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Researching Architectural Salvage Through Experiential Education, Carey Clouse

Carey Clouse

In the streets of post-Katrina New Orleans, it was trash heaps, rather than signage, that offered the promise of a homeowner’s return. Street-side mountains of soggy sheetrock, worn-out flooring and old windows provided a visual testament of rebuilding efforts inside; these piles of architectural debris framing gutted houses on almost every block. Such material waste regularly accompanies standard construction practices, where the yardstick of progress measures the number of dumpsters filled, and transformation implies resource depletion. This perverse line of thinking was called into question by one team of architecture students at Tulane University, who in the midst of the …