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.
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.”
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.
This week Duncan has been featured in the Guardian’s article which discusses the current state of the construction industry which is creating huge CO2 emissions. What if new buildings had to be adapted and reused or built only with materials already available? The article discusses how mindsets are shifting. 
Photo credit: Omar Marques/Echoes Wire/Barcroft Media
While much of mainland Europe is well on the way to reimagining buildings as “urban mines” of potential, the UK is slowly beginning to catch up. Architect Duncan Baker-Brown, who published the Re-Use Atlas in 2017, says the subject has gone from being a niche pursuit to something being discussed at high level in the last year.
“Since Greta Thunberg and Extinction Rebellion, the industry is starting to wake up,” he says. “National legislation is still way behind, but a lot of local authorities are getting on with it anyway.” He has been working with Brighton and Hove council to instil circular principles into the way local procurement works, and will be running an architectural summer school looking at how waste streams can be harvested from one of the council’s demolition sites and reused. In a welcome sign of progress, the new London Plan will require planning applications to include a Circular Economy Statement, demonstrating how the building components can be disassembled and reused.
Duncan was part of the panel for “Eliminating Construction Waste” last month.
Panelists: Robert Crocker and Duncan Baker-Brown
The panelists spoke about how to present linear model followed in design and construction can be modified and replaced with a more circular model. They also paid particular attention to the role of information technology in conjunction with sustainable waste management systems to better enable the reuse of materials like timber, glass and steel, and the vital importance of changing inappropriate regulation and of training and engaging designers to lead this process.
Organised on 29th Oct, 2019. Construction materials represent around 40% of all materials used in most advanced economies, and construction and demolition (C & D) waste makes up around 25% -30% of waste sent to landfill. This results in millions of tons of C & D waste being buried every year, representing huge losses in embodied energy, water and materials. In many jurisdictions the ‘linear’ expectations embodied in design and construction practice and regulation undermine the feasibility of more fully re-using construction materials.
As part of the Durat Talks series, Duncan Baker-Brown will be speaking about the circular economy and how the construction industry can transition to sustainable development. His talk is titled Circular Design and the Climate Crisis – Solutions for Designers.
As part of the Durat Talks series, Duncan Baker-Brown will be speaking about the circular economy and how the construction industry can transition to sustainable development. His talk is titled Circular Design and the Climate Crisis – Solutions for Designers.
The Museum of Finnish Architecture, one of Finland’s national museums, collects and distributes knowledge about architecture to both the public and industry experts. The museum records history, but also looks to the future with its events and exhibitions.
To sign up for the event, please click here: http://www.mfa.fi/durat-talks or here: https://www.facebook.com/events/258614315034102/?active_tab=discussion
Come to the Building Centre to listen to architects, environmental lawyers, sustainability engineers and other industry experts talk about what actions can be taken in light of the climate emergency.
Following these initial presentations, participants will form groups to discuss how policy and architectural practice can change in response to the climate crisis.
18:30 – 21:00, Tue, 22 October 2019
The Building Centre
26 Store Street
London
WC1E 7BT
Speakers include:
Farhana Yamin – Founder and CEO of Track 0, leading international environmental lawyer and climate change and development policy expert.
Ciara Hanson – Chartered Landscape Architect, working on policy and methods of health impact assessment at London Borough of Havering. Also on Public Practice’s climate crisis R&D team.
Clara Bagenal George – Sustainability specialist Engineer, Mayor’s Design Advocate and London Energy Transformation Initiative (LETI) Champion.
Laurie Laybourn-langton – Author and Associate Fellow at thinktank IPPR, leading a major project developing policy responses to environmental breakdown.
Duncan Baker Brown – Architect, Associate Professor at Brighton University and Principle researcher on two Interreg programmes related to the circular economy.
To register for the event please follow this link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/acan-architects-assembly-tickets-73455494361