from pm to am
Thesis project: building material agency

From Material Research of Particulate Matter to A Design Intervention of Aggregate Matter
For Thesis Project at Rensselaer Polytechnice Institute
“Harriet R. Peck Prize Nomination” for the best solution to a thesis project  
Instructor: Ted Ngai

The whole thesis book is uploaded at the link below: 
http://issuu.com/yifengzhao/docs/yifeng_zhao_thesis_project_at_rpi

“From PM to AM” is a project that harvests Particulate Matters, specifically sand or dust from the storm hazard conditions to redeposit and aggregate them as usable building material to accommodate efficient urban living scenarios. The project couples a material research and a design intervention by incorporating the different material agency of sand into the practical realm of construction. Ultimately, it aims at inventing a self-constructive method for human beings to convert the catastrophic damages into sustainable lifestyles: Given a scaffolding set around an existing irrigation circle in arid land, people would be able to progressively build up habitable defensive walls in response to sand storms by aggregating sand itself and preserving the precious green land in the middle.