Tag Archives: duncan baker-brown

THE ARCHITECTURE FOUNDATION – 100 DAY STUDIO

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The Architecture Foundation’s 100 Day Studio

The Architecture Foundation is currently offering daily live online lectures, interviews, building tours and panel discussions. Duncan will be speaking this Thursday between 5:30 pm and 6:30 pm on day 60/100.

Duncan Baker-Brown“As we emerge from months of Covid-19 induced lockdown, architects are now open for business again, with the recent increase in job enquiries and construction sites being open again perhaps giving us all a reason to feel a bit more positive?

However, before we get back to some new form of ‘business as usual’ i.e., before we just buy into the Conservative Government’s ‘Project Speed’, can I ask you to pause and think back to 2019 because it was the year that 90% of UK local authorities pledged to be Net-Zero Carbon by 2030 and around the world over 814,000,000 people now live in regions that have declared a Climate & Ecological Emergency. So how do you square this philosophical and ethical position with the practice of architecture when the built environment is responsible for about 50% of all global CO2e emissions, consumes 50% of all raw materials harvested annually around the world, and is responsible for 60% (120 million tonnes) of the UK’s annual waste?”

Duncan will discuss some solutions to these existential problems this Thursday between 5:30pm and 6:30pm. Join him live via Zoom.

Further information on the 100 Day Studio can be found here.

AA LECTURE TOMORROW – FROM NOW ON: ON THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY

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Duncan will deliver a lecture at The AA tomorrow

Series: AAction lunchtime lectures
When: Wednesday 6th May 2020 at 13:00
Where: The lecture will be show via the AA Zoom channel, click here to join
Audience: Open to the public

Duncan will be giving a lecture at the AA tomorrow entitled From now on: On the circular economy. For full details please visit the AA website here.


“Architects have long shared an intrinsic relationship with carbon. Long in the history, the industry had been following a linear consumption module, which is based on a ‘take, make, and dispose’’ to operate. As our cities are growing, buildings are up in a flashy speed, our remaining resources are facing depletion. In recent years, material economies have risen to the forefront of discussions surrounding architecture’s environmental footprint. However, in order to embrace both the ethos and practice of circular economies, architectural education needs to endeavor and confront the realities of its interface with the consumer market.

Can we redesign the way we make, designing buildings for a circular economy? The resource on our planet is finite. As practicing and future architects, we are facing a transition that should and will happen. A collaborative effort needs to make to acquire a circular economy in which waste and pollution are eliminated while ecosystems are nurtured rather than exploited.

A key lecture accompanied by a panel discussion will explore how the circular economy applies to the built environment and how architectural education can implement its principles, pushing for new and alternative means of production.

The AAction Lunchtime Lectures convene critical thoughts from within the Architectural Association and beyond, spurring discussion around issues central to a climatologically relevant pedagogy”.

EARTH DAY – BHESCo FILM AND DEBATE

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Brighton & Hove Earth Day 2020 – 50th Anniversary Film and Panel Debate

Yesterday was Earth Day and in celebration Duncan was invited by Brighton & Hove Energy Services Co-Op (BHESCo) to join a panel to discuss the climate emergency and how the city can become carbon neutral by 2030.


To watch the full panel debate and BHESCo’s 50th Anniversary Film please click below.

DUNCAN BAKER-BROWN GUEST EDITOR

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Duncan features as Guest Editor of the Week for Futurebuild’s Industry Insider Newsletter

In the midst of unprecedented response to Coronavirus from governments and authorities the world over, Duncan questions how amazing it would be to think this ability to pass legislation, mobilise people and use of resources for good, could lead to a similar effort in tackling the climate emergency and fully addressing the construction industry’s part to play?

His in depth read “Pandemic cities: how will Coronavirus shape urban life?” discusses the lasting impact this global situation may have whilst he also presents his Top 4 News Stories, Opinion Piece of the Week, Quarantine Survival List and reflects upon his Futurebuild 2020 Highlights.

The full Industry Insider Newsletter can be read here for free.

DUNCAN TO SPEAK AT AJ SUMMIT 2020

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Duncan will be discussing ‘Mining the Anthropocene’ at the AJ Summit this April

This years summit will focus on how architects, clients and project partners can respond to the climate emergency by workings towards net-zero. The event takes place on the 2nd April at the County Hall, London Waterloo.

To purchase a ticket please click here.

DUNCAN TO SPEAK AT THE 2ND EDITION RIBA BOOK CLUB

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Duncan will be speaking at the second edition RIBA book club next week

Taking place on the 28th February at 66 Portland Place, Duncan and Ed Barsley will discuss the topic: ‘How can architects become part of the solution to the climate change challenge?’

To purchase a ticket please click here

“As part of the wider design and construction industry, the architectural profession contributes significantly to climate change: the fabrication, occupation, maintenance and demolition of the world’s built environment consumes about 50% of all the raw materials annually; it also creates 45% of UK CO2 emissions. Now, the RIBA is urging architects to act and become part of the solution rather than the problem: in June 2019, it declared an environment and climate emergency and in October it launched 2030 Climate Challenge Targets for RIBA Chartered Practices.

In this book club event, two expert RIBA Publishing authors explore how architects can ameliorate climate change. Duncan Baker-Brown, author of The Reuse Atlas, will talk about the importance of architects as ‘resource managers’, sourcing reusable and reused materials and components: What are the key moves that architects need to make to change the way they specify and motivate their clients and collaborators to do the same thing? Ed Barsley, author of Retrofitting for Flood Resilience, will highlight how architects can work creatively and strategically with increased water levels induced by shifting climate conditions.”

DUNCAN FEATURED IN ARCHITECTS’ JOURNAL ARTICLE

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Duncan’s reuse knowledge instrumental in Architects’ Journal article “Virtuous Circles”

Architects’ Journal Website 

Full article – Subscription needed

16.01.20 / VOL 247/ISSUE 01

Virtuous circles: Can reusing building materials in new projects go mainstream? 

Reusing building materials in new projects could significantly reduce the industry’s carbon emissions. Duncan is featured in Fran Williams article which looks at how the circular economy is faring in UK construction. To read the full article please click here.