Austin + Mergold (A+M) is a design collective, co-founded to engage that vast portion of built environment (especially in the US) that is often developed without the participation of architects. Our first projects in rural American Northeast taught us a great deal about the way construction industry works and how, especially over the course of the last century, it got there. It was there that we also began to wonder if spolia, an ancient practice of recycling, could be re-learned from and practiced with the material remnants and technological legacies of the twentieth century left behind in abundance today. We believe in radical upcycling of materials, technologies and ideas. Keeping the debris from the landfills, finding new uses for old skills, re-imagining forms, and types of the past in new ways will be our best resource yet.