Recuperation means “regaining something lost or taken” and this has been the main focus of my thesis – essentially reclaiming discarded bricks and educating future bricklayers to work with reclaimed materials. How can the status of craftsmanship be raised through architecture and the processes of crafts be made visible? What opportunities can our current brick stock pose and can derelict buildings be seen as a material bank?

My proposal is a bricklaying ”folkhögskola” in Henriksbergshamnen, southwest of central Stockholm, parts laid brick by brick by the students themselves in collaboration with local carpenters.  The college campus juts out on the shoreline, complementing existing buildings and revives the site as a handicrafts center in the region. A brick college will teach future masons to work with reclaimed bricks and educate visitors on the possibilites of the brick and its working hands. Further up from the waterfront, a brick recuperation operation collect, clean and carefully inspect donated bricks that have been discarded as construction waste.