Honorable Mention | UNI.xyz Competition | 2024
This competition proposal addresses plastic pollution in the Nile River by turning waste into building material. The concept creates an economic incentive to collect plastic from one of the world’s most polluted waterways—by giving it architectural value, with traditional building techniques modern.
The pavilion design combines collected river plastic as structural matrix with rammed earth walls, forming cylindrical resting spaces along the riverbank. As more plastic gets collected and cleaned, the pavilion can grow incrementally. The structure becomes both a cleanup mechanism and a visible record of the work done—each layer documenting time, place, and community effort.
I focused on two materials that belong to the site: earth excavated locally and plastic already in the water. The rammed earth provides thermal mass and anchors the structure, while the plastic waste—cleaned, sorted, and compressed—forms composite panels that prove waste can perform structurally. Together they create a building that addresses environmental damage while providing public space.
This project explores what happens when architecture creates demand for cleaning up pollution. Instead of just removing waste, the pavilion transforms it into something valuable, making collection economically sustainable over time. Bold form driven by ecological necessity.
The proposal is a structure that encourages transcending and reflecting. Emphasising on parameters such as time, place and identity. Encouraging to build in an ecological way by the use of local natural material but also by focusing on plastic waste and solutions of how we can clean up our rivers and oceans.
Plan drawings of silos that grow as plastic is collected. The more waste the more structures.
Silos
Growing
With time and waste
Collected plastic that is given new purpose as building material.
Waste from rivers
Collected and reused
Collecting plastic from the river Nile
Sunbkaked tiles
Egyptian pigeon towers
Rammed earth
Adding vernacular building typologies and traditional materials
