Electronic Waste & The Production Of Space

The future of waste is electronics. The conditions of planned obsolescence combined with our throw away culture of capitalistic consumption has created the largest and fastest growing waste stream responsible for spatially transforming environments. Through the process of reclaiming precious materials contained within our dysfunctional electronics, urban mining becomes a form of resistance to the economics of consumption by recognizing electronic waste as a resource and turning its perceived detritus into value. If waste is central in the processes of capitalist urbanization, can architecture improve the condition of configuring industrial form to create ecology between e-waste, culture, and urbanity? Are there opportunities for e-waste and its architecture to have a public value and legibility in the city? Within this space of speculation, this thesis will explore the untapped architectural possibilities associated with the management of electronic waste and the production of space.