"Learning from paper": the architectural potential for the secondary re-use of pre-used paper

Abstract

The architectural potential for the re-use of paper in architecture requires acknowledgement that the resource of used paper exists as 'pre-used', rather than 'waste'. Secondary re-use denotes progressive re-use and in a manner different to that designed for. Newsprint as a subset of paper can be shown to possess special material qualities of 'mark', 'trace' and 'age', which distinguish 'pre-used' from 'virgin' materiality. Contribution to architecture holds greater potential as a three dimensional form than as a sheet or surface, but requires the manipulation of the planar sheet form to retain 'value'. Forms can be derived, (eg laminating, folding), that are editionable to enable quantity re-use, (more than 500,000 tonnes of pre-used newsprint is unrecovered each year in New Zealand), but still able to hold the individuality of pre-used materiality. Re-use in architecture requires design acknowledgement of the paradox between protection enabling architectural inhabitation and gaining value through 'aging' materiality and greater sustainability. The renewable component system used by Shigeru Ban's architecture with 'paper tubes' offers a solution.