ARCH-4980.1 | Ted Ngai, Lecturer

REGENERATIVE MICROSTRUCTURE
Electrokinetic Extraction of Minerals in Tailings

DANA SHIN

Reasoning for things in multiple different scales, thinkers and designers in the world were able to interact between material property of forms and how they function. In the Greek age, the thinkers saw the repetition of the golden ratio throughout the world and all levels of reality as a step towards this unifying theory. It is the recognition that the same traits appear in entities of many different sizes, from one man to the entire human population.

The world of microstructure introduces that within this patterned network, the function of constructed materials corresponds to the scale of their forms. My initial research was to connect the micro and macro world in relation not only to the visual form but also to the functional interaction of its form.
The idea of form in microstructure expands my research further in cellular materials, and their ability to replace, attach, proliferate, migrate and regenerate damaged tissues in many different forms.

Applying this idea of regeneration to urban scale, I approached it in an attempt to bridge the gap between these two scales of fields and make damaged sites re-inhabitable, reconciling by using the form of “scaffolding” which could be replaced with the wasted chemicals in the tailings.

Introducing a destructive mine site, Sudbury mine in Canada with an ecosystem heavily contaminated by the mining wastes, I propose a new approach to this wasted materials in the tailings to be re-used as potential materials growing as building structures. The process of mineral extraction adapts the technique of electroplating which can remove the acidic materials in the tailings. Through the exploration of material research and investigation of adaptive reuse of materials, I came to the conclusion that adapting the form of “foam”, or porous structure, the scaffolding system can be applied to reconcile this environmental issues of the site. Sudbury mine can be regenerated and developed into a form of new material research facility and a mine museum where people can reinvestigate the value of the natural resources as they physically inhabit and experience the woven complex generated by the extracted materials.