The presentation delivered at the Essential Shifts Symposium, an event part of 2022 Architectural Fringe and organised by Robert Gordon University, introduces the brief for a cross-disciplinary course and describes the resulting output produced by MSA Architecture students (stage 2) and GSA-GU Product Design Engineering (year 3). The collaboration aimed at deepening climate numeracy, reflecting upon the interdependent complexity of the built environment, placing students collaborative learning experience within a broader discussion of climate change and its impact on design practices.

Students were tasked to quantify and critically examine the potential of “mining” anthropogenic deposits to curb the extraction of new raw materials and the consumption of non-renewable resources. Mixed teams of students chose a building along Renfrew Street and followed a three-step process using a mix of numeric, graphic, and model making tools to analyse, disassemble, quantify, and track the source and history of technology, materials and energy embodied in the building. Emphasis is placed on the visualisation of the material stock available in each building and on speculations about the feasibility of new ways of recycling, re-engineering, and re-purposing a range of materials within a circular local economy.