"Unquenchable, Inextinguishable"
From the ancient Greek σβεστος: “asbestos
The curiosity, inventiveness and ambition which humanity has relentlessly applied to natural materials underpins the standard narrative of the progress of cities in history. However, this “progress” is now everywhere in question, as cities destroy the environments which support them and increasingly harm the lives of their inhabitants. In the case of asbestos, the city’s materials can be fatal.
Asbestos, once a construction “miracle material”, kills hundreds of thousands of people each year and creates millions of tons of contaminated waste landfill worldwide. Yet, what is asbestos? Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral - a part of the earth. It rests in the ground like other minerals. Asbestos is not “toxic” like human-made poison or radiation. If disturbed and inhaled or ingested, asbestos is harmful to humans. Disturbing asbestos by mining and placing in building products is entirely a catastrophe of our own making. It joins a growing list of exploited natural materials that are now harming us.
However humanity’s curiosity, inventiveness and ambition remains, and can be redirected. It has the potential to be more wisely and less cynically deployed. The historical precedent for the redirection of human focus is long and promising. For the city and its materials, the focus should move to within its own boundaries, not outward to ever more compromised wild environments. It should be to the radical repair, reuse and rediscovery of materials the city already has. In the case of asbestos, waste building materials which include the mineral can be recrystallised to form new, safe materials. These new materials have great potential: for the replacement of cement in construction, and use in architectural materials like renders, tiling and glazes. In addition, reuse and adding asbestos to a circular economy has the potential to unlock large landfill sites, returning them to use or as rewilded environments. Ageing buildings constructed with asbestos too, can be safely recycled into non-hazardous materials. The city can begin to return to its earlier idea as a platform for improvement of human life, and its natural spaces and peripheries recover as living ecologies.
Besley & Spresser
Peter Besley has been active in the fields of architecture and urban design at national and international levels for over 25 years. In 2004 Peter co-founded Assemblage, a London-based studio of architects and urban designers which he ran until 2018. At Assemblage Peter led the design and execution of numerous high-profile projects including the winning scheme for the Iraq Parliament and the Design District in London UK. Peter has led university studios in architecture and urban design at the Bartlett School of Architecture UCL, the University of Sydney and the University of Queensland. Peter’s Sydney-based practice Besley & Spresser is engaged in the design of various civic, cultural and residential projects.
Jessica Spresser is an Australian architect. Her architecture studio Besley & Spresser combines practice, making and research, and has won a series of national and international competitions including the Barangaroo Pier Pavilion and a National Memorial in Canberra. Prior to forming Besley & Spresser, Jessica practised internationally in London, Tokyo and Venice, working in various studios including Junya Ishigami and Kengo Kuma. She is currently undertaking a PhD on the intersection of architecture and art in exhibitions, and runs a Master of Architecture studio at the University of Sydney.