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Tag Archives: Cradle to Cradle

PRACTICE AND FIELD RESEARCH IN AMSTERDAM

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07/11/2017

/ BBM Architects
BBM in Amsterdam

PRACTICE AND FIELD RESEARCH IN AMSTERDAM
This past week saw some of BBM’s staff join a study tour in and around Amsterdam with the University of Brighton’s Studio 17 undergraduate students and tutors/directors, Duncan Baker-Brown and Ian McKay. It was a great example of BBM’s commitment to combine architectural practice with academic field research.

The Netherlands is ahead of the curve in coming to terms with what to do with waste and where to source material in an uncertain future. Circular concepts, like materials banks, material passports, design for demolition and pay as you use building fittings are starting to make sense and even big business is taking note and spotting the opportunity horizons.

The design studio is focused on circular/cradle to cradle resource efficiency and the visits included tours of:

• De Ceuvel, Amsterdam where salvaged houseboats have been upcycled into workplaces for creative and social enterprises on a former shipyard;

• De Nieuwe Stad (The New City) in Amersfoort which is a transformed former toothpaste factory with apsirations to be a space to work, learn and stay; a lively and social place with festivals, a popup, restaurants, shared vegetable gardens and a strong local community;

• The Circl Pavilion, Amsterdam initiated by the bank ABN AMRO as a ground breaking effort into the emerging ideals of closed-loop supply chains and emerging concepts such as pay as you use fittings and material passports.

Building on Baker-Brown’s book, The Re-Use Atlas, these projects highlighted the opportunities and challenges of transitioning to a more circular economy and a fascinating insight into what some of the architectural ramifications might be. Baker-Brown was also a keynote speaker at the BNI’s (the Dutch equivalent of the RIBA) Reset Your Mind Conference at De Nieuwe Stad on November 2nd.

PRACTICE AND FIELD RESEARCH IN AMSTERDAM
PRACTICE AND FIELD RESEARCH IN AMSTERDAM
PRACTICE AND FIELD RESEARCH IN AMSTERDAM
PRACTICE AND FIELD RESEARCH IN AMSTERDAM
PRACTICE AND FIELD RESEARCH IN AMSTERDAM
PRACTICE AND FIELD RESEARCH IN AMSTERDAM

PRACTICE AND FIELD RESEARCH IN AMSTERDAM

Blog / Amsterdam, architecture, BNI, circular economy, Closed loop systems, Cradle to Cradle, DBB, De Ceuvel Amsterdam, De Nieuwe Stad, duncan baker-brown, east sussex, eco, energy efficiency, Filed research, Green, Green Architecture, lewes, re-use, Recycle, reduced carbon footprint, riba, RIBA Publishing, SDNP, sustainability, sustainable design, sustainable innovation, The Circl Pavilion, The Re-Use Atlas, University Of Brighton

BLUEPRINT MAY/JUNE 2017

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19/05/2017

/ BBM Architects
Blueprint Article

Published Inside: Further insight into Duncan’s book “The Re-Use Atlas”

Blueprint website: Click here

Issue 352 – May/June 2017

“The Re-Use Atlas: A Designer’s Guide to the Circular Economy” Blog

Blueprint The Re-Use Atlas: A designer's guide to the circular economyThis months infamous Blueprint magazine have published an article written by one of our founding directors Duncan Baker-Brown. Duncan discusses his view on the circular economy and references his newly released book The Re-Use Atlas: A designer’s guide to the circular economy.

The Re-Use Atlas is a highly illustrated ‘atlas’, taking the reader on a journey via four distinct ‘steps’ (recycling, reuse, reduce, closed loop), from a linear economy towards a system emulating the natural world, i.e, a circular economy. Featuring over 25 detailed case studies describing design exemplars from the worlds of textile and fashion design, product design, interior architecture, architecture and urban design, this book’s purpose is to show designers how they can successfully navigate and exploit the emerging field of resource management and the circular economy.

