Our research aims to understand how construction and demolition waste can be reused as inputs for manufacturing new components. Currently, RUÍNA is developing construction bricks composed of up to 90% recycled debris, in partnership with an extension project at the Mackenzie School of Architecture and Urbanism.

Prototypes are produced at the Experimental Construction Site of Mackenzie's School of Architecture and Urbanism using debris generated by laboratory activities. Subsequently, the bricks undergo mechanical compression tests, yielding promising results, demonstrating that these blocks can outperform traditional ceramic and concrete blocks in performance. The prototype has a parallelepiped shape with dimensions of 20cmX10cmX5cm but can assume different shapes and functions. Different brick colors are obtained according to their composition and the possibility of using pigments. During the research process, the bricks have already been used for the composition of garden beds and permeable flooring at the July 9 Occupation - MSTC.

In addition to the environmental benefits resulting from the reduction in the amount of waste sent to landfills, the use of debris bricks can significantly contribute to the promotion of circular economy and the mitigation of negative impacts associated with the extraction of virgin raw materials. Furthermore, the possibility of shaping the bricks into different shapes and colors expands their applications, allowing them to be used for various construction purposes.

The positive impacts of these bricks are not limited to the environmental aspect alone. Their use in construction projects exemplifies how this technology can be applied to meet the housing and infrastructure needs in vulnerable areas. However, some challenges still need to be overcome: still in the research phase, there is a lack of incentives and more appropriate infrastructure to achieve results with greater precision and control.

RUÍNA's demolition waste bricks represent a promising alternative to make architecture and construction more sustainable and socially responsible. With the continuous development and improvement of this technology, coupled with the introduction of public policies regulating the practice, it is possible to envision a future where the reuse of waste in construction becomes a common practice, contributing to the construction of more resilient and environmentally conscious cities.

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demolition waste bricks

The Carol Arbex store project allowed for an unusual freedom of experimentation with production waste due to the client's demand for the use of more refined materials—albeit with limited financial resources—and a very small intervention space; about 17m2.

We sought to use materials discarded by a local marble shop: blocks of various sizes of yellow sandstone and a slab of crema marfil marble.

The larger blocks of yellow sandstone were drilled with sufficient depth so that the vertical supports of the racks (cylindrical profile Ø38mm) could be fitted and fixed—such that the weight of the block serves as a base and anchorage.

Smaller blocks were sculpted, sanded, and drilled, serving as handles for the mobile racks—whose system operates with fixed pulleys and counterweights. The crema marfil marble slab used was completely irregular and therefore was cut within the intact perimeter of the piece and then fixed onto the structure of the store's mobile counter.

During the design and execution process, we understood that the production and disposal chain of marble shops—whose waste recycling is only possible for certain types of stone and under processes of intense machining—presents other ways of reuse in architecture, with various scales and uses from small-scale manufacturing, technically more accessible.

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Marble shop waste


The "entulhite" was developed by RUÍNA through experimentation with the reuse of demolition waste on construction sites. The name is a result of a pun on the words "granilite" (terrazzo) - a well-known coating composed of a cementitious base mixed with granules of natural stones such as marble, granite, quartz, and other materials - and "entulho" (debris) crushed to form the aggregate base of the entulhite.

It is a material suitable for application on surfaces such as floors, countertops, wall coverings, non-structural blocks, furniture, and objects. It is possible to reuse different types of demolition waste in small, medium, and large construction projects, gaining autonomy and significantly reducing costs for materials and waste disposal.

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entulhite

**Round Table "Designing Sustainable and Just Transitions"**

RUÍNA participated in the virtual round table "Designing Sustainable and Just Transitions," an activity within the Transdisciplinary Design master's program at Parsons School of Design in New York, USA. We shared a glimpse of our work and engaged in reflections alongside other guests - Ahmed Ansari, Ahmed Best, and Amir Mirza. Together, we discussed some of the fundamental themes for thinking and acting in the present, aiming to build sustainable futures and cooperation between humans and non-humans: interconnectedness, radical changes, collective vision, autonomy.

