Wenlin Yang

The Urban Fabric: Upcycling Textile Waste into Raw Material for Urban Ground Surface Design

Landscape surface materials have the opportunity to ground us in our experience and use of materials in the built environment. Surface materials describe the physical textures of the urban areas and include soft and hard landscape solutions, streetscapes, and roads. In modern landscape design, turf, concrete, asphalt, brick or rubber are the most common materials for urban parks or playgrounds. However, the unlimited use of, and lack of awareness about urban landscape surface materials has become a common trend. This “take-make-discard” culture has negatively impacted our environment ecologically, economically, and socially. 

This thesis study focuses on upcycling textile waste into a recyclable, degradable, and decomposable material for public pavements, especially in public parks and playgrounds. It aims to understand the larger landscape and ecological impacts of existing materials in comparison to a new set of proposed materials, while also revealing the potential opportunities of utilizing circular second-hand material strategies. 

The material exploration combines research and critique of existing surface materials with an investigation of recycling strategies of textile materials. It then proposes new types of hybrid surface materials that embrace weathering by adding the degradable characteristic of textiles as a new standpoint for thinking about ground surfaces. Ultimately, this research studies the benefits and negative impacts on the environment of public parks from the perspectives offered by this new set of proposed materials, as well as their social interactions and economic conditions.