April 12rd 2013
Washington, DC. USA.
Reclaim + Remake Symposium
2013
Read full paper at
http://basurama.org/txt/basurama-a-
framework-for-designing-collectively-with-
waste
Basurama: a framework for
designing collectively with waste
Pablo Rey Mazón. Basurama.
basurama.org
Contents, unless noted, by Basurama under license:
Creative Commons Atribución-NoComercial-CompartirIgual 3.0 Unported.

Matthias Kabel. CC Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

Establish a framework to work collectively
with waste in public space.

Basurama: a framework for
designing collectively with waste
Pablo Rey Mazón. Basurama.

Basura = trash
ama = love
-orama = wide view of
Basurama = wide view of + love trash

Waste is a powerful
affordable resource.
Working collectively requires:
Listening to the others needs.
Taking time, location, material
constrains in account.

1. Waste as a wide concept
2. What can we do with waste?
3. How to work collaboratively with waste?

1. Waste as a wide concept
Natural resources that have been wasted.

Waste is a resource in the wrong place.

Things that have lost their name.

Whatever is tagged as waste.
#Waste

Whatever is tagged as waste.
#Waste

Whatever is tagged as waste.
#Waste

Whatever is tagged as waste.
#Waste

"Through the garbage collection system of
Mexico City it is possible to make an accurate
radiograph of the entire political system of the
republic, its power relations, their corrupt
situations, etc.."
Héctor Castillo Berthier
Waste is information.

"Through the garbage collection system of
Mexico City it is possible to make an accurate
radiograph of the entire political system of the
republic, its power relations, their corrupt
situations, etc.."
Héctor Castillo Berthier
Waste is information.

Waste is information.

Waste is a relative concept.
Waste is information.
Waste doesn't exist.
Waste has many scales/sizes/shapes.

Waste = People that work with waste

Los Ángeles, CA

1. What is waste?
2. What can we do with waste?
3. Working collaboratively with waste?

2. What can we do with waste?
A. Document + Visualize + Analyze
B. Reuse

A. Document + Visualize + Analyze
Multimedia approach: from objects to landscape
Trash Safari. Madrid, 2005

You are what you throw away. Benicassim, Spain. 2007

You are what you throw away. Benicassim, 2007 with Iris Giménez Gil

Waste Packaging Index. Berlin, 2012 with Dietmar Offenhuber

Packaging
Waste Packaging Index (WPI) =
Total Weight of the product
Waste Packaging Index. Berlin, 2012

Waste Packaging Index. Berlin, 2012

How to document waste landscape?
6000km.org. 2006-2012

Residential Francisco Hernández + Toll Highway. Seseña, Toledo. Spain.
Ciduad de Valdeluz. Guadalajara, Spain.

6000km exhibition at Centro Huarte. Navarra. Spain. 2011

... just panorama photos?

Web
+
Texts
PAU Ensanche de Vallecas. Madrid. Spain, at 6000km.org web site.

Map
meipi.org/6000km

Geotagging reusable
waste in Ruhr.
Germany, 2010 http://basurama.org/b10_ruhr2010.htm

Geotagging reusable waste in Ruhr.
http://basurama.org/maps/ruhr/

...what more?
PAU Ensanche de Vallecas. Madrid. Spain.

PAU Ensanche de Vallecas. Madrid. Spain.

Real estate bubble contemporary ruins
PAU Ensanche de Vallecas. Madrid. Spain.

Aerial photography
PAU Ensanche de Vallecas. 2013

publiclaboratory.org

PAU Ensanche de Vallecas. 2013

Sort hundreds of images

Ruins at PAU Ensanche de Vallecas aerial photo at Public Laboratory web site.

Saugus Ash Landfill. Saugus, Massachusetts.
http://mapknitter.org/maps/saugus-incinerator-landfill

http://basurama.org/transtrash/2011/10/19/saugus-ash-landfill-map/

Satellite imaginery

Google Maps

Edit the map. Contribute to an open database.
http://meipi.org/cambridgewaste OpenStreetMap

B. Reuse
Reusing materials
and public space

Juego Chachi. Leandro Lattes (El vivero) + Basurama. 2005

Juego Chachi. Leandro Lattes (El vivero) + Basurama. 2005

Spermöla = Yard sale in public space
Spermöla 2004, 2005, 2006

Spermöla 2004, 2005, 2006

Free Shop.
Manresa, Spain. 2010. With Makea.

