Ocean waste recycling design lab

My diploma project is a selfsupporting furniture factory, which brings attention to the waste recycling, and stimulate the locals to the environmental protection, increase the economy, and creates several workplaces. The building cooperates with container ships, which collect and process the plastic waste, and transport it to the factory to form it.

On this special location in Portugal, the building and this idea can reach the local audience and can be spread worldwide by the turists and visitors. The pier I chose to be the design location is lying in the crosspoint of the hirstoric town and beach area, which part of the city is visible from everywhere, however it does not contain any attracting landmarks. The main task was to preserve the pier as it is, not ruin it, only extend with new parts and functions. I separated the rough concrete pier from the clear new part with a full glass wall covered ground floor. The upper floors are shaded and formed into towers to reach the ship easier and make the connection. This individual location required a special care of the existing edifice, because it was designed and built around 10 years ago by Carlos Prata. I continued the work to follow the existing shape of this nealy two dimensional edifice, and pull it into a three dimensional building. Furthermore, the location is highly extreme, and needed individual structures and solutions to be able to place a building up on the breakwater pier. The limits of the site have also their potential as a new energy source, which makes the project more sustainable, besides its waste recycling function. I separated my project into three buildings, first one called ’the issue’, where the visitors get all of the information about it, the second one is ’to handle the problem’, this one is the factory itself with a few public functions; and the third one is ’the solution’, where the visitors can enjoy the view of the clean ocean, sitting on and using those object which made by the filtered out waste. This last building could be ’the lighthouse which guides the humanity to a clear future’. The buildings had to be separated into public and private parts, where the work is happening, but they still need to connect, and it is reachable in the tunnel inside the pier. My design has a purpose in social, economic and environmental field, and they can work together with an existing building, which gave the fundation to the project with its public function, and brought the new building’s function closer to the people.