Re-Imagining E-Wasteland

RE-IMAGINING E-WASTELAND CCA Thesis Studio Spring 2023

The project is a new urban re- and up-cycling center for e-waste on the site of the existing Apple Store in the heart of downtown San Francisco’s Union Square. The Apple Store is perhaps one of the most potent symbols of capitalistic consumerism, the culture of planned obsolescence, throw-away culture and the aesthetics of desire.The thesis exploration imagines taking over this iconic space urban space by reimagining it as a new typology of civic building, one more honest about the economic, cultural, and environmental mechanisms that make it function. This research proposes that this new typology of civic infrastructural buildings can help to resist the too easy “out-of-sight and out-of-mind” mentality. It is critical the buildings that sustain our consumerism begin to also reveal that infrastructure that creates it as critical components of our downtowns and urban landscapes.

Cynotype Print on Fabric

ARCHITECTURE – CYNOTYPE PRINT Exterior View on Fabric DRAWINGS Plan Section Section Exterior View Exterior View

PROCESS – Process Model

PROCESS | Process Model

RESEARCH & PRECEDENTS – TIMELINE Waste Management CYNOTYPE PRINTS VITRINES Display Museums Retail Stores ARCHITECTURE Industrial Buildings

TIMELINE | Waste Management

CYNOTYPE PRINTS | Exercise

VITRINES | Display, Museums, Retail Stores

ARCHITECTURE | Industrial Buildings

AYSE ELIF AYDINLI – Thesis Project California College of The Arts

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Re-Imagining E-Wasteland

Published on Nov 3, 2023

Ayse Elif Aydinli

The project is a new urban re- and up-cycling center for e-waste on the site of the existing Apple Store in the heart of downtown San Francisco’s Union Square. The Apple Store is perhaps one of the most potent symbols of capitalistic consumerism, the culture of planned obsolescence, throw-away culture and the aesthetics of desire.The thesis exploration imagines taking over this iconic space urban space by reimagining it as a new typology of civic building, one more honest about the economic, cultural, and environmental mechanisms that make it function. This research proposes that this new typology of civic infrastructural buildings can help to resist the too easy “out-of-sight and out-of-mind” mentality. It is critical the buildings that sustain our consumerism begin to also reveal that infrastructure that creates it as critical components of our downtowns and urban landscapes.