The Netherlands – Netherlands-based WHIM Architecture has designed a so-called ‘floating habitat’ to be constructed entirely from marine litter. The prototype for this ‘Recycled Island’ is to be built using hollow building blocks made by recycling the plastic waste collected throughout the North Pacific Gyre.
Creation of the family house is meant to illustrate the potential of ocean plastics recycling, as well as of flood-proof living and of sustainable and self-sufficient housing. According to architect and company owner Ramon Knoester, the project will ‘change the character of the plastic waste – from garbage to building material’.
Seaweed plastic composites are already under development and will be tested for this project, according to WHIM. ‘The work is a combination of design and research; where society changes, architecture should adapt,’ asserts Mr Knoester, who says the main challenge is to find the best recycling technique. Noting that plastics break down into smaller pieces after being in the sun and salty water for years, he says: ‘What we need to do is to upgrade the plastic waste and to give it a longer life-span.’
The Recycled Island project is supported via crowd funding platform Kickstarter. To enable the creation of the prototype, a fund of US$ 70 000 needs to be accumulated before December 13.
For more information, visit: www.recycledisland.com
To back the project, visit: www.kickstarter.com/projects/whim/recycled-island
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