Nike’s New Shanghai Store is Made From 100 Percent Trash

Imagine a Nike store built without virgin materials.

It would be designed to be very flexible. The suspension ceiling system would be designed to adapt to different exhibition and retail programs. Almost everything would be adjustable, which would free the floor plan for future installation and lighting conditions. No glue would be used to ensure that all materials can be 100 percent re-recycled. Now place the store in Shanghai, China where Miniwiz Sustainable Development Ltd., a Taiwanese architectural firm, completed just such a Nike concept store in July.

The building’s connection joints are made from 5,278 aluminum cans, and the 2,000 yards of tension cables are made from 2,000 post consumer recycled water bottles. The building is constructed from Miniwiz’s RiceFOLD ceiling panels, which were made from 50,000 recycled CDs and DVDs. The panels are reinforced with Rice Husk Si02, which is a natural, organic mechanical strengthening additive. They are designed with engineered light and sound diffusing properties which amplifies sound distribution without being muddled. The light is evenly distributed with little back lighting, which will eventually reduce operational cost and the building’s carbon footprint. They are very fire resistant and can be used as wall or ceiling panels for residential and commercial buildings. The origami design of the panels allows the panels to be shipped stacked and flat. They contain low volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and their weight is less than half of the weight of an aluminum panel.

Miniwiz also designed a building called the EcoARK Pavilion in Taipei, Taiwan which served as the main building for the 2010 Taipei International Flora Exposition. It is the first public building made of Miniwiz’s Polli-Brick which is composed of 100 percent recycled polyethylene terephthalate polymer. Made from 1.5 million recycled plastic bottles, the nine-story building features natural ventilation, an exterior waterfall from water collected from rain, and solar power captured during the day runs LED lighting systems at night.

Miniwiz’s other designs clearly set the bar high for green building. The firm designed a building for the 2011 Taipei Pavilion World Design Expo in Taipei, Taiwan made 100 percent from Polli-Bricks. The building was created without using any adhesive so that the entire building can be disassembled for reuse. The same year, the firm designed the Pacific Department Store in Chengdu, China. The 37-story building is made from Polli-Bricks. A year later, the Eco House was built for Earth Day 2012 in Taipei Main Station in Taipei, Taiwan with 4,000 Polli-Bricks. It is the first building to feature Rice-Fold panels. One of Miniwiz’s designs is slated to be completed in 2015. The iGreen 5D Entertainment Center in Kunshan, Greater Shanghai, China will be built from 100 percent recycled DVDs and CDs. The firm is billing it as the “biggest spherical 5D movie theatre structure in the world.” It will certainly be the greenest.

Most of the firm’s work has been in Taiwan. However, Plastic News reports that Miniwiz plans to expand and find partners in China and the U.S. Can you imagine a building in the U.S. made from 100 percent trash?

Photo: Miniwiz