AntiTerminus

Cario, Egypt The Zabbaleen ethnic minority supports itself by processing Cairo's garbage. Families specialize in collecting, sorting, recycling, trading, and craft making; each trade is intricately connected. These activities are labor intensive, unhygienic, and relentlessly repetitive. AntiTerminus implements a network of garbage sorting and recycling co-ops owned and operated by the Zabbaleen community. Each facility returns living space to the Zabbaleen residents previously used for garbage processing, as well as increasing the efficiency of collecting and sorting refuse by centralizing the work. Educational and child care programs are offered at each facility and subsidized by the recycling income, with an aim to decrease rates of child labor in the Zabbaleen village to 0.

A conceptual view of the neighborhood with interconnected recycling co-ops
Exploded axon breaking down the building into two distinct but interrelated components. The school and daycare on the left, which relies on income generated by the recycling and sorting tower on the right.
Mokattam Village is the home of the Zabbaleen
The mechanical nature of the recycling half of the structure is expressed with recycled metal panels, while the school and daycare are clad in a natural wood screen
A view of the skybridges that connect the recycling center to the school, allowing mothers to visit their children on breaks while they work
The underlying structural logic was derived from the local methods of construction: concrete frame buildings with red brick infill walls. The grids from adjacent buildings were extended and intersected to create the form for the recycling center
The daycare space, flooded with natural light, provides children an improved learning environment
The continuous conveyor belt transporting waste as it is sorted
A network of cable car lines delivers sorted materials to a centralized marketplace for the sale of raw materials
A diagram of the inflow and outflow of material
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