Prologue: Before the Feast

Examining the intersections of historical significance, environmental conditions, adaptive reuse, and innovative technological practices are at the core of On the Butcher’s Block. Initially examining the text of Donna Haraway, the ideals of Making With provided a junction at which the strings of speculative practice and conceptual design were able to knot. Building off work of precedents, essays, and different media the final work evolved into a collection of speculative journals, images leading to an eventual real-life booklet of exploration.

The East Des Moines Depot at 120 E 5th St in Des Moines, IA was built in 1909 and served as a train depot along the rail line through the 20’s. It outgrew its original program and was developed into a tomato storage unit. Its eventual abandonment signaled the end of its programmatic use being placed on a list to be demolished. A development project by the Des Moines Heritage Trust seeks to reinvigorate the dilapidated depot, and align its’ path to a new reception venue, and office space. Talks with BNIM, the architects on site, painted a picture of all the building once held, and contributed in the form of physical space, as well as memories.

Thoughts of rejuvenation and material care/preservation became a forefront of thought in continuing the process. How does one respect the initial structure and site while questioning the facets that have become the norm in restoration and material use? In this proposal we seek to question these practices in the form of a knotting of robotics, preservation, and material.

HARAWAY THOUGHTS & A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SITE

Kin, from Haraway’s Staying with the Trouble is described as a speculative process in which circumstances can be imagined for collaboration between the living and nonliving. Haraway begins the analysis between human and machine / abiotic and biotic.

“Staying with the trouble does not require such a relationship to times called the future. In fact, staying with the trouble requires learning to be truly present, not as a vanishing pivot between awful or edenic pasts and apocalyptic or salvific futures, but as mortal critters entwined in myriad unfinished configurations of places, times, matters, meanings” (Haraway 2016, 1).

Perhaps our robotic counterparts can work with us in order to counteract the looming Earth Overshoot day to provide resources, synthesize materials, collaborate with and make kin. Architecture has a role in this process. In order to sustain the future, new technologies are needed to create a mutual relationship between material usage, resource extraction and infrastructure. A new relationship with kin. Instead of practicing dangerous toxic extracting/deconstructing processes, why not reuse what already exists currently on the planet? The composting humus process? Perhaps robots such as the ERO Concrete Recycling Robot could resume existing material and ‘make kin’ in a new form of architecture, while also preserving significant cultural and historical sites with a level of inclusive and awareness. The vacuum-like robotic arm captures toxic dust and debris. The robot essentially eats existing concrete, turns it into a dust which is then available for a new structure. Preserving these existing materials is an extension of historic preservation by recreating with the same essentials before. But in a more sustainable way.

120 E 5th st, Des Moines

The Des Moines Heritage Center located at 120 E 5th st, Des Moines IA is a 320’ by 80’ plot of land located in the historic East Village. Currently, BNIM Architects is constructing a new event space to host activities on the site and restored the existing dutch revival style Depot built in 1909. The new space is proposed to provide 49 new jobs and pay about $1,000,000 in workers’ wages. The surrounding community will be provided with new infrastructure and a location to gather in downtown Des Moines. The East Des Moines Depot at 120 E 5th St in Des Moines IA was built in 1909 served as a train depot along the rail line through the 20s. It outgrew its original program and was developed into a tomato storage unit. Its eventual abandonment signaled the end of its programmatic use being placed on a list to be demolished. But the building consists of valuable elements such as terra cotta brick, hardwood floors, and slate shingle roofing. What can we do with this existing material narrative?

Stereoform // SOM Robotics Lab. The KUKA robot is a large factor in the construction process of the Stereoform pieces. The robot arm uses hot wire forming to create geometric and curved shapes from reusable expanded polystyrene (eps) and form molds with the robots. Skidmore, Owings and Merrill used this technique to create molds for concrete structures. The seemingly random forms create a beautiful almost life-like appearance. Curves and straight lines form the molds and concrete pours into the shape. The Stereoforms were used in the Chicago Architecture Biennale in a pavilion exhibition. “The concrete pavilion is a prototype of a single-story concrete bay found in high-rise buildings. It is built using robotic fabrication methods that the American firm argues is more sustainable than traditional construction methods, and could reduce its carbon footprint.’’ The slab uses 20% carbon reduction. When applied to the entirety of the built environment.

Osteobotics // AA Robotics Lab Analysis. The conversion with biodegradable materials with two KUKA robotic arms in order to create a self-balancing structure. The KUKA bots are tethered to the tetrahedron shape. Heat is used to pull and stretch the two pieces apart. After the arms stretch, humans are required to apply resin for a permanent shape. The arms themselves work with computer programming on software such as Rhino Grasshopper to create the stretching impact. The robotic arm is essentially an extension of the human arm with wires, tendons, muscle and intelligence. It relies on the intelligence of the human operation in order to function.

Osteobotics // AA Robotics Lab Analysis

Chapter 1: On the Butcher’s Block

Butchering the Past to Serve the Future

Now more than ever, the current architectural building construction methods are contributing to an immense amount of earth exploitation and permanent resource depletion also known in slaughterhouse terms as hacking. What happens when there are no more resources left to feed a consumerist appetite of extraction, abandonment and exploitation of materials? How can we rebuild a system that instead reclaims existing building features and chops material together? We butcher.

To butcher is to carefully extract, examine, and reconstruct artifacts. It is to carefully take pieces from existing sites and reassemble into new structures. When one prepares a butchered feast, they reckon with what was given, how it was in its previous life, & how it is beneficial now.

So what does it mean to butcher a building, to refine its structural qualities and to preserve its material cultural significance in Des Moines, Iowa?

The setting of Des Moines has been growing for the past two decades bringing with it new infrastructure and material. In August 2020, the city of Des Moines has currently declared 54 sites in the local area a ‘public nuisance’ which are predicted to be demolished in the next five years with more in the future. We propose techniques to provide care on a material scale through the process of circular construction economy. A practice keeping materials and products in the economy as long as possible by re-using or butchering them.

“A major challenge for re-using building debris is knowing the quality, quantity and temporal availability of demolition material.” Cities become material mines available for future reuse. Robotic analysis, deconstruction, & maintenance is key to kickstarting the process of creating a material library, research database and a path forward in the construction industry in the U.S.

We created a printable pocket book guide enabling you explore the world of reuse around us. Examining different case studies of manual butchering as community engagement and supplemental construction/material resources are available.