‘Waste not, want not’: UVA students turn pipettes into a pavilion

September 17, 2026
From above looking down upon architecture students Kevin Coneway, Sophie Dolan and Hallie Huff constructing a wooden frame

Architecture students Kevin Coneway, left, Hallie Huff, center, and Sophie Dolan, right, work on “Waste Not, Want Not,” a project that turns locally sourced waste materials stored in Morven’s barns into new trailheads. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)

For years, JT Bachman has found ways to use discarded materials for building projects at the University of Virginia.

An assistant professor in the School of Architecture, he started Waste Not, Want Not, a project to reuse local waste materials, in 2023. A grant from the Architecture School supported the project, one of 17 proposals funded that year.

“We’re working with anything from wood sourced from fallen trees and stone countertop offcuts, to recycled plastic from different UVA labs,” he said. “My mission is for students to think about where materials are coming from, their first lives, their afterlives, and then potentially make them useful again.”

Five images showing the process from the raw material through the recycle process to the final product

The process of making the trailheads includes creating plastic sheets by shredding, then melting down more than 1,200 pipette boxes from UVA labs. (Contributed photos)

Sophie Dolan, Kevin Coneway and Hallie Huff, all fourth-year architecture students, worked with Bachman over the summer through the Decarbonization Academy, a paid UVA Sustainability internship for students interested in helping the University reach its sustainability goals by 2030.

“Working with JT as my adviser, I got to incorporate more sustainability (into my architecture training) than I’ve been used to in the past, while creating designs with a tangible impact for UVA,” Dolan said.

“We built upon the knowledge of last year’s interns, turning pipette boxes from UVA labs into these beautiful 3-by-3-foot sheets of plastic.”

Discoveries that mean everything to someone
Discoveries that mean everything to someone

As they brainstormed ways to use the recycled materials, the idea for a pavilion came together. The students worked with the team at the Morven Sustainability Lab to locate the trailhead, then spent the second half of the summer building it.

Both the design and construction of the pavilion are the work of the students, who exhibited their work in a showcase at the Rotunda in August.

Over the summer, they shredded more than 1,200 pipette boxes, which weighed more than 2,000 pounds. Much of this plastic was turned into sheets to form the pavilion’s shingled roof.

Kevin Coneway, left, holding panels in place to be attached, Hallie Huff, right, drilling a panel in place

Coneway, left, and Huff, right, work on the trailhead. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)

“It felt very rewarding,” Dolan said. “After we presented, people asked us questions about future ideas and other implementations of the projects.”

For the fourth year, Bachman will teach a course with a similar objective, for students to execute a design-build project. Last fall’s group built a pavilion similar in scale to this one across from the entry drive to the Morven Kitchen Garden.

“We’ve progressively scaled up from (small) object-scale projects in the first year to more furniture-scale the second year, and a trailhead pavilion in our third year,” Bachman said. “Both (pavilions) used the same kind of materials, design logic and sustainable circular goals, but had different sets of criteria based on their locations.”

The construction was done in close collaboration with several other UVA teams, including UVA Sawmilling, which puts wood collected around Grounds to use on new building construction; Junk Labz, where Zack Landsman and Elly Zarzyski pioneered an in-house plastic recycling ecosystem on Grounds; and the Anselmo Gianluca Canfora Fabrication Lab, a center for making and prototyping led by Melissa Goldman at the School of Architecture.

Media Contacts

Rebecca Deeds

Program Director Morven Sustainability Lab

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