An Architecture of Disassembly and Cyclical Material Life

This thesis explores disassembly as architectural expression and liberator of components for reuse and recycling in order to diminish material waste when the building is deemed obsolete. It questions that contemporary buildings be built for permanence, but proposes instead that they be able to be modified and taken apart in order to provide material for the next generation of buildings instead of the landfill. It examines the history and theory of joints and connections in architecture and the possibilities these offer for disassembly. It examines production and construction methods pertaining to disassembly and reversible joints, as well as the implications of an architecture that strives to express its construction and material being. Principles of disassembly and component reuse are established through the study of temporary, prefabricated, modular, and waste-as-material precedents. The principles are utilized in the design project, which aims to create an architecture expressing the assembly of parts in addition to the whole while significantly contributing to a reduction of material waste.