Date of Award

Spring 6-1-2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA)

Department

Landscape Architecture

First Advisor

Tiago Torres-Campos

Second Advisor

Theodore Hoerr

Abstract

The thesis aims to contextualize household waste on the more complete material flows it belongs to, including reciprocal relations between its landscapes of production and landscapes of landfill. Current one-way processes of waste treatment are repositioned within more circular economies which, it is argued, may also bring ecological benefits to our cities. The study focuses on a local community at Mount Hope district in Providence, RI. As part of a wider landscape framework that includes a study on consumer behaviour, a series of modular strategies are developed based on this community’s main characteristics, with an eventual goal of integrating community participation and awareness in the decision making process.

Relying on public engagement as a form of raising collective awareness, the work suggests that well-integrated bottom-up strategies operating between the scales of the household, the street and the neighborhood, may affect people’s consciousness and behavior, change the way people use materials and generate waste, and eventually try to change the structure of how we operate in society in relation to waste and lead us closer towards a waste-free future.

Comments

View exhibition online: Erqi Meng, Eco-waste: household waste material flows in a circular economy

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