ABSTRACT
This chapter reports on the work of the ‘Offcut’ group at the School of Re-Construction (SoR-C). It addresses the issue of material and waste flows in the economy. Based on the exercise proposed to participants in the ‘Offcut’ group, namely investigating the trajectory of a series of artifacts chosen in different contexts, the chapter aims to demonstrate how this type of analysis can help us to reflect on a possible redefinition of the role of architects in a context of climate and environmental crisis. To this end, the chapter introduces a series of representational tools that help to better grasp the complexity of these trajectories and flows, notably through Sankey diagrams. The chapter then turns to the question of how to move from an essentially linear economy to forms of circularity and the changes such a transition would induce in the way we conceive the role of architects. The whole is based on work carried out by participants in SoR-C‘s ‘Offcut’ group.
