D.E.P.O.T. / Gross Domestic Practice is a year-long research endeavor with partners Amelyn Ng and Gabriel Vergara and follows our exhibiton Planetary Home Improvement. In DEPOT, we turn to the built environment as a site of material exchange. We examine salvage practices that revalue urban refuse and we conduct our own material experiments.
Construction has long been known as a growth industry, where material expenditure is geared towards ever greater Gross Domestic Product (GDP). We offer another definition: gross domestic practices (gdp), a total-practice approach that recognizes building maintenance, waste work, ecoservices, and the material limits of growth. gdp stands for a post-extraction world where product is not the key economic driver, but rather, local processes that support the continual unmaking and remaking of the built environment.
An accompanying salvage film collects and arranges archival films, newsreels, industrials, education films, verité style footage shot on our own site visits and related ephemera. The film tracks a story of material value from early procurement and manufacturing to the waste crisis, ruined landscapes, and the warehousing of materials.
The collected research, salvage materials and film were exhibited at the Rhode Island School of Design.
Visit the online DEPOT
Construction has long been known as a growth industry, where material expenditure is geared towards ever greater Gross Domestic Product (GDP). We offer another definition: gross domestic practices (gdp), a total-practice approach that recognizes building maintenance, waste work, ecoservices, and the material limits of growth. gdp stands for a post-extraction world where product is not the key economic driver, but rather, local processes that support the continual unmaking and remaking of the built environment.
An accompanying salvage film collects and arranges archival films, newsreels, industrials, education films, verité style footage shot on our own site visits and related ephemera. The film tracks a story of material value from early procurement and manufacturing to the waste crisis, ruined landscapes, and the warehousing of materials.
The collected research, salvage materials and film were exhibited at the Rhode Island School of Design.
Visit the online DEPOT
Watch the Salvage Film
D.E.P.O.T/ / Gross Domestic Practices
RISD Architecture, BEB Gallery
Providence, RI
September 5-22, 2023
Design and Research Team:Christine Giorgio, Amelyn Ng, Gabriel Vergara
Student Assistants:
Lauren Blonde
Victoria Goodisman
Jyotindra Idris
Eric Liu
Betty Pui Ki Ng
Alia Varawalla
Joseph Monote
Video Editor: Christine Giorgio
Video Archive Producer: Erika Yeomans