It is increasingly necessary to pay attention to the past, to the radical nature of things and their processes—the root—to understand how we can collectively rewrite historically invisible narratives, (de)construct what we understand as development and progress, and urgently learn from those whose existence (and resistance) has always aligned with the movements of the planet.

Below, we share some excerpts from the round table:

Prompt 1
“Transition design thus proposes design-led societal transformations toward more sustainable futures. By applying an understanding of the interconnectedness of social, economic, political and natural systems, it aims to address problems that exist at all levels of scale in ways that improve quality of life, including poverty, biodiversity loss, decline of community, environmental degradation, resource, and climate change.”
—Arturo Escobar, Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds

What is an image or artifact that speaks to a sustainable future you’re working towards and your philosophies about how you approach this work? How does the interconnectedness of systems (e.g., class, community, tradition, environment etc.) play a role?

A: We have deeply internalized the idea that nature encompasses everything not produced by human action, while culture encompasses everything produced by human action (objects, ideas, institutions, etc.). Essentially, this idea suggests that we are not part of nature but something external to it, and, more than that, superior to nature. This strong and radical idea underpinned scientific development in Europe after the Renaissance and supported the Industrial Revolution and its processes. This same strong and radical idea has been destroying our ecosystems since then.

The Western modern world was shaped based on the idea of a dichotomy between nature and culture, but we forgot that culture is a manifestation of nature. Let's exercise what may seem like a radical idea: consider that absolutely everything is nature. Humankind did not invent culture because culture is, above all, meaning, and nature is constantly inventing and giving meaning to itself. There are various rituals performed by non-humans: mating rituals, combat rituals, funeral rituals. Each of these rituals has very specific characteristics and procedures. Isn't this somehow a cultural manifestation that we don't recognize simply because it isn't us performing it? Interconnectedness is how nature behaves, so it is crucial to understand it as the starting point for our reflections and actions in the world.

Prompt 2
How do ideas of radical change and collective vision play a role in the sustainable future you’re working toward? 

A: They play a central role in a sustainable future as they provide the necessary tools for us to become aware of the hegemonic production system in the world—based on the legacies of colonialism, extraction, and exploitation—and envision and activate alternative pathways grounded in balance with the planet and its inhabitants. The Industrial Revolution was a radical idea for its time. The idea of segmentation resulting from it radically changed the human relationship with its practices, dismantling knowledge into mechanical and isolated operations. The field of architecture, as we know it, is also a result of this process. It is important here to interpret the word "radical" in its etymological sense, which is "origin." In other words, to critically examine the origin of processes so that, by acting in the present, we can generate futures of harmonious coexistence between humans and non-humans. And in doing this exercise, collective vision is fundamental because nature is constituted by movements of reciprocity. There is simply no possibility of reciprocity if there are no others to interact with during the process.

Prompt 3
“‘We cannot build our own realities with more of the same’” 
—Arturo Escobar, Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds
"When we fail to have our own proposals we end up negotiating those of others. When this happens we are no longer ourselves: we are them; we become part of the system of global organized crime" 
— Organizaciones Indígenas de Colombia, 2004

The quotes above are from marginalized communities talking about how it is hard to work towards autonomy if you keep operating within colonial systems. With this in mind, how can designers today frame, model, and test future scenarios of design practices that operate beyond the destructive, short-term logics of capitalism?

A: Apoptosis is a programmed process of cellular death to maintain the system alive. The word apoptosis is a Greek word that literally means to demolish. And when each of us was being gestated, it was through the process of apoptosis or demolition of certain cells that our body took shape. Our hands were whole blocks before they gained fingers and so on with all of our bodies. Right now, as we speak, our bodies are "demolishing" old skin so new tissue cells can replace it.

In nature, demolishing is as important as building because what is new is born from what died. And life is a continuum of life-death-transformation-life-death-transformation...

