About the project
Developed mainly from construction industry waste combined with granite stone dust, “Fragments of the Past: Building Waste as a Resource” is a project that aims to valorize waste from an upcycling perspective in the Metropolitan Area of Porto, Portugal, creating decorative objects that reinterpret the traditional terrazzo technique.
About the project’s approach
Mayra’s project is a material research aimed at recovering construction and demolition waste (CDW) from an upcycling perspective in the Porto Metropolitan Area, Portugal. Waste produced by this construction industry accounts for around a third of all waste generated worldwide. The work is created from CDW, using glass, stones, bricks, and concrete, in combination with the dust produced when cutting granite stones and a small percentage of cement. This circular materiality of the project seeks to revive the history behind construction waste.
The project integrates different principles of distributed design, adopting an open, collaborative, and ecosystemic approach. Mayra shares the knowledge and techniques of transforming recycled aggregates in an accessible online document. This research aims to promote collaboration by integrating local facilities and communities in co-creation to raise awareness of waste recovery through product design. Using local resources, it implements a regenerative design process that reduces environmental impact and minimizes the extraction of raw materials. With the reusable molds and production techniques developed, she hopes to ensure that the knowledge generated is distributed, replicable, and scalable across regions and industries.
