuse of materials. Common methods of construction use building materials in a noncircular way and are also responsible for the consumption of massive amounts of them. The construction industry consumes approximately 30% of all raw materials in the world today. With the average lifespan of a building using concrete construction techniques being only 60 years, this leaves us to question: what happens after the building's intended function has concluded? 
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Design for Disassembly (DfD) posits that nothing built should exist in a state of assumed permanence but instead as temporary compilations of future building materials. Through this lens, the seminar will be more interested in how things come apart than how they go together. While still a relatively new topic in architecture, Design for Disassembly has been present in the building industry for several decades. In addition to these architectural precedents, the seminar will examine products of allied fields of design while paying specific attention to joints, mechanical connections, and details incorporated as part of the overall assemblies with the explicit purpose of disassembly. 
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To maximize the potential for reuse of materials, connections need to be developed, allowing two or more components to be joined so that the connection is reversible without damaging the other components."

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