When we inform something - when we give shape to something in the world - that something will eventually die, and when that happens, it should die to benefit the system and keep it alive. Everything we deliver to the world has this responsibility. The primordial responsibility to maintain the balance of the continuum of life-death-transformation-life-death-transformation. For architects and designers today, it should be a privilege to embrace and commit to this journey through our work.

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DESIGNING SUSTAINABLE AND JUST TRANSITIONS

**(De)construct and Occupy: reuse as a social and purposeful practice**

Brazil and a large part of the Global South live a reality where reutilization is not just an alternative but a necessity in response to latent socio-economic limitations. The woes affecting these territories are a direct product of development on a global scale, not a symptom of supposed underdevelopment. The possibility of overcoming this context lies in promoting radical changes in how we understand development. It is crucial to observe how reutilization initiatives in these contexts have developed autonomy not only in creative dimensions but primarily in political dimensions.

In a world of mass extraction, it is increasingly necessary to understand and explore the potential of demolition as a field of action for architecture in urban contexts, as we recognize our social and environmental responsibility as an integral part of the planet.

"(De)construct and Occupy: Reuse as a Social and Purposeful Practice" is the result/process of the research-practice by RUÍNA Arquitetura in partnership with MSTC - Movimento Sem Teto do Centro, Fio Assessoria, students and professors from FAU Mackenzie. Its purpose is the construction of an ecumenical space in the free area of the 9 de Julho Occupation in the Bela Vista neighborhood, in São Paulo - Brazil.

The task was to research forms of appropriation and reuse of discarded materials in the urban context, recognizing them as abundant urban mines, not only of discarded raw materials but also of energy from their processing and transformation, surpassing the linear model and extraction of natural resources.

Within this perspective, a pedagogical activity was created for undergraduate and postgraduate students in the Architecture and Urbanism and Design courses at FAU Mackenzie in the form of a Special Topic articulated in three sequential modules started in the first semester of 2022:

01 - (a) Construction of mapping cartographies of discarded materials within a 1 km radius of the Occupation; definition of the volumes of the materials found; contact with sources and the beginning of establishing supply relationships; (b) cataloging and researching possibilities for the use of available materials; (c) development of on-site experiments using these materials, and (d) construction of a booklet with specifications of tests, quantities, and procedures for the production of construction components, all tested by university laboratories. These booklets resulted in dissemination materials - both printed and digital - of the collectively built knowledge. The results led to the implementation of structural, sealing, opening, and finishing systems, all made with materials found in abundance in the neighboring territory, capable of meeting the stages of conception, budgeting, and construction.

02 - Development of the project, in its preliminary study phase, of the multifunctional spatialization generated by a systemic project consisting of 3 meeting and coexistence points, taking advantage of small existing infrastructures in the space itself. Progress brought new challenges: direct contact with residents, envisioning building cross-experimentations between collective knowledge and desires, and the practical experience of Technical Advisory.

03 - Facilitation of the effective construction of these proposed spaces through collective effort.

At the present moment, module 02 is in the final stages, and there is a forecast for the development and completion of module 03 in the first semester of 2023. The objective of the research-practice, beyond its more pragmatic purpose - meeting the demand for a multi-religious space in the 9 de Julho Occupation - aims to challenge conventional practices in architecture and construction in the face of the Anthropocene and, objectively, to create an accessible and democratic technical framework for the extensive training of students, architects, and non-architects, and especially residents of housing occupations through the practice of reuse and reutilization of materials in construction.

FAU Mackenzie Faculty: Celso Sampaio, Afonso Castro, Antonio Fabiano Júnior, Sasquia Obata, and Éder de Sousa

FAU Mackenzie Students: Tomaz Neuenhaus Barbosa, Karin Nogueira, Júlia Maria Pierre, Isabela Marques Nascimento, Gabriela de Miranda Papi, Gabriel Gorski Junqueira Paiva, Alessandra Rosa Marques da Silva, Renata Martins Pinheiro, Roberto Costa da Matta, Luiza Fernandes Magalhães, Maria Clara Gabriel Braga Da Silva, Adriel Costa Marinho, Gabriel Isidoro de Abreu do Prado, André Felipe Lemos Marques, Giovanna Kolody Stanjek, Vitória Martins, Larissa Valias Pereira de Souza e Silva, Maíra Vucovix, Laura Soldati Perez, Eric Oliveira Castro, Giovanna Nascimento Stella

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(de)construct and occupy

TRE is a line of original furniture design developed by RUÍNA. It consists of versatile stools produced from the utilization of leftover materials discarded by carpentry shops.

It is a unique modular furniture piece that can be used together or separately, allowing for various types of usage. Different types of sheets and coatings can be combined in a single TRE, generating multiple compositions, each with its own uniqueness.

In addition to giving new purpose to materials that would originally be discarded, TRE financially benefits the producer and encourages a closer look at the production chain of carpentry shops.

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**Interview for Archdaily Portal: The Inversion of Design Order through Material Recycling - An Interview with RUÍNA**

Victor Delaqua (ArchDaily): How do you perceive demolition waste within the context of "the future of construction materials"?

RUÍNA: In contemporary architectural practice, demolition plays a predominant role. Even the act of construction today presupposes a model based on the deconstruction of a place: the intensive exploitation of various natural resources with predatory extraction processes; the underutilization of materials and constructions – often, the lifespan of buildings and their materials is considerably shorter than their actual usefulness; and finally, an ecologically irresponsible disposal, as if the millions of tons of waste generated daily would simply disappear at some point, which we know will not happen. This linear production system has proven to be fundamentally flawed, harmful, and already poses a latent threat to the planet's survival. Therefore, it is undoubtedly crucial for the field of architecture to assimilate demolition as an urgently relevant activity for the mobilization of new ideas and propositions attuned to the current times and the most pressing demands of our ecosystems.

The defining feature of urban contexts is the hegemony of spaces built by human society – particularly the society conditioned by Western worldviews. In this specific type of space, demolition is inseparable from architecture, as it is the action without which architecture could not even exist as a practice. Within a circularity-promoting logic of productive systems, these "resources" would already be available within the city itself, in this "urban mine," on a daily basis. In this sense, as a "resource" for the development of new material technologies, RUÍNA believes that demolition waste holds unprecedented potential for increasingly circular production processes, more stimulating creative processes, with social responsibility and in harmony with the sustainability of the planet.

Victor Delaqua (ArchDaily): Could you elaborate on the relationship between costs, experimentation time, and the prototyping process with demolition materials during construction until defining the most suitable technical and aesthetic solutions?

RUÍNA: The immediate reuse of demolition waste in projects reduces costs related to 1) materials (the reduction varies depending on the type of application and quantities) and 2) waste disposal management (especially dumpster rental costs). Some demands that reuse may require on-site include space for material storage and possibly the use of specific equipment to optimize processes – which comes with a cost.

Reuse is a common practice in large-scale projects, primarily due to the economic scale involved, rather than ecological considerations. This is because large projects involve a significant quantity of materials and workers, along with access to machinery. In contrast, small and medium-sized projects often contribute the most to construction and demolition waste in cities, with little to no reuse. There is a lack of information and engagement for material reuse in smaller projects: projects using material reuse and recycling are often stigmatized for a certain aesthetic (of precariousness) or even suggesting that their cost should be significantly lower than conventional projects. However, in the end, as with any project, it all comes down to context, and there are no predetermined rules. One thing is certain: depending on the conditions, there is potential for significantly lower costs, and the aesthetic resources to achieve the desired outcome are diverse.

