The brief was to produce a program that consisted of a circular economy feeding from local opportunities from the town of Chatham.
The site was set in Chatham. Initially we were given three different derelict buildings on the dockyard to work with and it was our choice as to how we wanted to use them. However, after analysing Chatham town and the dockyard it was clear to me that the place that needed the uplift was not in the dockyard. This led me to explore Chatham more thoroughly and look for new sites that I could potentially use. Whilst looking down the High Street I came across a derelict building that used to be used as a car sales and garage which consists of the two buildings that sat on the Medway riverbank. Furthermore, the post code for the site comes under the High Street heritage action zone as the street is full of historical buildings including this one which sits on what used to be Boundary Wharf.
My programme aims to give the next generation a better understanding as to what recycling is compared to down cycling as these terms are often mistaken for each other. the idea is to allow people to view the process of recycling and uncover what’s not seen through an immersive experience the visitor follows the plastic along its journey through collection, sorting, shredding, washing, drying and finally 3D printing. The 3D printed objects (Chairs, Tables, Plates, Bowls) made at the end of the process outsourced to local cafes I’m restaurants that provided plastic waste initially.
Educating Chatham, my project aims to transform a derelict car sales building into an immersive experience recycling hub aiming to educate the local community on true recycling by uncovering the steps taken to recycle plastic waste into useful products for cafes and restaurants in and around Chatham.