OUR PROJECT
Regardez cette courte vidéo expliquant les enjeux et les perspectives de GWILEN. Elle a été réalisée à l’occasion des Trophées Bretons du Développement Durable 2022 pour lesquels GWILEN est lauréat dans la catégorie Entreprise !
Pour en savoir plus sur l’origine du projet et ses grands enjeux, vous pouvez écouter l’interview de Yann sur le podcast de Hélène Aguilar, Où est le beau ? (Where is the beauty?) :
THE RESOURCE
Marine sediments accumulate in harbors and this accumulation is inevitable. Indeed, when the current slows down, the suspended particles settle on the bottom.
This happens downstream of the dams, but also in all the ports of the world. This material must be evacuated to ensure the proper functioning of the infrastructure.
This resource is available anywhere in the world, all along the coast, in all ports. Currently, 60% of the world's population lives within 60 km of the coast. In 2045, 75% of us will live in this coastal strip.
Developing this resource means allowing the local use of a resource that is already available.
THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY
The construction industry is one of the most polluting industries. It accounts for 41% of global energy consumption, 23% of air pollution and 40% of global raw material consumption. Concrete is the most consumed material on Earth after water, but it is also the most polluting. Producing one ton of cement requires a firing at 1450°C: this releases 900kg of CO2 into the atmosphere. Producing one ton of bricks requires a firing at 1150°C and this releases 300kg of CO2. If alternative solutions exist, such as straw or raw earth for example, they are not adapted to the industrial dimension of construction sites. Today, there is a need to find new materials, adapted to a massive production and able to answer a growing demand due to the increase of the world population, while having a reduced environmental impact.
Gwilen produces materials that are ecological, industrial, easy to use and that use a resource that is already available to us.
THE DESIGNER, A GLOBAL THINKER
Architects and designers as thinkers of globalities, are the best equipped to think about the world of tomorrow. We no longer need an ecological transition, but an ecological break. For this, we must be able to deconstruct what exists today in order to think it anew. To go back to the fundamental principles defining design, architecture, the construction sector or the industry, to approach them not in a restricted framework of their associated problems, but in a much broader way..
A more global vision, questioning the relationship between Man and the Earth.
DESIGN THE REUSE
Gwilen uses materials that are available to us, harbor sediments. Designing from these materials implies taking into account their compositions and their variability. This requires designing from already existing elements. This approach characterizes the Levi-Straussian "handyman", opposed to the figure of the "Engineer", who designs in autarky and submits nature to his thought. The 21st century will be a century of handymen, in the noble sense of the word, of the one who thinks "from", who thinks with waste, with what we have already extracted, with neglected architectures, with nature.
How to transform rather than create.