The process of experimentation and prototyping is essential to finding the best solutions and understanding the practical limits of reuse. Some processes can be conceived and executed before the construction context, while others cannot. This necessarily means that the project does not end with the design: it should function as an open process for adjustments, modifications, and even new solutions during the execution. It is necessary to abandon a linear (and authoritarian) procedural logic and embrace a circular movement that promotes autonomy. In this movement, at different scales, the project's time merges with the construction time and vice versa.

Victor Delaqua (ArchDaily): Reclaimed materials have a sustainable appeal and, being unique, deviate from a market logic where a massive amount of the same product is produced. Beyond cases where uniqueness is desired, how can these productions or techniques be scaled to reach a larger audience?

RUÍNA: One of the great contradictions of recycling is precisely its scalability in the global industry. Transporting recyclable material thousands of kilometers from the location where it will be reprocessed – to then become a reusable product – follows a logic not much different from more conventional production processes, the results of which we already know. Taking a careful look at the idea of locality, without giving up the ability to operate in a network, seems like a necessary and possible alternative. Reusing demolition materials on-site is an example of operating at the smallest local scales – the material doesn't even leave the place where it was, soon to be reintegrated into its original or distinct function (as in the renovation project for Apartamento Paraíso). Imagine the impact of change if, in every small or medium-scale renovation, consideration had to be given to the reuse of demolition and construction waste?

In Brazil, recycling and reuse in architecture are incipient in all senses. We lack regulations within the construction industry that effectively address these issues. However, initiatives like Arquivo SSA, which operates in Salvador, Bahia, with disassembly and reintegration of components for reuse in architectural projects, serve as references and pioneers in this regard. The creation of a Guide for Public Policies for the Reuse of Architectural Elements opens the way for these isolated and still limited practices to gain national scale and become part of an expanded practice.

In terms of disseminating reflections, practices, knowledge, and techniques, we believe that academia plays a fundamental role in society – without abstaining from a critical perspective, as this same academia historically reproduces classism, racism, and sexism. As an institutionalized space for the production of scientific knowledge and, therefore, a space to which power structures listen, albeit belatedly, education may be the best tool, and the university the most strategic space for these practices to reach a larger audience, as these knowledge are assimilated and introduced into public policies.

This year, RUÍNA has been building this connection between practice and academia through a course taught at FAU Mackenzie titled "(De)construct and Occupy: Reuse as a Social and Propositive Practice," in partnership with professors, students, and the Ocupação 9 de Julho/MSTC. The methodology and results of the processes developed in the course have been documented in an experiment manual with construction elements from reuse and recycling of materials.

Victor Delaqua (ArchDaily): Last year, you released a catalog of construction materials recovered from demolitions. How do you evaluate the outcome of this project today?

RUÍNA: The catalogs we produced are part of a research and action front of the office called RUÍNA Materiais. This front is dedicated specifically to the identification and cataloging of architectural elements from demolitions or disassemblies and their management for reintegration into our projects, third-party projects, or directly with users.

We evaluate the result of the catalogs as a dissemination tool and the practice of reintegration as very positive because it facilitated contact with a network of architects who work with construction and regularly encounter the amount of material conventionally discarded, raising awareness that alternatives exist and are within our reach. Some architecture offices and freelancers who sought materials cataloged by RUÍNA Materiais even assimilated this alternative design process perspective (inversion of the design order), where selected construction elements are considered for use, and the design is then adapted to them.

Victor Delaqua (ArchDaily): You approach reuse as a social and propositive practice. How do recycling issues intersect with these layers?

RUÍNA: Architecture is an applied social science. Any architectural project is necessarily social – or it should be – in the sense that it operates in the field of inhabited space for sociability, for both humans and non-humans. Understanding reuse and recycling as perspectives and practices that are part of architectural activity necessarily involves understanding its inherent social aspect.

