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2nd Prize: From tire graveyards to resilient cities

Southwest Jiaotong University
Lin Zhichun, Wang Jialei, Chen Xiao

In Kuwait’s Sulaibiya Desert, the world’s largest tire graveyard sprawls across the
barren land—millions of discarded tires forming a vast, black sea. Over decades,
uncontrolled dumping and frequent fires have turned this site into an environmental time bomb. Each blaze releases toxic smoke laden with hazardous particles, intensifying air
pollution, accelerating desertification, and threatening both public health and regional ecological stability.

This project reframes the crisis as an opportunity. Viewing tires not as waste, but as a renewable resource, it proposes a modular, three-tiered transformation system.

Tier 1 – Resilient City: Repurpose processed tire materials into urban infrastructure—
paving, noise barriers, flood-control embankments—enhancing climate resilience.

Tier 2 – Ecological Agriculture: Utilize shredded tire composites in soil stabilization,windbreaks, and irrigation systems, enabling vegetation recovery in degraded desert
zones.

Tier 3 – Community Building: Create local workshops and training programs for tire
upcycling, fostering employment and community ownership.

By integrating resource conversion with desert ecological restoration and urban
development, the design creates a closed-loop system where waste reduction, habitat
recovery, and social benefits reinforce one another.

Ultimately, the proposal transforms a symbol of environmental neglect into a catalyst forsustainable growth, proving that even the harshest landscapes can become laboratories forecological innovation and human resilience.