Richard Kroeker

Ambient Material

This pavilion is an experiment in building with ambient material: in this case, surplus phone books, which are ubiquitous. The books form a ready made, insulated building module held in place with sheet metal angles normally used as drywall bead material. Once tensioned, the phone books form a stable wall into which additional layers can be easily screwed. The roof joists are also made of laminated phone books. The finished structure becomes a kind of time capsule, recording the names and numbers of community members. The structure was built with students at the Dalhousie University Department of Architecture.