Duncan references a selection of these case studies from his book in the article. To read further click on the relevant links below:

Adidas training shoe, developed in partnership with Parley for the oceans

Brummel Town Hall and a new HQ for Alliander, by RAU Architects and Turntoo

Superuse Studios 

Rotor & Rotor DC

Blueprint The Re-Use Atlas: A designer's guide to the circular economy

News / Adidas, architecture, Arup, bbm, blueprint, Blueprint 352, circular economy, Closed loop systems, Cradle to Cradle, Cyrill Gutsch, DBB, duncan baker-brown, east sussex, eco, Ellen Macarthur Foundation, energy efficiency, Green, Green Architecture, Harvest Mapping, lewes, Parley for the Ocenas, re-use, Recycle, Recycling, Reduce, reduced carbon footprint, riba, RIBA Publishing, Rotor, Superuse, sussex, sustainability, sustainable design, sustainable innovation, sustainablility, The Re-Use Atlas, The Waste House, Turntoo, University Of Brighton

THE RE-USE ATLAS IS PUBLISHED

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04/04/2017

/ BBM Architects
The Re-Use Atlas: A designer’s guide towards a circular economy

Duncan’s first book “The Re-Use Atlas” has now been published! If you would like to buy a copy go to RIBA Publishing bookshop here and quote “reuse5” to receive a £5.00 discount. Duncan would like to thank Cat Fletcher, Dr.David Greenfield, Prof. Anne Boddington, Prof. Jonathan Chapman, Nick Gant, Prof. Walter Stahel and Dr. Ryan Woodard for their contributions.

This book is a highly illustrated ‘atlas’, taking the reader on a journey, via four distinct ‘steps’ (recycling, reuse, reduce, closed loop), from our current ‘linear economy’ towards a system emulating the natural world, i.e, a ‘circular economy’.  Featuring over 25 detailed case studies describing design exemplars from the worlds of textile & fashion design, product design, interior architecture, architecture and urban design, its purpose is to show designers how they can successfully navigate and exploit the emerging field of resource management and the circular economy. Each step is supplemented with an in depth interview with an expert who is successfully tackling one or more of these challenges that present all designers today. This atlas has contributory essays from, among others, Prof. Walter Stahel of the Product-Life Institute, and Prof. Jonathan Chapman who wrote ‘Emotionally Durable Design’.

  • Optimistic take on the sustainable design
  • Includes illustrative, international projects at different scales
  • Shows designers and students how they can positively affect change in this area

To read some of the books case studies please visit our blog!


Here are some of the early reviews:

Jonathon Porritt, Founder Director, Forum for the Future: The genius of the human species is pretty much all that stands between us and a steady descent into hell on Earth. Through its uplifting narrative and inspiring case studies, the Re-Use Atlas showcases that genius at work in the material world, grafting elegant, super-efficient and circular solutions onto today’s insanely wasteful, linear economy.

Bill Gething, Sustainability + Architecture: An extraordinarily well researched map of current thinking on our approach to the sustainable use of materials. It outlines a set of stepping stones towards a circular economy that puts design at the core of change, illustrated with a huge range of intriguing and inspiring examples from around the world that demonstrate the kind of thinking necessary for this transformation and highlight the opportunities that potentially flow from it.

David Benjamin, Founder, The Living: Duncan Baker-Brown takes the abstract concepts of waste, energy, materials, and use–and brings them to life with vivid and inspiring examples to outline a fresh way of looking at architecture and the world. This book points to a new paradigm, replacing the design of single, static, solitary buildings with the design of complex adaptive systems.

Professor Dr. Michael Braungart, Co-Author ‘Cradle to Cradle’: Anticipating how something could be re-used at the point when it is first designed is now everyone’s responsibility. Readers of this book will be reminded of that.

Phillip Allsopp, Senior Sustainability Scientist, Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability, Arizona State University: The Re-Use Atlas strikes at the heart of economic drivers, which prioritizes profits, cheapness and waste over human wellbeing, especially in the construction and real estate sector. Duncan shines a powerful and long-overdue searchlight on the significant and sustainable social, health and economic advantages of employing a circular economy approach to the design and construction of human habitats.

