AA students from the 2020–21 Diploma 18 cohort have created a series of short documentaries that are now on show at the Waste Age exhibition in the Design Museum, London. The work was created by fourth- and fifth-year students Qing Nan Meng, Amaya Hernandez, Ele Mun and Jihane-May Slaoui as part of Diploma 18's 2020–21 agenda Before, During, After, Again. Students explored material flows and the reuse sector wherever they found themselves during the pandemic.

Qing Nan Meng's documentary focuses on the demolition of hundreds of villages around Jinan City, China, and the reclamation of stone from these sites; Amaya Hernandez documented the removal, reuse and manufacture of tiling in Florianopolis, Brazil; Ele Mun documented the Clearaway Reclamation salvage yard in Kent; and Jihane-May Slaoui documented a used material souk in Casablanca.

Read more about Diploma 18 2020–21 on the Projects Review 2021 website here.

The Design Museum's page for Waste Age can be found here.

A composite video of the students' documentaries can be found here.

Image: Material reuse: The mediator between old demolition and new construction, 2021. Image courtesy of Qing Nan Meng.