April 21, 2025 | By Melissa Alonso

When Ash King first laid hands on a bin of discarded 3D printing scraps and milk jugs, she didn’t see garbage—she saw potential.

Using recycled plastic sourced from Georgia Tech’s own campus, King rolled, sliced, and melted the material into patterned tiles reminiscent of candy or sushi. Each one was a tiny piece of transformation.

“You realize how hard plastic is to actually reuse,” said King, a soon-to-be dual architecture graduate. “It gets brittle, it burns, it sticks to everything. But that challenge—making something functional and beautiful from waste—made the outcome feel so much more meaningful.”

Her work is part of Plastic Reimagined: Material Agency and Circular Design, a graduate-level studio led by Assistant Professor Hyojin Kwon. The course invites architecture students to turn trash into tools for change—combining material experimentation, advanced fabrication, and design theory to create structures from what would otherwise become landfill.

“I hope people see the final chair installations and really think about what they’re made of,” said King. “You're sitting on someone’s old 3D print. You’re part of the story of waste becoming something useful.”

Taylor Jensen’s design doesn’t hide its origins—it celebrates them. She melted and twisted colorful scraps like taffy, creating furniture that’s as expressive as it is sustainable.

“Recycled plastic already has a life. It has form, color, and behavior,” Jensen said. “You can’t erase that—and honestly, you shouldn’t. My project was about embracing that story and turning it into something beautiful.”

With an academic background in both architecture and environmental design, Jensen said this studio felt like a natural fit. “From day one, I knew I wanted to be part of the solution. Architecture has contributed to so much waste—and it has the potential to reverse it.”

Working with PLA and HDPE plastics, Jensen learned how each material reacts differently: one brittle, one flexible. “Plastic shrinks a lot when it cools,” she added. “It forced me to rethink how I design from the ground up.”

Darby Fly, another student in the course, built a machine that mimics the mechanics of a large-scale 3D printer using shredded plastic as raw material.

“It was less about the final object and more about inventing the tool that could make it,” Fly explained. “That was new for me. In architecture, we don’t always work with our hands like this anymore—but we should.”

Fly said handling the sheer volume of waste was eye-opening. “We got thousands of pounds of raw shredded plastic. And it wasn’t just bits—it was failed prototypes, broken models, entire objects that had been discarded,” he said. “You’re literally holding the cost of our convenience.”

Since participating in the studio, Fly says he sees waste everywhere. “I can’t go to the store or unwrap takeout without thinking about the material. It sticks with you.”

The projects are part of the Circular Campus Project, supported by the Arts at Tech Catalyst Grant. By August, the designs will be installed on campus as reconfigurable outdoor furniture made entirely from repurposed plastic—sourced from Georgia Tech labs, local recyclers, and nonprofits in North Carolina.

“This isn’t just about chairs,” said Assistant Professor Kwon. “It’s about giving students firsthand knowledge of the complexities of waste, materials, and environmental responsibility. They’re not just designing—they’re rethinking the very systems design operates in.”

The hope is that the installation sparks campus conversation. “We want people to use the furniture, take a break—and then pause and ask where it came from,” said King.

For Jensen, the studio offered a glimpse into what sustainable architecture could truly look like. “If we can repurpose waste at a furniture scale, imagine what’s possible at the building scale,” she said. “Plastic is overproduced, but that means it’s also a resource we’ve barely tapped.”

Fly added that sustainability doesn’t have to be overwhelming. “It starts with less—less packaging, less waste, fewer new things. That’s doable.”

As the field of architecture reckons with its environmental impact, the School of Architecture is training students to lead that evolution. “This work reflects our deep commitment to sustainability and innovation—where waste becomes a catalyst for invention,” said School Chair Julie Kim. “Students aren’t just reimagining architecture; they’re redefining its role in building a more resilient, equitable future.”

And with future exhibitions already planned at Atlanta Contemporary and the Goat Farm Arts Center, Georgia Tech’s designers are proving that impact can start with what we throw away—and end with something far greater.