Opalis Germany / Thirty to one - KIT

This summer semester 2022, Rotor will run a studio and a seminar at KIT's Departement of Architecture.

The studio, Thirty to one, will anticipate a dramatic growth of the salvage and remanufacturing industry. How can the reuse business in a short period be scaled by a multiple of 30 or more? What will be the implications? Each student (or small groups of students) will develop a specific scenario of growth for an existing company in this domain, proposing state of the art remanufacturing facilities, showrooms and other infrastructure for a reuse economy at proper scale.

The seminar will consist in Mapping the German salvage business. Founded in 2011, Opalis.eu is an ongoing research project that documents traders in second hand building materials. Gradually, the geographic perimeter of the project has grown. First Brussels, then Belgium and more recently also The Netherlands, France and the UK. The proposed seminar aims to populate the map in Germany, till now largely undocumented. Students will combine desk research with roadtrips to document the largest possible number of companies in person. Subgroups will receive separate territories to explore. Besides photographs and written reports, we will also gather a series of material samples to be added to the school’s collection. A presentation of the research work will be made.