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Combined Waste and Water Subversion Terminal for the Polish Green Underground State

Part 2 Project 2011
Gareth Thyer
University of Plymouth | UK
With the continued purification of the built environment under a consumerist ideology, our cities are being cleansed of all traces of alternative ways of living. With every move towards an ordered, sanitised and purified state something must be lost. This futile attempt at structuring the world relies on an increased consumption of resources without recognising the inevitable consequences of the process of rejection or finding a purpose for the waste that is produced.

The state has proven itself to be inefficient in the implementation of the city's infrastructure and this is apparent in the waste networks. With a centralised method of confiscating and processing waste and the reliance on ancient infrastructure, our expanding cities are unable to cope with the increased consumption of resources and with it, the increased production of waste.

Intervening in the underground sewer system of the city makes it possible to address the population's dependence on the state and on modern consumerist networks. This will help to challenge current social hierarchies, allowing us to face the 'dirty other' and confront partitions that have been installed in our society.

Through infrastructure hacking, materials can be harvested, not only for processing human waste into fertiliser for the growth of food, but for the construction of the terminal itself. Toilet paper can provide the fibrous bulk of a building material and can be combined with additives such as clay to form an low-cost, locally-sourced alternative to traditional methods of construction.

We must begin to accept that our excrement is not waste – it is not something to be rejected, buried or shunned. Our effluence is a valuable resource that cannot be disregarded in a dense modern city. We must accept and immerse ourselves in dirt and filth if we are to move forward into a new sustainable way of living that does not destroy the planet upon which we live. We have the ability to take this valuable resource and produce essential items such as food for ourselves without the interference of the state or the intervention of any regime that puts financial or political gain above our well-being.

Gareth Thyer

Tutor(s)

2011
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