PORTFOLIO architecture walden 2.0 auschwitz vc baobab beauty farm bus stop city gateway cityzen csf dandelion dbew elemental employment agency europan 10 evolo 10 ghost tv granny hostel greening the city industrial infobox kub memory hall mikkelstjenn mobile tent mofo multipurpose building off-on opalka polish army museum psycholab rotunda sculptors pavilion shadad sixstar skynet step21 housing superscape 2016 tennis hall uufo vault viewpoint walden 2.0 water shed woods house yerevan complex zakrzowek zodiak ASA International Design Competition 2016 asked what is the "new basic". Is it our current global condition, changing according to technological development or a constant set of parameters essential to our survival as individuals? Is it ubiquitous and disposable electronics submerged in an invisible cloud of electromagnetic waves or flint and steel to spark a fire? Is it an apartment in city or a cabin in the woods? Is it a life of a stock broker or a lumberjack? Is it virtual or real world? More importantly, is it possible to choose one of these basics? Everyone uses mobile phones: stock brokers, lumberjacks, millionaires, homeless, soldiers, refugees, ranch owners, slum dwellers. There might be no water, sewage, roads or electricity but there is an invisible GSM coverage, even in the most remote places. It is almost impossible to escape it. There is a wooden cabin near Walden Pond (USA), a copy of another one built in 1845 by H.D.Thoreau, where he lived for 2 years " to front only the essential facts of life" (Thoreau). Today there is a motorway nearby, an airport, a parking lot, a visitor centre and tourists taking photos, calling or browsing the internet on their phones. There is no escape, the air is filled with noise, both acoustic and electromagnetic. Agbogbloshie (Ghana) used to be a wetland, now it is world's "digital dump". "Urban miners" dig through piles of electronic trash looking for cables. As if purifying ore, they burn plastic insulation off copper wires. The air is full of heavy black smoke. These places represent opposite sides of global electronics. To escape their current basic conditions a "new wood" is proposed - a composite of copper mesh and plastic produced in Agbogbloshie by pressing melted cables into boards. This material is used to build the new Walden cabin.