11.20.24
BRICK BY BRICK: SALVAGED MATERIALS IN TORONTO
AZURE Human/Nature Conference 2024
AZURE Human/Nature is a two day climate conference, taking place October 24-25 at George Brown College, Waterfront Campus in Toronto, Canada. The conference will bring together architects, urbanists, designers and other innovators – as well as activists, environmentalists and business leaders – to motivate greater collaboration and share proven approaches to greener products, spaces and cities.
Giaimo and Arcana Materials were invited by AZURE to design a salvaged brick display for this conference, highlighting both the significant material waste happening due to demolition, as well as the exciting potential for designing with salvaged brick. From large-scale landscape architecture and infrastructure projects, to new construction housing and interior renovations, salvaged brick and circular construction practices offer social, cultural, environmental, and economic benefits.
Construction, buildings, and demolition account for 40% of our landfill waste (Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission, Solid Waste Report, 2018). Ironically, the heritage construction industry in Toronto frequently outsources historic brick from the UK for restoration projects due to lack of supply in Ontario. In 2020, Arcana commissioned a Carbon Footprint Assessment by Northern Climate Pathways to compare locally-sourced Ontario reclaimed brick vs. a heritage-replica from the UK that is commonly used in restoration projects. It found that using locally salvaged brick from Toronto has a significantly lower cradle to gate carbon footprint at 37.5 kgCO2e per tonne, vs. 376.8 kgCO2e per tonne for the typically used UK new heritage-match replica brick.
