[Music]
[Music]
this is mining in the Amazon rainforest
so we’re mining bauxite to make
aluminium which we use in huge
quantities in our buildings and the
demand for raw materials is going up and
up and up the construction industry
alone uses over 40% of raw materials and
we’re doing is we’re damaging precious
environments like this for every time
that we do and build and we think about
these things and then we put all our
effort and our time and our resources
into building all these amazing
buildings but all too often they end up
like this and sometimes within 30 years
or even less we end up with a pile of
rubble twisted metal plastics and glass
all mixed in and what can we do with
this we say that we recycle over 80% of
the raw materials or sort the resources
that we use here and the land the
demolition waste but actually it’s
mostly down cycled to a lower grade
product or material so I went to visit
where where they reprocess waste and
it’s amazing it’s these huge buildings
and they’re very noisy they’re smelly
they’re dusty and it’s very very very
simple and primitive and I thought it
would all be mechanized and there’ll be
lots of machines but actually there’s
lots of people pulling out bits of
plastic and metal and trying to sort it
all out so it’s a very very simplified
process and really we’re wasting all
this stuff and we could be using it a
lot better so it really made me think
that that we’re really locked into this
idea of digging some stuff out the
ground we use it for a while and we
throw it away
we’re very much in this linear economy
and I thought and I looked it up and I
read about it I found out but there’s
this great circular economy idea and I
was inspired by cradle to cradle and
lots of other ideas and lots of other
TED Talks
thinking I think we could do this and I
try and apply it to the built
environment so I’ve written a book and
I’ve tried to capture some of these
ideas and apply it to what we can do in
buildings and keep it really simple
so so basically how we do this we need
to think about the circular economy as
this idea where we we keep resources in
motion and and we keep the value of
those materials for as long as we can so
that means for buildings that we need to
retain refit refurbish but then for the
components those buildings we also need
to be able to reclaim those who re use
and then for the the more complex
components the lights the boilers we
need to be able to remanufacture those
rather than throwing them away and then
lastly we need to look at how we might
recycle the technical components on one
cycle like metals and plastics that will
go back to the manufacture be
reprocessed and go back into our
buildings and on the other cycle we
would look at biological materials like
the timber and the the fabric that would
then be used in our buildings having
been grown and then would go back to the
biosphere to be composted and that would
have to be not contaminated by any
pollutants or other toxins in the
process and then we can look a lots of
design principles which I’ll go through
in a second and then we’ll also look at
circular economy business models new
ways of thinking about how we might buy
stuff or maybe not buy a tool and not
consume it but maybe release it or
borrow it and then we need to look at
how we might turn waste not as something
that we have to pay to get rid of but as
a resource and the fundamental
underlying principle of all this and how
we think about buildings has to be
looking at the different layers of the
building and how we might treat each of
those differently buildings are hugely
complex things it’s not like a sim like
a mobile phone or something where
traditionally the circular economy has
been looking at
but it’s looking at something like the
the structure and the foundation that
might be there for 100 years so we need
to make that long life loose fit
adaptable whereas the interiors of the
building might only be there for 2 or 3
years and if we don’t like the color of
the carpet we might rip that out after 6
months so we need to think about how we
make each of those layers independent
and separable but also how we might
design buildings so that actually though
the structure might be there for a long
period of time like in this example and
and it’s got generous floor to ceiling
heights and then it can be adapted to
different uses and then the services are
very accessible and easy to change
because they have a short service life
and then how you might flex and adapt
the interior spaces using very modular
construction that allows you to to meet
the needs of the of your latest
occupants in the building and then
looking at design for adaptability lots
and lots of design principles around
that but there’s a lot to be learned
from buildings that have been around for
a very long period of time and up to now
I’ve managed to dodge the wrecking ball
and are not being demolished and some of
those things you can really see is the
quality of the architecture and the the
great interior space is lots of space
lots of generous floor ceiling hides
great use of light and daylight but also
how how they might be reused and how we
might be able to put new things into
them and what’s really interesting is a
lot of these buildings have have been
cherished and loved by the people in
their communities and that’s one of the
reasons why they’re still here with us
today and then we can think about how we
might design for deconstruction and that
starts with assembly so how do we
assemble the buildings out of a kit of
parts speeding up the construction
process and making buildings much more
easy to to to deconstruct as well so
this building is actually designed to be
disassembled so the site is only
available for four or five years it
doesn’t use any foundations it’s got
compacted ground and then it just builds
pads on top and then a pin jointed frame
that you can take it all to bits again