Benjamin Derbyshire, Chair, HTA Design, RIBA President Elect: Duncan Baker Brown’s notion that we are beginning an era where we will be ‘mining the Anthropocene’ nicely captures the concept that humans are impacting not only earth’s surface and its atmosphere, but its crust too. This concept is well observed and game-changing. If we think as Baker-Brown does, cease our despoiling plunder of finite resources and turn to ingenuity in the re-use of that which we have already extracted, it may yet not be too late. He is a leading thinker who also demonstrates the way forward in practice. That’s what the best architects do.

Dr. Caroline Lucas MP: This book is full of positive stories, with tangible examples of projects that will inspire designers young and old to “mine the Anthropocene”. Politicians respond to ideas that have real, demonstrable examples backing them up. The Re-Use Atlas is full of those. I hope people get inspired, take note and take action.

Daniel Charny, Director, From Now On and Professor of Design, Kingston University: This rich compendium is for anyone interested in the responsibility that comes with the power of design to shape our world. Combining theory and practice it moves the debate beyond the why towards an applied circular economy we should all be practicing.

Mark Miodownik Professor of Materials & Society,Director,Institute of Making, UCL: This is an inspirational book on an important topic – I hope it triggers a revolution in design.

Kresse Wesling MBE, Elvis & Kresse: I met Duncan through our shared love of materials and incomprehension of landfill. His book is an incredible resource for designers and innovators who are delivering the circular economy. For practitioners like us at Elvis & Kresse, this book is a map, a way to find collaborators and doers, a way to go from baby steps to big leaps. A word of warning – if you have been thinking or theorizing about circularity for a while this book may make you want to roll up your sleeves, pick up a shovel, and take action.

Lionel Billliet, Rotor: In The Re-Use Atlas, Duncan Baker-Brown brings an enthusiastic and personal view on the circular building economy. The book is enlivened by the author’s sincere curiosity for sustainable design, reuse and waste, and by the unresolved questions that he is left with. More than just a useful overview of the projects and position statements that set milestones in the debate recently, The Re-Use Atlas also establishes a dialogue between distinct preoccupations – some in keeping with a canonical understanding of circular economy, others that are less often discussed or theorized. The result is a book that offers depth and fresh insights.

Nitesh Magdani, Group Director of Sustainability, Royal BAM Group nv: This is the first resource library I’ve read which breaks down the vast subject of resource efficiency with a clear focus on the built environment…The Re-Use Atlas is inspirational for anyone wanting ideas on how to think outside of the box, promoting entrepreneurial solutions to everyday problems. It’s clear that design and collaboration are the key enablers to better utilise the objects around us now – to make this a reality, we all need to unleash the designer in us!

Richard Ingersoll, author World Architecture – A Cross-Cultural History: For those who have doubts about the future of architecture, or indeed doubts about the future, The Re-Use Atlas offers a message of sanity, rather than exercises in vanity, documenting in detail the best methods of sustainable revisions to an overbuilt world.

Dr Ben Croxford, UCL Circular Economy Lab, CircEL: This important book will help change mindsets from demolish and dump, to refurbish, remanufacture and perhaps more importantly to design in the first place with re-use in mind.

News / Adidas, architecture, circular economy, Cradle to Cradle, duncan baker-brown, east sussex, eco, Green Architecture, Jakob and Macfarlane, lewes, LYN Atelier, Parley, re-use, Recycling, riba, RIBA Publishing, Rotor, Superuse Studios, sussex, sustainability, sustainable design, The Re-Use Atlas

An insight into The Re-Use Atlas

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09/02/2017

/ BBM Architects

 

The Re-Use Atlas: A designer’s guide to the circular economy

Author: Duncan Baker-Brown RIBA FRSA

Purchase link

Entry number 3

Would you like to visit the previous entry? Click here

Since the Waste House was completed in June 2014, Duncan Baker-Brown has been working on a book that considers the challenges and opportunities presenting designers and clients who wish to ‘mine the anthropocene’, i.e.work with existing places, communities and stuff previously mined and processed. Duncan’s book is entitled ‘The Re-Use Atlas’. It will be published in May 2017. However, this blog will give people the opportunity to read parts of the book before the publishing date. Enjoy!


