Urban Mining.

Drawing from the Depot. The Kilbirnie bus depot is slated for demolition. A centenarian building composed primarily of 540 steel trusses, 10,630 square meters of corrugated iron and 339,334 bricks. All destined for landfill at worst, or carbon-intense metal recycling at best. This project highlights the potential of all this old material. Material full of aged, time-worn character. Using this building as an ‘urban mine’, full of resources. The design reuses, relocates and reinterprets the disassembled component parts in Newtown, 2km away. The scheme pulls a roof of housing across to create a covered public space on Riddiford Street. An existing chapel is displayed as an artifact under this canopy. Three new lanes cut back across the currently impermeable block. Analogue drawing is employed to articulate and design with the texture, character and idiosyncrasies in these old materials. Examining the qualitative, architectural and experiential agency in these old materials.