Eco-Skyscraper Concept Grows From The Recycled Garbage Of Its Occupants

Chartier-Corbosson architects want to cut costs by using residents' recyclables as part of the structure of their proposed 'London Organic Skyscraper.'

by Beckett Mufson

July 8, 2014, 7:40pm

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Skyscrapers don't build themselves, but the designers at French architecture firm Chartier-Corbosson might have come up with the next best thing: London Organic Skyscraper, if realized, would constantly grow using, as building material, the recycled waste of its residents.

According to Chartier-Corbosson's charts, the average office worker generates about 80 bottles and 165 lbs of paper each year. Using their proposed on-site refabrication devices, this is enough to make three insulated panels for the facade of the blade of grass-shaped building. As more people come to occupy the proposed tower, more waste is recycled, more of the building becomes insulated, and more people, in turn, can work inside of it. Not only does this create an exponentially growing feedback loop, but an economically viable, environmentally-sustainable structure.

Chartier-Corbosson told Gizmag that the spine-like scaffolding used in constructing London Organic Skyscraper' would become part of the edifice itself, converted into hollow, clean energy-generating wind turbines during the construction process. Based on the same bamboo scaffolding used in some Asian countries, the turbines' hollow shape would also decrease the building's wind resistance, making it more stable.

The architects believe the completed structure could be generated from a single year's worth of recycled bottles and paper. A cheaper, more sustainable, and futuristic-looking alternative to the average urban structure, the London Organic Skyscraper earns its place with the Mushroom Tower at MoMA PS1, the Phoenix Towers, and the Rainforest Guardian as architectural attempts to save the world— by adding to it.