About: This book is a highly illustrated ‘atlas’, taking the reader on a journey, via four distinct ‘steps’ (recycling, reuse, reduce, closed loop), from our current ‘linear economy’ towards a system emulating the natural world, i.e, a ‘circular economy’.  Featuring over 25 detailed case studies describing design exemplars from the worlds of textile & fashion design, product design, interior architecture, architecture and urban design, its purpose is to show designers how they can successfully navigate and exploit the emerging field of resource management and the circular economy. Each step is supplemented with an in depth interview with an expert who is successfully tackling one or more of these challenges that present all designers today. This atlas has contributory essays from, among others, Prof. Walter Stahel of the Product-Life Institute, and Prof. Jonathan Chapman who wrote ‘Emotionally Durable Design’.

  • Optimistic take on the sustainable design
  • Includes illustrative, international projects at different scales
  • Shows designers and students how they can positively affect change in this area

This part of the re–use atlas is a series of ‘steps’ towards the reality of a circular economy. Many people are busy visioning what this will look like. However, these visions are a long way from the linear way most people currently exist on the planet – finding stuff, processing, utilising and casting it aside. The idea of designing things in such a way as to ensure they are always a useful resource for either the natural or synthetic worlds is quite alien.

In the meantime, many ideas and concepts that consider living in harmony with natural ecosystems have gained in popularity. Green/ eco/low-energy/Passivhaus/hacking/reuse cafes/upcycling/ designing for demolition, etc are all words and ideas that more and more people are getting to grips with.

While considering the idea of this book, I was concerned that there are many different interpretations of what it means to be a ‘green’ designer. I am also aware that many ‘reuse’ and ‘being less harmful to the environment’ ideas are dismissed within Cradle to Cradle philosophy as simply slowing down the inevitable – for example recycling plastic cups into fleeces to wear simply prevents that plastic from being toxic ocean waste for a couple of years. I feel that this over-simplifies some initiatives that are positively influencing behavioural change.

The ideal of a circular economy is clear, but I am concerned that it appears to be such a big leap from where we currently stand that there is a need for some clearly defined stepping stones to help us along our way to a more circular existence.

One of the biggest challenges that faces humankind is how to exist without damaging so much of our planet’s natural resources. This is done as we mine for resources, as we refine them, utilise them and then when we throw them away. In one way or another, humankind has managed to practically wrap the landscape with our cities, roads, flight paths and landfill sites, while oceans are filling up with plastic waste: a pretty gloomy state of affairs.

However, most of that development has only happened over the last 150 years or so, and it should be noted that we have only been manufacturing plastic for a little over 100 years. Until biodegradable options are commonly available, there needs to be an emphasis on cleaning up the vast areas of oceans and landscape that are currently contaminated by dangerous waste. This ‘big clean-up’ will create a huge amount of material that in theory could be put to good use, or reuse.

Part 2 of my atlas is divided into four chapters, taking the reader on a step-by-step route towards closed loop systems. Each ‘step’ contains a number of case studies that capture some of my first-hand research, gleaned from interviewing over fifty people involved in inspiring projects from around the world that tackle recycling, re-use, the reduction of resource use, and finally closed loop systems. These case studies are supplemented with one longer interview with a significant protagonist from each of the aforementioned steps. Therefore unless stated otherwise, any comments quoted from people in the case studies have been taken directly from interviews I have had personally with them.

The first case study will be part of the 4th blog in this series and is entitled “Adidas training shoe, developed in partnership with Parley for the Oceans”. This blog is due to be published next week.


Step 1 – Recycling Waste


Step 2 – Reusing Waste


Step 3 – Reducing Waste


Step 4 – The Circular Economy


Blog / architecture, Closed Loop, Cradle to Cradle, DBB, duncan baker-brown, east sussex, re-use, Recycling, Reduce, riba, RIBA Publishing, The Circular Economy, The Re-Use Atlas, The Waste House, University Of Brighton

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