Building the Paper Economy: Finding spatial and cultural agency through recycled paper

In a rapidly changing atmosphere of environmental and economic concerns, our relationship with waste and its processes must be reconsidered if we are to take part in a more circular economy. Following a global waste trade ban in 2018, this thesis sets out to understand how current paper recovery methods could be reimagined for the design and fabrication of sustainable building components. With over a year of international research of physical explorations, literature review, and extensive design work conducted in Australia, Brazil, and at Carleton University, this project identifies conventional solid waste management strategies and adopts an integrated systematic approach to reduce waste generating processes while understanding how paper could be reused and redistributed back into the social networks and economies of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Using newfound material recovery solutions using nano and micro-fibrillated paper and cardboard, this thesis presents design methodologies for prefabricated building components in developing regions.