(Photos: Rob Scher)
As the tides rise and we fast approach our collective demise as a species, it’s a small consolation knowing there are still those of us out there searching for solutions. One such solution, taking the form of yet another pop-up pavilion (or did you think NASA’s was the only one?), landed in the East Village’s First Street Garden this morning, courtesy of ETH Zurich.
The pavilion, paradoxically described by the Swiss university as an “artifact of the future,” forms part of the programming for the New Museum’s Ideas City festival – which began today and runs till the 30th.
“Our aim was to showcase the value of waste and activate it as a resource for construction,” explained Felix Heisel, one of the ETH Pavilion’s project architects.
Following years of research into renewable design, a team under the guidance of ETH’s assistant professor for Architecture and Construction Dirk E. Hebel created the design for the floating structure, situated in a narrow slot between the buildings of the First Street Garden.
“Our main challenge was to approach the project from a locally sourced material and skills perspective,” says Heisel.
The answer soon came to them courtesy of Rewall, an Iowa-based renewable building materials company, which presses boards out of 100% reused, shredded beverage cartons.
“This is kind of an interesting thing,” noted Heisel. “You can tell what the cartons were from the color of the speckles on the boards: the orange ones were, well, orange juice, the blue, milk and the black ones, wine.”
“It’s ecology meets economy,” exclaimed Andre Malan, a bearded bystander who – unsurprisingly, given that we caught him wandering this neck of the woods — is an urban design researcher at MIT. “I’m super down with this.”
The ETH Zurich Future Garden and Pavilion is only set to stay standing for the next three days, so best pay it a visit. There’ll be events, workshops and an exhibition outlining a future metropolis (I’m picturing WaterWorld, hopefully with less bedraggled Kevin Costners). Oh, there’s also delicious bratwurst because Switzerland.
For more info about the events and to RSVP, click here.
