Viewing the Rust Belt only with regard to its diminishing economic returns and dwindling populations, the United States government has taken legislative action with the intent to heavily reduce new construction in the region. These decisions have been made in alignment with the ideals of “smart decline”, a city planning term coined by Deborah and Frank Popper, which shifts thinking “away from planning for growth and toward thinking about what a city with shrinking resources could safely [abandon]”. This initiative actively discourages the growth of the built environment. In order to impose this ideology on the Rust Belt, new building materials have been heavily taxed when entering the region, reducing the region’s capacity to rebuild itself through conventional construction methods. In response, residents of the Rust Belt region turned to abandoned building stock and industrial relics as a means of material acquisition. These vacant sites are disassembled at object, skin, and volumetric levels, distributed along a regional trade route known as the Rust Road. As a result, a new “Scrapper’s aesthetic” emerges, remixing regional identities and promoting self-sufficiency of residents. Pride is reclaimed as residents develop a new future for the Rust Belt, one not built on historically pressing economic or social stereotypes.  Agency and control are given to the people.

The Scrapper’s Field Guide is a general guide for every resident of the Rust Belt, informing of the possibilities of disassembly, the logistics of the Rust Road, and other changes that will occur as the region shifts its demolition mindset.

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The Field Guide to Scrapping in the Rust Belt is for working members of the Scrapper’s Union, outlining necessary tools for disassembly, sequential deconstruction processes, and methods for analyzing defunct properties.

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A Field Guide to Labor in our New Rust Belt tells the story of Yellow Dog Village as a case study for disassembly and historic preservation as well and explores the impact of disassembly culture on workers and students.

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Disassembly is valued above demolition. Abandoned structures are analyzed for chunking and scrapping value. Sequential disassembly follows. Sites are memorialized with casts of the previous structure, providing reference to history and foundation for future construction. A new Scrapper’s aesthetic emerges, composed of reassembled chunks from disassembled structures within the Rust Belt.

Physical models for the project embody the spirit of reuse. Balusters and windows from Construction Junction, a local reuse warehouse, form the tables for artifact display.

The primary model displays a house undergoing many stages of the proposed disassembly process. Trucks are nearby to take disassembled components onto the Rust Road. A chunk is removed from the structure. Chunks from other disassembled houses are attached. A casted remnant of the site interacts provides foundation for new construction, layering histories from across the Rust Belt.