Cityguide to Waste
Artefacts of Accumulation
Type: Research commission
Client: Arcam
Exhibition: January - November 2026
Trailer Documentary
Documentary
Direction: -C-A-S- + Locument
Cinematography: Francisco Lobo
Additional Cinematography:
Paul Swagerman
Props: Fredrika Lindvall
Voice Over: Charlotte Amos
Sound Design:
Tiago Cardoso + Dinis Henriques
Post-production Sound Services: Pulsar Studios
Studio Smoke Footage By:
Kristian Ozer Kettner
Special Thanks To:
Afval Energie Bedrijf, Afvalzorg N.V.
Gemeente Amsterdam Afdeling Bodem, Waternet + Waterschap AGV
Martin Melchers
Photos Exhibition: Maarten Nauw
Documentary
Direction: -C-A-S- + Locument
Cinematography: Francisco Lobo
Additional Cinematography:
Paul Swagerman
Props: Fredrika Lindvall
Voice Over: Charlotte Amos
Sound Design:
Tiago Cardoso + Dinis Henriques
Post-production Sound Services: Pulsar Studios
Studio Smoke Footage By:
Kristian Ozer Kettner
Special Thanks To:
Afval Energie Bedrijf, Afvalzorg N.V.
Gemeente Amsterdam Afdeling Bodem, Waternet + Waterschap AGV
Martin Melchers
Photos Exhibition: Maarten Nauw
CITY GUIDE TO WASTE: ARTEFACTS OF ACCUMULATION, was initiated by Carolien Schippers as Architect in Residence at Arcam. The project investigates waste's spatial and temporal impacts across the Amsterdam region. Viewing waste as a territorial archive, it traces discarded materials to the city's periphery, and maps historical landfills and contemporary waste sites through a documentary film co-directed with the Locument, a portable guide map and exhibition at Amsterdam Architecture Center ARCAM.
The project critically reflects on the idiosyncrasies in the waste processing system itself and its legislative drivers as well as our fraught cultural and emotional relation to waste. Revealing parallels between the denial of waste in both petrochemical consumer culture and ambitions of 100% circularity. It invites viewers into a reflection and discussion on the real starting points of change and the meaning and agency of waste in contemporary society.
The CITY GUIDE TO WASTE maps the shadow city of waste processing in the Amsterdam region and invites the user to embark on their personal dérive through tracing the paths of waste networks of sewage and collection and road and water transport routes, to processing and containment sites in the city periphery and the entanglements of these landscapes with communities en ecologies at the city edge. The guide zooms in on 7 key sites where waste demands our perpetual attention and labor and shapes the city both in spatial and temporal terms.
The short documentary produced as part of the research process gazes at the operations that domestic and industrial waste undertaken in the process of being recycled and deposited. Immersing in the technologies that define the procedures of dealing with refuse, the film reveals the architectures that orbit the worlds our waste creates.
The documentary premiered at AFFR 2025 and several international festivals. It was also shortlisted for the Municipal aquisitions of Stedelijk Museum 2026.
The project critically reflects on the idiosyncrasies in the waste processing system itself and its legislative drivers as well as our fraught cultural and emotional relation to waste. Revealing parallels between the denial of waste in both petrochemical consumer culture and ambitions of 100% circularity. It invites viewers into a reflection and discussion on the real starting points of change and the meaning and agency of waste in contemporary society.
The CITY GUIDE TO WASTE maps the shadow city of waste processing in the Amsterdam region and invites the user to embark on their personal dérive through tracing the paths of waste networks of sewage and collection and road and water transport routes, to processing and containment sites in the city periphery and the entanglements of these landscapes with communities en ecologies at the city edge. The guide zooms in on 7 key sites where waste demands our perpetual attention and labor and shapes the city both in spatial and temporal terms.
The short documentary produced as part of the research process gazes at the operations that domestic and industrial waste undertaken in the process of being recycled and deposited. Immersing in the technologies that define the procedures of dealing with refuse, the film reveals the architectures that orbit the worlds our waste creates.
The documentary premiered at AFFR 2025 and several international festivals. It was also shortlisted for the Municipal aquisitions of Stedelijk Museum 2026.
