ZABALGANA WALKWAY

YEAR: 2012

CLIENT: ENSANCHE 21 ZABALGUNEA S.A. VITORIA-GASTEIZ

PLOT: ZABALGANA. Vitoria-Gasteiz

TEAM: Javier Mozas (co-author), FS GROUPE, Ainhoa del Río, Olatz Iñigo, revirtualiza

MEMORY:

THE THREE RS

The following actions are called the three Rs:

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Rethink Architecture is the title of the catalogue of the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2012. Its first three R’s summarise (especially in the North American context) the general procedures for removing waste from the production chain and preventing it from reaching the environment.

The motto: “Rethink architecture” suggests that we are going down the wrong path, and although it may seem unfair to think that all architectural production in recent decades deserves the appellation of junk-architecture, it is true that there is an emerging feeling that architectural production has a good-not-necessary component, especially when it is inserted into the strict sphere of environmental responsibility. It is as if the construction world is still fiddling while Rome burns. Architecture and the city are more than just products of the consumer society.

Reduce has an inconvenient character of austerity, of slowing down, of concentrating and condensing efforts with the ascetic aim of saving natural resources. The way the goods production business is set up, this reductionist action can lead to the paralysis of economic activity. To reduce means to make something smaller, to reduce production instead of launching it, to use less material, so that, in the end, less waste is generated.

Before reduction, a pro-active process should be imposed, in the sense of remediation; that is, a moral regeneration of society. The mechanism would be to rethink the way in which humanity dialogues with nature, placing it in a relationship of equality, without domination or subjugation, in order to achieve ecological balance through savings in materials and energy that can benefit the environment.