As students of architecture and building construction it might seem counter intuitive to be thinking of deconstruction. With the industry moving more and more toward sustainable building and green construction though, I feel that this is a very important topic to be aware of.
In nearly every presentation I have heard about green building, the discussion begins with the statement that the greenest building is the structure which is already built. Reusing an existing building saves on the mining of materials, production of products, and their transportation. The environmental impact is quite significant in these cases.
Taking this line of thinking to the next step, we come to organizations like the Architectural Salvage Warehouse of Detroit. The people at ASW deconstruct and warehouse all portions of homes which are slated for demolition. Every brick, every board, door, window, and sliver of trim is carefully removed from abandoned homes. This is essentially recycling on a grand scale and it makes great sense. Rather than dumping tons of building material into a landfill why not reuse that material?
The following video is borrowed from Greenovation tv.
