The Carbon Exchange Library
A Civic Infrastructure for Material Reuse Beneath the Mancunian Way
The Carbon Exchange Library reclaims the Mancunian Way as a civic infrastructure for material afterlives. Set within a reused gasholder frame, the project transforms architectural salvage from hidden waste stream into shared civic stock, where materials are collected, assessed, repaired, displayed and redistributed back into the city.
Set within a speculative zero-carbon future, the proposal asks how communities might take agency over the carbon consequences embedded in the built environment. Rather than treating demolition as an ending, the project sees each salvaged component as carrying a biography: a past use, a carbon cost and a future potential. Workshops, viewing routes, exchange chambers and tram-linked collection points make these processes visible, allowing reuse to become a public and participatory act.
The building is not a conventional salvage yard, but a public carbon commons; a place where material value is discussed, carbon impact is made legible, and architecture creates spaces of learning, solidarity and collective environmental responsibility.
