Reading through Ákos Moravánszky’s incredibly dense article “Der Kreislauf der Bausteine…” in Eva Stricker, et.al., Bauteile wiederverwenden, 2021, I found this astonishing project from the 1970s..
The project was constructed almost exclusively from re-purposed railway sleepers as a cheap and available resource. In a collective design-and-built process with students and peace activists the structure, envelope and furniture were realized with a simple building system derived from traditional techniques.
Because of the modular element used as a universal building part, the project could be considered an early example of a discrete-design project, as a construcion that theoretically could be reconfigured, extended, transformed – the cycles of reuse continued. This combination of reuse and discrete makes the project special.
Furthermore, the distinct characterictics of the blocks define aesthetics and functional qualities of the building, illustrating how design (intention) and material logic could mutually transform each other in dialog.
The project was also discussed in Urs Meister’s text “The threads of the net” in Andrea Deplazes, Constructing Architecture, 2005, p.106 ff.
More images in this blog post at socks-studio.com