and you can put it on to another site
and it’s really this really interesting
idea that not only does it make it easy
to get the components back again but it
also means that we can take away the
idea that the value of a building is
tied to the value of the site now we
have a building that is an asset in its
own right and it has that value so
whoever owns that can take it apart keep
it and then move it on to another site
and we’re using this principle now with
my organization to look at how we might
give affordable homes for people that
haven’t got a house and actually build
these modular buildings that you can pop
onto a site that’s only available for
two or three years we call them
meanwhile meanwhile sites and then and
then you can move it to another site and
it has four or five uses in it before it
starts dance to deteriorate and then we
need to think about those material flows
and how we might use materials
differently and procuring materials that
actually don’t have lots of toxins and
nasties in them that would pollute the
interior environment so we can improve
the air quality of the building straight
away very important for health and
well-being but also we make sure that we
don’t damage the environment in the
process and this building not only uses
lots of timber for the structure and and
for the fabric of the building but it
also uses straw thatch on the facade
there as as a cladding system and that
that uses local people who as a local
trade who can’t work in the winter
because it’s all raining and they don’t
want their rooms replaced so they thatch
in the winter they put these modules on
and it protects the building from the
from the wind and the rain and it also
acts as an extra insulating layer and of
course you can return it to the
biosphere at the end of life and it can
be composted and then thinking about
different business models well this
building uses the lighting which is
leased and rented directly from the
manufacturer so the manufacturer
installed it
and paid for that they do the repair
they do the maintenance and the upgrade
and also they’re responsible for all the
bits the end of life so you don’t have
to pay for getting rid of and the waste
that comes off at the end of it and
they’ve also built in some ideas around
energy efficiency so they’ve set energy
efficiency targets directly for the
manufacturer so it’s a whole different
way of thinking about how we might fit
out and and procure things and then
lastly just worth mentioning the idea of
how we might deal with the whole flow of
materials and resources through our
cities and through our buildings and how
we might firstly give components and
materials and identity so we need to
list out what’s in them and that would
be you can put those into things like
materials passports and then you can put
those things online as well so we can
have online hubs that tell you what’s
going to come up from this building it
might be demolished in a year’s time and
you can already have pre-sold those
materials and those components you’ve
created a market for all this all these
resources that are coming out of your
buildings and really what we’re doing is
we’re turning buildings into materials
banks that you can deposit some
materials now and in the future you can
take it out and you can withdrawal and
use it again the whole idea this would
be get away from this whole linear
economy idea where we are subject to
trying to find all these raw materials
having to pay for the costs and the
volatility of those materials and the
supply risks that come with our global
economy where we’re trying to procure
materials from all over the world in
often very dangerous places so what
could this all mean if we put all this
together well first of all we could have
a building that could be assembled on
site much more quickly
therefore you save money and time you
might end up with a more valuable asset
because you’ve got a building that can
flex and change to what the occupants
want and the need at the time you also
have better air quality in a better
environment for people if you use
particular if you use lots of biological
materials and
get rid of all the toxins and when you
want to refit and refurbish their
building the market changes let’s say no
longer want an office but there’s lots
of demand for hotels or residential
you’ve actually designed that building
to be adapted and changed so you’ve got
that benefit and the saving so hopefully
you have a longer life for the building
and it doesn’t depreciate as quickly and
then lastly and I like this
is that actually at the end of life you
get a positive residual value so your
building still has value when you don’t
want it anymore
and a demolition contractor will pay you
for the privilege of taking down your
building and getting one materials back
that was a nice idea at the end there so
what we’re trying to get here is get two
buildings that are better for the planet
better for the people living in them
they can have a higher value right
through their life they should have low
overall lower costs doing they’re doing
the whole life of the building and
really I think I just like to for you to
think about if you’re designing a
building or if you’re buying a building
or if you’re procuring bit so if you’re
procuring a carpet or light fitting is
really to think about first where do
those bits come from and what impact am
I having in doing that is there a
different way I could address the same
needed or even need this but also think
about what’s going to happen to that
next what’s going to happen to that
carpet that building can we think about
the next life and the life after that
and try and plan that in now and
hopefully that will create star to
create a more circular economy and what
I’d love to do is to be able to leave a
better stronger legacy for future
generations thank you for your attention
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
this is mining in the Amazon rainforest