Similar to Brazil, much of the Global South, stigmatized as "underdeveloped," experiences a reality where reuse is not just an alternative but a necessity in response to latent socio-economic limitations. The challenges affecting our country and many others are a direct product of global-scale development, not a symptom of supposed underdevelopment. Therefore, the possibility of overcoming this context lies in promoting radical changes in how we understand development. The desired destination appropriates this realization to foster new material technologies, generate autonomy in all socio-economic contexts, especially where there is a lack of access to information and means of production, highlighting that raw materials exist and can no longer depend on the extraction of natural resources from the planet. In the field of architecture, it is essential to remember that everything we have learned comes from ruins: they shape our perception, as they are our most important epistemological resources. The practice of reuse can use the concept of ruins as a tool to reclaim material and immaterial memory: thinking and acting in the present, acknowledging the past, to ensure self-awareness and a sustainable future.

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The Inversion of Design Order

**From Project to Home: Creative Workshop with Reused Materials**

At the invitation of the FICA Fund, RUÍNA Architecture participated in the Muda Festival program with the workshop "From Project to Home: Creative Workshop with Reused Materials." The objective of the activity was to propose a minimal architectural intervention, making the most of available resources, to enable housing for 2 to 3 family units in a property located on Anhaia Street, in the Bom Retiro neighborhood in São Paulo - SP. The future residents are members of Empreendedoras Sin Fronteras, a group of women seamstresses, entrepreneurs, and immigrants whose workshop is based at Casa do Povo.

Participants were provided with a catalog previously produced by RUÍNA in partnership with the FICA Fund, containing various donated components such as workbenches, doors, lights, dishes, wooden pieces, glass, etc., to configure the new spaces of the property. The workshop challenged participants to work from a perspective other than the conventional one: it was necessary to first understand and assimilate what they had in hand before engaging in the design exercise as a solution to the demands.

At the end of the two-day workshop, a proposal for minimal construction/demolition was developed, with the reuse of debris for new finishes, as well as the incorporation of reused components from the catalog in almost every space.

The project adapts existing spaces for shared use (the property gains an additional bathroom, and the kitchen becomes the spatial centerpiece of the property, utilizing the original plumbing wall) and creates new environments (a living room/covered patio integrated with the reception area, increasing the total to 4 shared social-use spaces, in addition to an uncovered area with the possibility of creating a garden bed).

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from project to home

**9 de Julho Occupation Garden**

As a result of the previously conducted activity in the Experimental Building Laboratory at FAU Mackenzie in partnership with the 9 de Julho Occupation, RUÍNA Arquitetura proposed a practical activity using debris bricks developed with students during the course "(De)construct and Occupy: reuse as a social and proactive practice" for the construction of two planters in the Occupation's garden. The activity involved external participants and residents of the 9 de Julho Occupation.

On the same day, Manuals detailing the step-by-step processes developed during the "(De)construct and Occupy: reuse as a social and proactive practice" course in the first semester of 2022 were distributed.

From March to June 2022, RUÍNA conducted a course at FAU Mackenzie titled "(De)construct and Occupy: reuse as a social and proactive practice." It was an elective course offered to undergraduate and postgraduate students in Architecture and Urbanism and Design, in collaboration with professors Celso Sampaio, Afonso Castro, Antonio Fabiano Júnior, Saskia Obata, and Éder de Sousa, along with the 9 de Julho Occupation - MSTC. Approximately twenty students participated in the course, with the Experimental Building Laboratory serving as the classroom.

Throughout the course, students were invited to complete four tasks: 01 mapping various discarded or underutilized materials within a 1km radius of the 9 de Julho Occupation, 02 selecting materials to work with based on the premise of reuse (without processing) or recycling (with processing), 03 developing prototypes of possible construction systems using these materials, and 04 producing a manual with a didactic step-by-step guide to all processes developed in the topic, intended for the residents of the Occupation. Our objective was to raise awareness and stimulate students' understanding of hegemonic production chains based on the linearity of processes. We aimed not only to encourage reflections but also to propose alternative approaches within the practice of architecture, aligning with the themes of reuse and self-construction in housing occupations in downtown São Paulo.






