What a Waste is a research project and upcoming publication that looks at how designers work through the lens of waste. The project expands the definition of waste beyond only ‘leftover material’, exploring it more broadly as four interrelated categories: time, space, effort, and resources.

Focused on the architectural impact of waste, the project brings together different Dutch and international collectives who are working on this in alternative ways. These include methods that critically respond to the way waste impacts our built environment and modes of production – such as improvisation, co-creation, scavenging, and inventorying. By looking at these practices, What a Waste highlights new ways of thinking about architecture and how we can work more responsibly and creatively. The resulting publication will shed light on these methods and present a cohesive view on emerging architectural practices to a broader audience.

On 23rd May, What a Waste will host a mapping workshop with the participating collectives at OMI Rotterdam. It will consist of a hands-on spatial exercise, co-creating a large map across the walls and floor of OMI that explore the four categories of waste. The aim is to identify shared values and strategies across diverse practices and reflect on the motivation that drives their work.

The public are invited to contribute their own perspectives and experiences to the collective map – to broaden and grow the documented relations on waste. This final piece will be documented in the upcoming publication What a Waste.