Reuse Logistics

This subproject led by Madlen Kobi, focuses on the actors and practices involved in reuse logistics. Materials do not circulate by themselves, but whether and how they circulate depends on decisions and practices by the people valuing and handling them. Seven months of ethnographic fieldwork were conducted in 2022 at the headquarters of materialnomaden GmbH in Vienna. This startup company engages in the search, storing, sale, design and integration of reused materials. One of their projects is the re:store, an online library of mined materials where potential buyers can find and purchase components. Analysing the trade in reused materials offers a ground for understanding the particular practices needed to translocate building materials, but also reveals how materials move between physical storage and their analogous digital life. Madlen focuses in particular on human–material relations in the company through participating in disassembling and construction activities, in meetings and everyday office life, and in observing activities in the company workshop where they develop prototypes out of reused building components.

From a broader perspective, Madlen develops anthropological approaches to the reuse of building materials and circular construction. Her comparative perspective as team leader enables her to address the socio-cultural, historical, economic, and political aspects that shape reuse practices today in order to complement more technically oriented perspectives from architecture and engineering.

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