THE CAPACITY

permanent Art and Architecture project, ERZ (waste disposal and Recycling) of the city of Zürich 2020, Building of Pool Architects 2020

Castings from non-ferrous materials and mineral substances, the end products of recycled collected waste from the city of Zurich - © Katalin Deer

inside view, in a channel between VBZ Garage and canteen - © Arazebra

Surface and inside of the containers - © Arazebra

view from Herdenstrasse, public access - © Arazebra

ERZ-VBZ building of the city of Zurich 2020, Pool Architects - © Arazebra

waste collection, Hagenholz Zurich - © Ilona Ruegg

'The Capacity' is a permanent architectural intervention in the building for waste disposal and recycling of the city of Zurich, built by Pool Architects 2020.

Two containers identical in shape to those used in the work processes of waste disposal hang mutually clamped in the open air space next to the entrance to dumping track, the intermediate storage of the waste before it is sent for recycling. They have been cast from their potential contents, from the recyclables of the material they might contain. Extracted from the remnants of our society and transformed, they allow for an unusual casting whose conglomerate of metals and minerals is rather exceptional in art. But here substances fuse that do not belong together. What is collected and disposed of as waste by the street cleaners has undergone a refinement process and materialises in two transformed dumpsters that remain empty forever. They could accommodate something that they already contain in their own substance.

'The capacity' is related to the production processes and forms relationships with the architectural empty volume. The presence of the sculpture encompasses various temporal levels that are inscribed in the procedures at the site and in the processes of utilisation: activities, rest, weather, fire, transformation.... The capacity remains an open question, remains a capacity.

permanent Art and Architecture project, ERZ (waste disposal and Recycling) of the city of Zürich 2020, Building of Pool Architects 2020

'the capacity' video