Can a curious interest in the origin and purpose of building materials enrich architecture? This, in any case, is an assumption that has been driving us since the early days of Rotor. We want to take advantage of the opportunity given us here in our capacity as guest editors to explore this assumption in more detail.

We have fuelled this curiosity about the organization of material and waste flows in many ways through our projects, from field surveys to attempts at conceptualization through publications and exhibitions, not forgetting design projects (which enabled us to experiment on a small scale with other ways of designing) and even the resale of reusable materials (which allowed us to explore ways to develop new supply circuits for materials). One subject in particular has proved very handy for our analyses, and that is material reuse.