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An ancient building technique known as boulder masonry can help today’s architects design modern structures using material waste.
The Cannibal Recipe, an architectural manual produced by architects from Matter Design, suggests that cities should adopt “[consuming] The rubble of old buildings can provide new structures” so that their materials are carefully reused rather than thrown into landfill.
Cyclops masonry techniques have a long history and can be traced back to ancient civilizations around the world.
The massive stone blocks fit together without cutting or fixing with any adhesive material, reducing weak points in the wall.
Cyclops masonry takes its name from the legend of the ancient Mycenaean Greeks, who said their megalithic walls were built by Cyclops, “the only creatures strong enough” to move such heavy boulders.
In a similar way, walls built from smaller rocks are often called “dry stone walls”, with builders collecting stones from the surrounding countryside which can be placed in interlocking structures.
Using only stone from the region, the walls form a resilient, self-supporting structure utilizing entirely natural local resources.
Today, we see more and more buildings being built with man-made materials like concrete, which is not only widely used but can also be incredibly destructive.
Concrete production is responsible for 8% of the world’s carbon pollution, consumes 10% of all industrial water, and contributes to further warming of the planet by absorbing the sun’s heat.
By using the remnants of old buildings in a more environmentally friendly way, we can reduce the 4.4 billion tons of concrete produced each year, creating a cooler, cleaner planet for us all.
Building projects using megalithic masonry are already underway, such as Italian architect Nicolás Delgado Álcega’s project to restore agricultural terraces in the rural community of Vallecorsa.
While we probably won’t see any dry rock skyscrapers anytime soon, simpler structures like walls and walkways could be built using rubble from landfills, which would provide a highly sustainable solution to the world’s concrete waste problem.
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