Found Re-fined (4045)

HONOURABLE MENTION of Market 2.0: Circular Economy Hub

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Market 2.0: Circular Economy Hub

Found Re-fined (4045)

Team

Name: Johan Voordouw

Instagram: @johan_voordouw

Nationality: Dutch

Name: Daria Hutsul

Nationality: Ukraine

Like many countries, Cuba is in the midst of a housing crisis with many families living precariously in unsafe conditions. The Found Re-fined Market (4045) aims to support its community by offering suitable replacements to make historic buildings more resilient to inclement weather and reduce the speed of deterioration.

The Found Re-fined Market is in the southeast corner of Central Havana on a derelict site along a crook of the Padre Varela. While statistics vary, the Guardian newspaper notes that 185,854 properties are in poor condition, at risk of partial or full building collapse. This market aims to support the surrounding neighbourood by recycling, re-using, and repairing building materials to consolidate historic buildings in a perilous state.

As per the principles of a non-growth circular economy, this market advocates for the finance, energy, and resources to be reallocated away from the production of new, carbon-intensive construction materials towards those that already contain embodied carbon in which most of the input of water, electricity, and the use of non-renewable fossil fuels for its extraction is already entrained.

The construction industry is responsible for 1/3 of global waste. While Cuba is a small economy, and Havana a mere fraction of that waste, Havana offers an ideal case study for a progressive economic model which foregrounds rehabilitation over demolition.