Wasteland Baby! is an imagined future set in Armley, Leeds, on the site of a disused asbestos factory. The proposal considers the widespread incidence of asbestos across the built environment using satire, comic and exaggerated sorrow to express regret in 20th century developments. The final proposal is acommunity building that consumes waste asbestos, reengaging disused industrial waterways in a denaturing process that results in a zero-to-landfill and zero-carbon byproduct.

The project incorporates renewable technologies in the form of a retrofitted existing waterwheel at a secondary site that straddles the River Aire. Rotary energy is derived and used to power a a cable car to allow for the continuous transport and processing of material, maximising automation.

Much of the birthed program comes from the fermi approximation calculation that it could take up to 600 years to fully treat and detoxify the estimated 6 million tonnes of asbestos in the UK’s built environment with the processing capacity of the facility.

The final proposal sees new structures fabricated in the iconic Leeds redbrick that blankets much of the immediate site context. For an ambitious and large scale project it was decided that this material would be used to maintain harmony and promote integration whilst drawing inspiration from the unconventional brick formations used by Eladio Dieste.