LET’S TALK ABOUT GARBAGE

We tend to think of garbage and waste only from the perspective of an evil that should be prevented as much as possible. Reducing consumption, making things last longer, and avoiding unnecessary products are part of such an approach. What is left over should be buried and hopefully disappear (or at least make as if it has disappeared).
Hugon Kowalski tried to address this issue in his thesis from a different perspective, and actually added another immense problem to an already difficult one—the housing shortage. He chose Mumbai, more specifically the slum of Dharavi, and proposed that garbage should not be considered as waste that has to be disposed of discretely but as an artificial, manmade resource that is intimately related to an industry, an artisanship, and even a certain culture. By observing the life cycle of garbage and the way different types of garbage require different processes and logics for recycling and disposal, Kowalski proposed a building that integrated housing with spaces for work and production, effectively challenging the idea of urban zoning. Instead of the modernist ideal of spatially segregated functions within the city, the building proposes the literal integration of functions as a new urban typology that can radically impact problems such as urban sprawl and public transport. The intelligence of the proposal is based on the capacity to see the building not only as a container for such activities but also as the content: over time, a very simple and straightforward structure will be completed using different ways in which waste is transformed into new building materials. Sometimes it takes the maturity of experience to be able to go into charged, difficult fields; but if rigorously undertaken and brilliantly communicated—as in Kowalski’s case—the freshness and vigor of a newcomer is also welcome.