ALL

MATERIAL WORKS

INFO

YEAR: 2025

SITE: ST. CATHARINES, ON

STATUS: SCHEMATIC

RECOGNITION:

Ontario Graduate Scholarship
Conference Participation Award
2025 AIA Canada Student Design Award
L’Oeuf Massive Impact Award
(featured in) UWSA Projects Review
(featured in) Tracing Time: A Masterworks Exhibition

Full Thesis

“Material Works” posits the largest abandoned industrial landscape in the Niagara region — the former General Motors Plant site — as a key infrastructure to circulate the existing building stocks for city scale reuse in St. Catharines, Ontario. Th e city’s building permits issued in 2023-2024 were analyzed to examine buildings registered for demolition and to build a database of materials to be reused if deconstructed. Th is initial study informed the design of the facility, in its scale, aesthetics and programmatic organization.

The half-demolished GM structure, with a former building footprint of 38,000m2, is transformed to a circularity hub to address the city’s potential reusable building material stock. Th e architecture provides spaces for people to train in deconstruction, salvaged materials to be processed for resale, and designers to demonstrate their potential for architectural re-application. With circulation of materials as the central motif, agencies essential in facilitating circular activities are imagined to co-exist in one physical site to develop approaches to create more sustainable, closed-loop metabolic systems of materials.

The building industry constitutes nearly a quarter of the global waste stream, and with Ontario’s landfi lls projected to reach capacity by 2032, the movement and uncertain destination of materials re main critical environmental concerns. In the quest for a sustainable architectural future, where construction’s inherent destructiveness contrasts with the demand for densifi cation, focus shift s toward assessing the residual value of existing urban building stocks within the Anthropogenic landscape. Th is paradigm shift from the current linear to a circular construction model protects the architectural heritage of our urban fabric from rapid erasure while optimizing resource effi ciency.

This thesis explores design interventions and industry practices that replace the 21st century’s planned-obsolescence-thinking with reuse, contributing to the discourse of material circularity to address the environmental and cultural resiliency in architecture.

METHODOLOGY

In order to estimate the quantity of annual materials coming out of demolition or deconstructed buildings in St. Catharines, building permits – key formal documents for recording building stock – were analyzed. Through this legal record required to commence any significant building projects, including demolition, we can examine the constant changes occurring to the city’s building assets. Different building types are constructed and demolished at different rates, with various materials invested into or broken down with them.

St. Catharines’ permits issued in 2023-2024 (total of over 1000 permits) were analyzed to quantify, catalogue, and identify material types that could be reused if deconstructed instead of demolished in a one year span. While this number is subject to change, this methodology provides insight to how such legal document can be utilized to build a database for city scale reuse.

Overview of the total
material volume with
residual value in St.
Catharines placed on
the thesis site.

In a span of just one year, 67 structures were issued to be demolished in St.Catharines. Th is approximates to 12,500m3 of building stock, equivalent of a 40 storey 1m2 tower - which 75% of this is estimated to hold residual value.

Th rough full deconstruction, 4000m3 - 15 storeys high - of this volume of materials can be reclaimed for direct reuse. This quantity only grows when considering the accumulation of matter over time.

From the perspective of reusing from the existing, all resources have already been produced. All that is needed for minimal waste and resource efficiency is facilitating its continual circulation.

SITE

DESIGN

The proposal for the conversion of the former GM Plant 1 into a circularity hub is seen as an opportunity to develop the Material Works as a site to demonstrate circular practices within the building industry in the context of St. Catharines. The hub includes educational programs, a warehouse for processing deconstructed building materials, and a box store designed to commercialize the selling of second-hand materials. Additionally, a circularity lab and an architectural office is situated over the box store.

TRAINING MANUAL

The Training Manual: HANDLING DECONSTRUCTED MATERIALS was created as an example of a training module that could be used as the main textbook at Material Works.The book presents guidance and practical safety measures to be taken at any reuse-facility. Such practice structure contributes to the development of training/education curriculum for handling deconstructed materials which as of the current year, 2025, is yet to exist in Canada.

Just like any typical fieldwork, handling deconstruction materials requires precision, safety, and technical expertise to execute the work, upon training. Proper training is essential, as working with materials involves handling hazardous substances, working at heights, and use of specialized equipment. Workers must be profi cient in hazard identifi cation, personal protecting equipment (PPE) usage, and site specific protocols. Exposure risks to asbestos, concrete dust, and other toxic chemicals necessitates compliance with safety regulations.

Operating specialized tools and heavy machinery, as well as handling large materials, demands skill and certifi cation. Training covers hand tools, fastener removal systems, de-nailing, and machinery such as forklift s, telehandlers, and overhead crane, ensuring effi ciency and compliance with licensure requirements.

This manual serves as a comprehensive guide to best practices, technical knowledge, and safety standards in handling deconstruction materials.

SKETCHES