so we’re mining bauxite to make
aluminium which we use in huge
quantities in our buildings and the
demand for raw materials is going up and
up and up the construction industry
alone uses over 40% of raw materials and
we’re doing is we’re damaging precious
environments like this for every time
that we do and build and we think about
these things and then we put all our
effort and our time and our resources
into building all these amazing
buildings but all too often they end up
like this and sometimes within 30 years
or even less we end up with a pile of
rubble twisted metal plastics and glass
all mixed in and what can we do with
this we say that we recycle over 80% of
the raw materials or sort the resources
that we use here and the land the
demolition waste but actually it’s
mostly down cycled to a lower grade
product or material so I went to visit
where where they reprocess waste and
it’s amazing it’s these huge buildings
and they’re very noisy they’re smelly
they’re dusty and it’s very very very
simple and primitive and I thought it
would all be mechanized and there’ll be
lots of machines but actually there’s
lots of people pulling out bits of
plastic and metal and trying to sort it
all out so it’s a very very simplified
process and really we’re wasting all
this stuff and we could be using it a
lot better so it really made me think
that that we’re really locked into this
idea of digging some stuff out the
ground we use it for a while and we
throw it away
we’re very much in this linear economy
and I thought and I looked it up and I
read about it I found out but there’s
this great circular economy idea and I
was inspired by cradle to cradle and
lots of other ideas and lots of other
TED Talks
thinking I think we could do this and I
try and apply it to the built
environment so I’ve written a book and
I’ve tried to capture some of these
ideas and apply it to what we can do in
buildings and keep it really simple
so so basically how we do this we need
to think about the circular economy as
this idea where we we keep resources in
motion and and we keep the value of
those materials for as long as we can so
that means for buildings that we need to
retain refit refurbish but then for the
components those buildings we also need
to be able to reclaim those who re use
and then for the the more complex
components the lights the boilers we
need to be able to remanufacture those
rather than throwing them away and then
lastly we need to look at how we might
recycle the technical components on one
cycle like metals and plastics that will
go back to the manufacture be
reprocessed and go back into our
buildings and on the other cycle we
would look at biological materials like
the timber and the the fabric that would
then be used in our buildings having
been grown and then would go back to the
biosphere to be composted and that would
have to be not contaminated by any
pollutants or other toxins in the
process and then we can look a lots of
design principles which I’ll go through
in a second and then we’ll also look at
circular economy business models new
ways of thinking about how we might buy
stuff or maybe not buy a tool and not
consume it but maybe release it or
borrow it and then we need to look at
how we might turn waste not as something
that we have to pay to get rid of but as
a resource and the fundamental
underlying principle of all this and how
we think about buildings has to be
looking at the different layers of the
building and how we might treat each of
those differently buildings are hugely
complex things it’s not like a sim like
a mobile phone or something where
traditionally the circular economy has
been looking at
but it’s looking at something like the
the structure and the foundation that
might be there for 100 years so we need
to make that long life loose fit
adaptable whereas the interiors of the
building might only be there for 2 or 3
years and if we don’t like the color of
the carpet we might rip that out after 6
months so we need to think about how we
make each of those layers independent
and separable but also how we might
design buildings so that actually though
the structure might be there for a long
period of time like in this example and
and it’s got generous floor to ceiling
heights and then it can be adapted to
different uses and then the services are
very accessible and easy to change
because they have a short service life
and then how you might flex and adapt
the interior spaces using very modular
construction that allows you to to meet
the needs of the of your latest
occupants in the building and then
looking at design for adaptability lots
and lots of design principles around
that but there’s a lot to be learned
from buildings that have been around for
a very long period of time and up to now
I’ve managed to dodge the wrecking ball
and are not being demolished and some of
those things you can really see is the
quality of the architecture and the the
great interior space is lots of space
lots of generous floor ceiling hides
great use of light and daylight but also
how how they might be reused and how we
might be able to put new things into
them and what’s really interesting is a
lot of these buildings have have been
cherished and loved by the people in
their communities and that’s one of the
reasons why they’re still here with us
today and then we can think about how we
might design for deconstruction and that
starts with assembly so how do we
assemble the buildings out of a kit of
parts speeding up the construction
process and making buildings much more
easy to to to deconstruct as well so
this building is actually designed to be
disassembled so the site is only
available for four or five years it
doesn’t use any foundations it’s got
compacted ground and then it just builds
pads on top and then a pin jointed frame
that you can take it all to bits again
and you can put it on to another site
