REACT
Embracing a new circular economy to reduce carbon emissions within the built environment.
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The built environment sector has lost its connection with material. The sector is built on the linear economy of take, make and throw away, a disposable view of the precious resources from our environment. After years of material extraction, the consequences of resource depletion, pollution, biodiversity loss, and social inequalities are finally reaching tipping point.
But there is another way to create the homes and spaces we need without the pressures on our planet and people. The circular economy is a way of delivering the materials required without the destructive extraction of raw materials. If adopted now, in all we do, there is still time to let the planet heal from its years of exploitation.
Questioning first and foremost our need over our desire to have something new and then designing our buildings to be loose-fit and flexible, minimising materials, energy, water and land-use, repurposing and reusing what has already been made, and designing for disassembly re-use and recycling at end of life. So the circle continues.
But these approaches take a shift in mindset and a willingness to challenge the status quo. They take bold decisions and a commitment from across the industry to change – from developers, investors, suppliers, contractors, engineers, architects, manufacturers, and policy makers.
The environmental, social and financial benefits, however, are far-reaching. Both for the communities we are designing for now and those of the future.
WHERE
DOES IT
ALL COME
FROM?
We are surrounded by products made from minerals and fossil fuels that were buried underground, often in remote areas or deep under the sea. In most cases to get to the raw materials, we build roads, rails, docks, and power stations, before scraping away layers of biodiversity in distant countries.
Yet, we are also surrounded by those same raw materials in the buildings we no longer want, with the infrastructure to get to them already built, often close to where we need the materials to end up. It is time to look more carefully at the abundance of materials around us, rather than those yet to be unearthed.
IS NEW ALWAYS BETTER?
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We can be lured by novelty, by promises of thinner/ lighter/ stronger products or by the desire to follow the latest trends. But first we should take a step back and ask if this is actually ‘progress’. Do we need to keep creating new, or can we find existing products and buildings around us that, with some repair or reinvention, can meet all our needs?
The things that are valued are often those that embody craft and quality, showcasing a design aesthetic that is respected through the generations. And that value judgement shifts through time as fashions change. The Victorian home, the warehouse apartment, the industrial workspace. Can we respect the quality of existing products and buildings through reuse, and if not, how can we ensure that our new buildings will be valued by future generations for their quality and craft.
WHAT IS THE TRUE COST OF OUR CHOICES?
We are surrounded by products made from minerals and fossil fuels that were buried underground, often in remote areas or deep under the sea. In most cases to get to the raw materials, we build roads, rails, docks, and power stations, before scraping away layers of biodiversity in distant countries.
Yet, we are also surrounded by those same raw materials in the buildings we no longer want, with the infrastructure to get to them already built, often close to where we need the materials to end up. It is time to look more carefully at the abundance of materials around us, rather than those yet to be unearthed.
IS THERE SUCH A THING AS WASTE?
At the end of a product or a building’s life, much of it becomes waste.
But what is waste? Is it things that are no longer needed, have no value, or have no obvious way to be reused or repaired? It might be the offcuts from manufacturing, or by-products from a process. Or perhaps it is an idea or a concept, an unwillingness to see the true value of a material. Waste should be the exception not the rule, and we should work to realise this before we condemn something as waste.
Senate House, University of Bristol
LOW ENERGY RETROFIT UNCOVERING
FEASIBILITY AND RETAINING EMBODIED CARBON
DESIGNING IN LAYERS FOR
FLEXIBILITY, ADAPTABILITY
AND DISASSEMBLY
Old Paradise Street, London
DIVERTING COMPONENTS AND MATERIALS FROM LANDFILL AND UPCYCLING INTO NEW USES
BRE Open Innovation Hub, Watford
ADAPTING AND EXTENDING FOR GREATER
USE INTENSITY
Richmond Building, University of Bristol
To reduce carbon emissions, our industry needs to change the way it designs and builds. We work across disciplines, collaborating with research and campaigning groups to advocate regenerative design practices and apply our knowledge to our work. We aim to ask the right questions to enable discussion to take place, raise awareness and share knowledge across the industry to meet this shift.
Find out more about how we do this on the FCBStudios website.