DAP Studio's DEBRIS Pavilion Reimagines Tehran's Demolition Waste as Architecture

Key facts

• DEBRIS is a pavilion design by DAP Studio for Tehran, Iran.
• The project was developed as an architectural competition proposal and was not built.
• It uses salvaged concrete blocks, construction debris, a demountable steel structure, and recycled aluminum.
• The design responds to Tehran's cycle of demolition and reconstruction, driven by increasing land values.
• Construction and demolition waste is rarely treated as a resource and is displaced to the city's margins.
• The pavilion draws conceptually on Georges Bataille's ideas of excess, transgression, and the base.
• The outer skin is made of recycled aluminum sheets welded into a continuous skin.
• Broken concrete blocks form interior partitions with hollow cores facing visitors, creating visual continuity.
• Construction debris is scattered across the floor, disrupting conventional clean surfaces.
• A mirrored interior multiplies reflections, making discarded material difficult to separate from architectural space.
• The entrance is recessed within the debris field and includes an accessible route for visitors with disabilities.
• The construction system is conceived around reuse and disassembly.