BagasSERIES

BagasSERIES reimagines local waste transformation into open-air market supporting products through material innovation and community collaboration. Centered at Philadelphia's historic Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park's vibrant Southeast Asian Market (SEAM), the project identifies an opportunity to address bagasse waste produced daily by the many sugarcane juicing stands. To better understand this waste stream as well as park user and vendor needs, we engaged local agents with interviews and on-site research. The outcome is a catalog of biocomposite-based products made from hyperlocal organic waste collected directly from the market and transformed using non-toxic binders and low energy manufacturing. These products not only contribute to waste reduction but also serve meaningful and practical purposes of signaling, resting, wrapping, or paving, for the local SEA community. 

Team: Developed by Weitzman's  "ARCH-7325 Biomaterial Architectures Seminar" MArch'25 team Simone Yang, Chun Zhou, Kodak Han with the support of Yuanyi Cen (MLA'24, BagaSEAT author awarded Sachs Student Grant) and Dr Laia Mogas-Soldevila's DumoLab facilities and materials.

Host: Southeast Asian Market (SEAM) Association at Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park (FDR Park), Philadelphia.

Publication: This project won second place at the BioDesignChallenge competition among 65 teams from 24 countries on June 2025 taking place at NYC Parsons School of Design & was presented to 200 people at the MoMA.

Event: On September 28th 2025 a POP-UP event with the SEAM Association brought bagasse paper making and all of the BagaSERIES products to FDR for the community to inspect and experience.