Material resource scarcity demands new approaches to the manufacture, use and disposal of building materials and a re-evaluation of the environmental and social impacts of waste. Waste transportation, processing and landfill have significant associated environmental impacts including greenhouse gas emissions and loss of natural habitat. Additionally, demolition waste processing is traditionally carried out in largely publicly inaccessible and marginal spaces, precluding public awareness of associated environmental impacts.

The project responds to the extensive construction activity taking place within the Lower Lea Valley as part of numerous new developments and rapid urbanisation by creating a recreational park constructed from the various types of demolition waste. The project imagines an alternative system of demolition waste collection, curation and storage to create an experiential and educational public park and landscape that facilitates public engagement with, and reappraisal of, the meaning and value of waste. The project posits new social and cultural connections with an alternative model of municipal waste infrastructure through the physical and visual interplay of public park features and material storage elements. Through the design of a localised programme of waste curation, the associated environmental impacts of transporting and landfilling these materials is reduced.