and it’s really this really interesting
idea that not only does it make it easy
to get the components back again but it
also means that we can take away the
idea that the value of a building is
tied to the value of the site now we
have a building that is an asset in its
own right and it has that value so
whoever owns that can take it apart keep
it and then move it on to another site
and we’re using this principle now with
my organization to look at how we might
give affordable homes for people that
haven’t got a house and actually build
these modular buildings that you can pop
onto a site that’s only available for
two or three years we call them
meanwhile meanwhile sites and then and
then you can move it to another site and
it has four or five uses in it before it
starts dance to deteriorate and then we
need to think about those material flows
and how we might use materials
differently and procuring materials that
actually don’t have lots of toxins and
nasties in them that would pollute the
interior environment so we can improve
the air quality of the building straight
away very important for health and
well-being but also we make sure that we
don’t damage the environment in the
process and this building not only uses
lots of timber for the structure and and
for the fabric of the building but it
also uses straw thatch on the facade
there as as a cladding system and that
that uses local people who as a local
trade who can’t work in the winter
because it’s all raining and they don’t
want their rooms replaced so they thatch
in the winter they put these modules on
and it protects the building from the
from the wind and the rain and it also
acts as an extra insulating layer and of
course you can return it to the
biosphere at the end of life and it can
be composted and then thinking about
different business models well this
building uses the lighting which is
leased and rented directly from the
manufacturer so the manufacturer
installed it
and paid for that they do the repair
they do the maintenance and the upgrade
and also they’re responsible for all the
bits the end of life so you don’t have
to pay for getting rid of and the waste
that comes off at the end of it and
they’ve also built in some ideas around
energy efficiency so they’ve set energy
efficiency targets directly for the
manufacturer so it’s a whole different
way of thinking about how we might fit
out and and procure things and then
lastly just worth mentioning the idea of
how we might deal with the whole flow of
materials and resources through our
cities and through our buildings and how
we might firstly give components and
materials and identity so we need to
list out what’s in them and that would
be you can put those into things like
materials passports and then you can put
those things online as well so we can
have online hubs that tell you what’s
going to come up from this building it
might be demolished in a year’s time and
you can already have pre-sold those
materials and those components you’ve
created a market for all this all these
resources that are coming out of your
buildings and really what we’re doing is
we’re turning buildings into materials
banks that you can deposit some
materials now and in the future you can
take it out and you can withdrawal and
use it again the whole idea this would
be get away from this whole linear
economy idea where we are subject to
trying to find all these raw materials
having to pay for the costs and the
volatility of those materials and the
supply risks that come with our global
economy where we’re trying to procure
materials from all over the world in
often very dangerous places so what
could this all mean if we put all this
together well first of all we could have
a building that could be assembled on
site much more quickly
therefore you save money and time you
might end up with a more valuable asset
because you’ve got a building that can
flex and change to what the occupants
want and the need at the time you also
have better air quality in a better
environment for people if you use
particular if you use lots of biological
materials and
get rid of all the toxins and when you
want to refit and refurbish their
building the market changes let’s say no
longer want an office but there’s lots
of demand for hotels or residential
you’ve actually designed that building
to be adapted and changed so you’ve got
that benefit and the saving so hopefully
you have a longer life for the building
and it doesn’t depreciate as quickly and
then lastly and I like this
is that actually at the end of life you
get a positive residual value so your
building still has value when you don’t
want it anymore
and a demolition contractor will pay you
for the privilege of taking down your
building and getting one materials back
that was a nice idea at the end there so
what we’re trying to get here is get two
buildings that are better for the planet
better for the people living in them
they can have a higher value right
through their life they should have low
overall lower costs doing they’re doing
the whole life of the building and
really I think I just like to for you to
think about if you’re designing a
building or if you’re buying a building
or if you’re procuring bit so if you’re
procuring a carpet or light fitting is
really to think about first where do
those bits come from and what impact am
I having in doing that is there a
different way I could address the same
needed or even need this but also think
about what’s going to happen to that
next what’s going to happen to that
carpet that building can we think about
the next life and the life after that
and try and plan that in now and
hopefully that will create star to
create a more circular economy and what
I’d love to do is to be able to leave a
better stronger legacy for future
generations thank you for your attention
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music]
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