African Design Magazine August 2015 | Page 25

African project: Ocean Dome The sustainable use of resources, the reduction and reuse has become one of the most important topics worldwide. With this project – a cooperation between Bavaria and Western Cape – innovative possibilities will be shown at one of the global hotspots. R ectangular steel baskets – so called gabions with 30cm depth – will be filled with recyclables, in this case plastic waste from the Atlantic Ocean, collected at Cape Town’s beaches, layered like bricks and interconnected like a cylinder with 4.5m height and 4m width. Circumferentially visible the different types of plastics, colors and shapes are formed to an object tower. Plastic waste in the seas and rivers is a worldwide phenomenon. An accompanying workshop and exhibition addresses the topic of “pollution of the seas through plastic” and experiments with the use of the resource waste as construction material for innovative low-cost buildings. At the same time, the installation takes up the topics of low-cost, urbanization and environment. As an eye-catcher it also illustrates new building techniques for low-cost construction by the way recycling material is used. The building will be a symbol of how our resources can be used. On the one hand, it provides an opportunity to experiment with architecture, low-cost material and plants and on the other hand its purpose is to promote ecological awareness. This house, being a design object and work of art, will contain technical Innovations and architectural features such as shade provision and natural air conditioning. Worldwide there are more than 100 million people who africandesignmagazine.com 25