Waste(d) Space
Fall 2019
Across the US, sports stadiums produce millions of tons of waste per year. Additionally, the average number of years before a sports' team rebuilds their stadium continues to drop, leaving abandoned stadiums to be demolished or to lay vacant.
Waste(d) Space proposes a dynamic alternative to the outdated stadium model. I explore a theoretical "mobile" stadium that utilizes waste to support vegetation growth year round and that adapts to the environment it inhabits.
12 weeks
Rhino
Illustrator
Photoshop
Landscape Architect
I began sketching with no real direction. What does a dynamic stadium look like? Do the seats zip around the field like mine carts on a rail? Or do they stack on top of each other like containers in a shipyard?
I started narrowing in on a direction for the stadium's form by determining its function. It was meant to eliminate waste - but what does that look like?
At the time of this project, a professor in an adjacent studio was doing research on using "biosolids" (human waste) in crop fertilization. This sparked the idea for what I would eventually call "poop robots": a collection of walking machines consolidating, digesting, and excreting waste across the stadium site.
I modeled the robots in Rhino and extracted linework to diagram the functions clearly.
Each robot, or "hopper", contains 2 levels of stadium seating, with restrooms and concessions nestled below.
Waste pipes collect biosolids and compostable food waste and move it into the biogas digester at the bottom of the robot.
As waste is digested, methane is produced and collected in an expandable rubber membrane on the back of the hopper.
The methane is fed into the hopper docking stations along the edge of the field, burned, and converted into energy that is used to power the hoppers.
Solid waste is mixed with soil and a designated seed mix, later to be used as compost on the site.
When the stadium is not in use, hoppers deposit their seed mix compost onto the site.
The compost deposits dynamically track the amount of waste collection per game. The length of each mound reflects the number of people at each game, and, in turn, the amount of waste produced.
When the stadium is in use, hoppers disengage from their walls and line up around the field.
The stadium can seat up to 20,000 people, or 33 hoppers.
When it is time to dock, pegs in the hopper structure lock them into three buildings on the site.
To create more room for the hoppers to dock, they are stackable.
Looking back on this one, I realize the word "theoretical" was doing a lot of heavy lifting. However, I still have a very special place in my heart for my beloved poop robots!
I've thought a bit about how Waste(d) Space could be improved, and I think the appeal of these magnificent poop robots is lessened by their uniformity. It could have been a living art exhibit - each robot with its own unique features, traversing the site and carrying out its core functions.
I also shirked my role as a landscape architect a bit - do soccer players want to play surrounded by 4-story metallic behemoths? Do stadium goers love the idea of being crammed into a stuffy, smelly box for 3 hours?
My newly honed user experience instincts (or maybe common sense) is telling me no. But it's a fun idea, in theory!
