PROJECTS
Ethan Bierlein - Disassembly
Adena Cartsonis - Post, Compost, Trading Post
REVERSE LOGISTICS: Designing Postal Alternatives for Unwanted Stuff
This studio focused on the planetary implications and architectural possibilities of reverse logistics, or “the movement of goods from the consumer to their place of manufacture, sale, or disposal.” We considered the environmental harm of the returns industry, the influence of the internet on consumer behavior, and the post office as a potential site for the re-valuing of material. Participants worked at both the territorial and architectural scales, beginning with research on the flow of commonly returned items and ending with a design proposal for the adaptive reuse of a postal facility in Ypsilanti. Instead of developing projects that anticipate the reselling of returned products, students intervened in earlier steps of reverse logistics by reimagining the post office as a place for recycling, repurposing, or repairing unwanted consumer goods. Beyond the processing of these items, the proposals also tested alternative forms of collective experience with this excess stuff—in other words, what social or cultural benefits could be ascribed to so-called undesirable items if we are able to see them anew?
The term “unwanted” was also applied to the U.S. Postal Service itself whose relevance and future has been debated despite its status as a public good. If one of the early ambitions of this American institution was to “foster a common culture" via the distribution of nation-building publications, then perhaps it is capable of promoting new shared beliefs and behaviors in favor of decreased consumption. The proposals that students developed in this course leveraged the strategic positioning of the post office to advance more environmentally conscious and community-centered approaches to material exchange.