Tag Archives: Recycling

DUNCAN BAKER-BROWN INTERVIEWED IN AJ ABOUT CIRCULAR ECONOMY

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Will Hurst, journalist for the Architects’ Journal, interviewed BBM director Duncan Baker-Brown in his latest article making the case for circular public-sector procurement.

Architects’ Journal website, 13/02/20

Full article – Subscription needed

RetroFirst: The case for circular public-sector procurement

To read the full article please click here.

Local authorities, owners of both land and property, are perfectly placed to transition the management of their resources into a circular economy system. Instead of demolishing unsuitable existing building stock, they could instead retrofit it for re-use or carefully deconstruct them and re-use the existing materials on other local sites.

Will Hurst explains that Brighton and Hove City Council, who pledged to become carbon neutral by 2030, is leading by example. BBM director Duncan Baker-Brown is advising BHCC on how to reach their carbon neutral pledge by implementing a construction and tourism-focussed circular economy route map.

Following calls from scientists and the public in the last year to take radical steps towards preventing the climate emergency, many public bodies in the UK have begun to embrace a construction re-use agenda.

“Everyone in the public sector is talking about this,” says Baker-Brown, who recently established a new consultancy to advise clients on sustainable and ‘closed loop’ strategies in addition to his work at architecture practice BBM Sustainable Design and at the University of Brighton.

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.

DUNCAN FEATURED IN THE GUARDIAN

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The case for never demolishing another building

Full article

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.

ELIMINATING CONSTRUCTION WASTE

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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.

DUNCAN IN LATEST PODCAST BY HOUSE PLANNING HELP ON WASTE REDUCTION AND MATERIAL REUSE

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Duncan Baker-Brown explains strategies for reducing waste and reusing materials in a podcast with House Planning Help:

https://www.houseplanninghelp.com/hph261-reducing-construction-waste-and-reusing-materials-with-duncan-baker-brown/

A notable feature is the BBM designed Waste House at the University of Brighton.

 

Around the same time as the waste house completion in 2014, BBM director Ian Mckay talked to House Planning Help about choosing a suitable building for an eco retrofit:

https://www.houseplanninghelp.com/hph047-choosing-a-suitable-property-to-eco-retrofit-with-ian-mckay-from-bbm-sustainable-design/

DUNCAN BAKER BROWN’S KEYNOTE SPEECH AT AJ100 AWARDS

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Can architects save the planet?

‘It’s architects who manage resources: we choose what we build buildings out of’

Last month architect and circular economy expert Duncan Baker-Brown gave the keynote speech “Can Architects Save Planet Earth?” at the AJ100 Awards night. The audience fell silent when Duncan delivered his speech on the Climate Emergency. The full speech can be found below and further reading on the evening can be found here.

FUTUREBUILD 2019 WASTE ZONE: DAY 2

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The Waste Zone is underway – Wednesday 6th of March 2019 (Day 2)

WasteZone Website

Futurebuild 2019 Website

Location: Excel London, Royal Victoria Dock, 1 Western Gateway, London, E16 1XL

Planning your trip 

Get your free visitor ticket

FUTUREBUILD 2019 WASTE ZONE: DAY 2

Day two at the Waste Zone will showcase five sessions including some keynote presentations from the figures renowned in the world of cirular economy such as Prof. Dr. Michael Braungart from Leuphana University in Lüneburg and Prof. Mark Miodownik from the UCL’s Instute of Making. Among the topics for today: When to re-use, recycle avoid or grow? Circular Cities as potential growth and employment generators, How to support a truly circular economy and a discussion on plastic. Each of the talks will be followed by a Q&A session.

The full discussions programme can be found here

Meanwhile at the BBM stand

This year the Waste Zone houses 16 beach huts which have been donated by the School of Architecture & Design at The University of Brighton. The beach huts were previously used for last year’s final year architecture show and will now act as presentation units for multiple exhibitors showcasing their products and ideas around the circular economy.

Located next to The Waste Zone’s main speakers area the stand showcases our 25 years worth of experience in research and practical application of ideas around the circular economy in the built environment. More about our projects and the services we provide can be found at our stand G101. We will be wearing our locally sourced screen printed, surplus stock BBM t-shirts sourced from Dirty Harry in Brighton.

Responsible Futures’ Waste Zone will help you to navigate away from the current take, make and throw-away society towards an intelligent, closed-loop system where waste is seen as a valuable resource.

This year’s Waste Zone has an new exciting new format. The introduction of a Circular Economy Hub will act as a marketplace for visitors and innovators to discuss their products. Visitors can experience the re-use possibilities of the top ten construction waste streams in an eye-opening exhibition in the new foyer area which surrounds the seminar area. These spill-out zones will showcase circular economy research, innovations and products from experts in the UK and Europe.

The Waste Zone seminar programme – Waste Talk – will see more than 50 industry-leading speakers over the next 3 days. The debates aim at addressing the challenges and opportunities a circular economy presents. The sessions will explore ways in which waste materials can be integrated into construction projects, how existing buildings can be deconstructed instead of demolished, and how new buildings can be designed as material stores for the future.

More on the Waste Zone:

‘Constructing a sustainable future’ – University of Brighton article

‘There’s money to be made in reusing existing buildings’ – Duncan Baker-Brown for AJ