Free Shop.
Manresa, Spain. 2010. With Makea

3. Working collaboratively with waste?

RUS RESIDUOS URBANOS SÓLIDOS
URBAN SOLID WASTE

RUS
A series of chained projects developed by
Basurama and the local cultural-social
collaborators of every iteration of the project.
Every time the project ended with an action or
intervention in the public space, usually
degraded, and was centered in working urban
waste (Basurama 2011).
Funded by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation
(AECID) through the Red de Centros Culturales de la Cooperación Española in
Latin America.

Timeline of a RUS project
1. Research trip
-Local Materials, Techniques and Tools
-Intervention spaces
-Urban conflicts
-Contact local agents: artists, neighbors, municipality.
2. Review information and pre-design
-Establish a local main collaborator
3. Intervention trip
-Production: materials, tools.
-Design and co-design: iterations depending on
negotiations, materials and actors
-Construction: Workshop and prototype with locals
-Action/intervention/installation
-Unmount.

RUS is based on:
-Reactivation of public space
-Local community
-Waste
-Reuse

Public Space
-In danger/threaten
-Inadequate or poor maintenance
-Privatization
-Lack of use
-Abandonment

Local Community
-Wide range of stakeholders
Neighbors, artists, students, waste pickers,
designers, municipalities, institutions
-Different involvement:
punctual support to full Involvement

Waste
-Source of information
-Low cost
-Location: harvest map
-Value vs Price

Reuse
Ubiquity of industrialized products

RUS Asunción. Paraguay. 2008 with Sonia Carísimo and Francisco Tomboly

RUS Asunción. Paraguay. 2008 with Sonia Carísimo and Francisco Tomboly

RUS Asunción + Varsaw 2010

Warsaw, Polen. 2010

RUS Buenos Aires. Todos somos cartoneros (We are all waste pickers) 2009

RUS Buenos Aires. Guide to create cooperatives. With Eloisa Cartonera.

RUS Buenos Aires. Guide to create cooperatives. With Eloisa Cartonera.

La ciudad de los niños. Cabanyal, Valencia (2009) with Arquitectura se mueve.

RUS Córdoba. Tejedoras Urbanas (Urban knitters) (2009) with Quinua Photos: Quinua

RUS Córdoba. Tejedoras Urbanas (Urban knitters) (2009) with Quinua

Video: Juan Andres Mancuello http://youtu.be/v3uM1cNpOMc

RUS Córdoba. Tejedoras Urbanas (Urban knitters) (2009) with Quinua

Car parts.

RUS Mexico City. 2008

Car Tires

RUS LIMA
SELF MADE AMUSEMENT “GHOST
TRAIN” PARK

Initial research

Harvest map

Spaces

Uncompleted Metropolitan railway.
Photo: Sara Fernández Deustch

“El Tren fantasma” (ghost train)
-Elevated metropolitan railway project
-Started construction in 1986
-Opened 10km in 1990.
-For 20 years abandoned elevated
infrastructure.
-Promised public transportation system
that never arrived.

Open access?

Open workshop. Skill sharing

Collaborators
-Christians Luna (visual artist)
-Surquillo District Municipality
-Sandra Nakamura (visual artist)
-Camila Bustamante (graphic designer)
-El Cartón (architecture students collective)
-C.H.O.L.O. (artist collective based on Lima suburbs)
-El Cartón (architecture students collective)
-Playstationvagon (graffiti writers/urban artists)
-El Codo (graffiti writer/urban artist)
-Motivando Corazones collective (non profit
organization)
-María Pía Raschio and Diego Alonso -Rossell (artist)
-Local group of boy scouts

RUS Lima, Peru. 2010

RUS Lima, Peru. 2010

… a week later
Aucahuasi. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tren_Eléctrico_viaducto_inconcluso.jpg

Second iteration of the project
driven by collaborators.
>Poster announcing self-build
workshop.
Image: C.H.O.L.O.

Parque Autoarmable (Self-build playground)
“Nueva Esperanza” in Pachacutec, Ventanilla.
Developed by C.H.O.L.O., Christians Luna y the community of sector C1 de Pachacutec
Photos: C.H.O.L.O.

Parque Autoarmable Nueva Esperanza. Lima
Photos: C.H.O.L.O.

How can short projects change the way society
approach to waste and reuse?

fun
How can short projects change the way society
approach to waste and reuse?

How to work for a systemic change?
Change policies
reused materials
public space use/construction
Change construction processes
self-build

Long term involvement.
Autobarrios. San Cristobal de los Ángeles, Madrid. 2013

zz
Coming soon:
Public audit of waste
MIT Meda Lab Festival
April 20th 2013
http://basurama.org/transtrash/2013/04/0
7/step-by-step-guide-to-picture-2-tons-
of-waste/