Post Rock: From Designing a Building Material to Designing a Business Ecosystem

Post Rock is an ongoing research initiative developing new architectural materials made from waste plastics. The authors, academic researchers in architecture and advanced fabrication, have developed novel processes for thermoforming that yield variable, stone-like patterning. This paper discusses a recent reframing of the technical and design research through an immersion in evidence-based entrepreneurship. Lessons from over 100 interviews with building industry professionals not only provided key input at an early stage of commercialization, but also shaped the team’s thinking around circular strategies for architecture. The paper will demonstrate the feedback loops between insights shared from professionals “in the field” and refinements to Post Rock materials and fabrication processes “in the lab.” Four key hurdles to commercializing this building technology will be discussed: identifying a customer segment, defining sustainability and climate change goals, ensuring fire safety, and connecting cross-sector regional resources. Not only are the findings relevant to this project’s advancement, but they also point to broader challenges to circular design models. The work-in-progress shared here illustrates the importance of expanding design efforts beyond a singular focus on the product itself and toward co-designing a regional ecosystem of stakeholders across multiple sectors for waste products, particularly plastics, to become a climate-positive component of future buildings.