Materials
Hub
The Circular Margate Project aims to culminate in a central Materials Hub for Margate - sorting and distributing materials, whilst providing skills and education opportunities.
The Materials Hub has emerged in recent years as a spatial solution to the collection, centralising and processing of construction waste for it’s reuse. They broadly range in scope from the hyper-locality of a local wood recycling project, to the large scale municipal interventions that the Amsterdam City Hub represents.
With this aim in mind, in September 2023 we submitted a brief to The Sheffield University School of Architecture Live Projects to provide an initial study on how a Materials Hub in Margate might look.
About Live Projects : “Masters architecture students work in Live Project groups with a range of clients including local community groups, charities, health organisations and regional authorities. Live Projects include design/build, masterplanning, building feasibility studies, sustainability strategies, online resources and participation toolkits. In every case, the project is real, happening in real time with real people.
The Brief
The brief for the Live Project was to investigate the feasibility of Bon Volks initiating a ‘Materials Hub’ for Margate and its locality, by exploring the following questions:
Who are the stakeholders within the local creative sector and construction industry and what type and volume of waste do they produce? What is most prevalent? How can we imagine and promote specific further uses?
What are the opportunities for local, socially-impactful organisations to develop projects using reclaimed materials? Does this happen enough? How could it happen more?
What kind of premises does a materials hub need and what should be included? What does this look like and how does it work over time? What operational activities need to be accommodated to facilitate materials recovery, processing and further use?
What are the potential educational, vocational, well-being and social benefits of engaging the community in the Materials Hub project? How can this be achieved?
The Results: