Sustainable Buildings from Marble Waste Heaps

This chapter provides a research overview, emphasizing the urgent need for sustainable development due to mid-twentieth-century realizations of Earth’s fragility. Highlighting environmental degradation from deforestation and fossil fuel consumption, it stresses the necessity for sustainable architecture. The chapter discusses the United Nations’ Agenda 2030 and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aimed at promoting global sustainable development. It introduces the research context: the Estremoz Anticline in Portugal, known for its marble quarries and substantial waste piles. The research aims to develop sustainable architectural strategies by reusing existing materials, preserving the site’s identity, and transforming it into a multifunctional space with aesthetic and cultural value. The chapter outlines the research structure: the introduction and background of the quarries, the analysis of landscape mutation and quarry rehabilitation, and the development of practical waste reuse strategies in architecture. It defines key terms related to quarrying, discusses the industry’s landscape impact, and underscores the importance of sustainable development. Detailing a methodology for rehabilitating abandoned quarries using waste materials, the chapter promotes an interdisciplinary approach integrating planning, landscape, and architecture within a geological context. The research seeks to transform the Estremoz Anticline into a sustainable, attractive landscape, achieving long-term energy efficiency and reducing environmental impact.

This chapter underscores the meaning of the “landscape” in encouraging heightened attention toward it. Over centuries, the perception of nature has evolved from a peripheral background to a central subject of artistic and architectural interest, particularly with the advent of land art, which directly modifies landscapes with large installations that highlight the landscape as a primary subject of creative expression. The chapter introduces various disciplines related to the landscape, providing concise theories to demonstrate its versatility across different fields. It begins with a historical and pictorial perspective, examines key regulations, and explores the landscape’s imaginary, cultural, social, and aesthetic dimensions.

The chapter also addresses the impact of industrial modernity on natural territories, introducing concepts such as “Drosscape,” “Friche,” and “Terrain Vague” which these terms describe landscapes marked by industrial waste and abandonment, which, while often seen as burdens, hold potential for reuse and redevelopment. The focus is on redeveloping these devastated areas through recycling and reusing residual materials. The chapter analyzes the concept of “reuse” to recover existing environmental values and eliminate waste and describes several case studies and methodologies for requalifying industrial sites.

This chapter explores the profound impact of human activities on the environment, focusing on the extraction industry and its role in altering landscapes. Highlighting the necessity of transforming abandoned industrial sites into areas of architectural and environmental value, the chapter discusses various recovery typologies and their environmental implications. By implementing regeneration strategies, degraded industrial territories can acquire new functions, meanings, and aspects. The chapter showcases examples of quarries transformed into public parks, botanical gardens, auditoriums, tourism facilities, and other recreational areas, emphasizing the economic and environmental benefits of such transformations. It also addresses the issue of waste generated by quarrying activities, emphasizing the importance of integrating them into the regeneration process. The inclusion of these large accumulations of waste aligns with the principles of a circular economy and enhances the overall recovery strategy. The literature review is a part of broader research on innovative quarry rehabilitation strategies, with a specific focus on the Estremoz Anticline in Portugal. This area, characterized by 185 marble quarries and significant waste heaps, presents a unique opportunity to requalify the landscape and promote tourism. The chapter sets the foundation for developing new rehabilitation methodologies, emphasizing the integration of waste heaps into recovery interventions.

This chapter addresses the issue of massive waste accumulations resulting from extraction activities, traditionally excluded from rehabilitation processes due to their perceived lack of economic and architectural value. Recently, increased environmental awareness has prompted the consideration of integrating waste materials into quarry rehabilitation. However, current interventions often lack a unified methodology to guide and systematize the adoption of effective criteria. The chapter argues that architectural interventions can significantly enhance quarry and landscape rehabilitation by transforming waste heaps into functional and valuable spaces.

Building on the research, this chapter establishes the groundwork for developing a practical reuse methodology to be applied in a case study in Portugal, as detailed in the following chapter. This methodology aims to explore innovative solutions for quarry rehabilitation and the reuse of extraction industry waste. Integrating inert materials into quarry rehabilitation aligns with the principles of circular economy, offering substantial benefits for landscape transformation. Revitalizing abandoned elements of the territory not only impacts the local economy and land management but also contributes to sustainable planetary use. This approach supports and advances the concepts of sustainability and circular economy by providing a new life cycle for neglected components of the landscape.

This chapter represents the core of the research, where theoretical notions and analyses of existing case studies converge into a unique practical outcome. After presenting and detailing the case study of the Estremoz Anticline, both physically and geologically, the chapter outlines the criteria for classifying quarries and associated waste heaps. These criteria, along with original reuse typologies, led to the creation of a scientific formula for repurposing abandoned quarries and waste heaps. This formula establishes general guidelines for planners addressing abandoned extractive areas needing regeneration.

The chapter demonstrates how these rehabilitation and reuse typologies, the scientific formula, criteria, and guidelines, facilitated a comprehensive replanning of the industrial area of the Estremoz Anticline. This transformation promotes tourism and culture, values agricultural production, encourages sports, and reimagines the natural landscape. Additionally, the chapter details the methodological survey process using drone technology for selecting specific quarries and waste heaps. An architectural and landscape proposal is designed, showcasing the potential of incorporating waste accumulations into quarry regeneration. This approach integrates inert waste into the landscape, giving it new meanings and demonstrating a sustainable, innovative solution for landscape and architectural planning.

Over the years, human activity has drastically mutated the ecosystem of our planet, and many changes have been flanked by life-threatening hazards. The complexity of human needs for natural resources has considerably increased with the growing levels of population, production, industrialization, and pollution causing an uncontrolled and exaggerated use of resources and, subsequently, the “greenhouse effect”. The current research has provided a fundamental contribution to promote sustainable development with the elaboration of new architectural strategies in terms of sustainability, focused on the reuse process of existing and discarded materials.