Waste material wall cassette prototypes, Oxford Brookes University, 2024
This is the third phase of a project to design and build wall cassettes for a demountable modular building made from ultra-locally sourced waste material. The building will provide a sheltered space on campus to assemble large objects, models and structures. The aim of the project is to teach students Circular Design principles as well as to embed principles of ethics, professional skills, safety and sustainability in their developing design process.
In this phase, students built 28 external insulated rainscreen-clad cassettes. The focus for this iteration of the project was the installation of the cassettes externally in the location where the building will be constructed on campus. Material was sourced from local businesses. Students discovered some unexpected sources of unwanted waste ultra-locally. These included piano keyboards and aluminium laptop cases. Passports were produced for each wall cassette listing the material provenance, assembly and disassembly instructions. The cassettes will remain in position in their campus courtyard location for several months over the winter so that their performance can be tested as part of the students’ technology studies. Cassettes will be evaluated for their performance across factors such as weathering, thermal performance, water resistance, strength, durability and acoustics.
With thanks to local businesses who generously donated excess material to this project; Ben Hutchinson and Jake Winter for their construction expertise and advice; the Estates Department for their support and patience; and the TDE Health and Safety team.
Tutor team: Jane Anderson, Ralph Saull, Khisha Clarke, Ben Hutchinson, Thomas Dawson, Jake Winter, Maddalena Laddaga, Tatiana Southey-Bassols.
