An introduction to Studio12

Cities create things, consume them and produce their by-product which we call waste. The efficient functioning of a city depends on its ability to deal with this waste. In our economy the patterns of production, consumption and waste management are global, but the effects are localised.

We believe that we are embarking on a new era in which we cannot afford to throw 'away', hide or ignore the unwanted things we produce. This is beginning to affect the producers, making designers and manufacturers responsible for the eventual recycling of the products they make, as well as the consumer, demanding that we take responsibility for our own waste.

This begins to re-conceive the basis of our relationship with goods and materials. In place of the current linear process (produce, consume, discard), goods we no longer want or can use must become the beginning of something else, forming a cyclic process.

We will speculate on what this might mean for architecture, for our lives and for the city.