From regenerative living materials, circular construction systems to community-led bio-manufacturing and equitable business models. The UK’s cutting-edge designers and innovators are coming together to talk about the action they have and are taking to address the climate and nature emergency for the Green Architecture Sessions.
More about Green Architecture Day
The Lineup
Bryn Thomas | Brighton Permaculture Trust
Applying permaculture design to the climate emergency
Clara Bagenal George | Elementa
A climate emergency design guide and LETI Embodied carbon primer
Duncan Baker-Brown | BBM Design
Mining the Anthropocene
Dusty Gedge | European Federation of Green Roof Associations
Rethinking green roofs for the Net gain and the carbon neutral economy
Ehab Sayed | Biohm & Sally Lowndes| Onion Collective
A Biomimetic Future: How can nature inspire us to revolutionise the built environment and restore local equity
Maria Smith | Burro Happold
Architecture and Climate Justice
Synopses
Wednesday 23rd Sept 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Duncan Baker-Brown | BBM Design
Mining the Anthropocene – a case for alternative design thinking
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’ 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 Baker-Brown will attempt to consider some solutions to these existential problems in his 45-minute presentation as part of the this year’s Green Architecture Sessions.
Wednesday 23rd Sept 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Maria Smith | Director of Sustainability and Physics at Buro Happold
Architecture and Climate Justice
The ways that architecture needs to address the ecological emergency go beyond simply how energy efficient our buildings are or what materials we build them from. Architecture isn’t only a creative practice to explore or an engineering challenge to solve, but also an integral part of the property industry – an industry whose goals are to drive economic growth despite the social and environmental harm this unconditional growth entails. What would it be like to practise architecture in an economy with a different modus operandi; in an economy that facilitates prosperity for all within planetary boundaries?
Tuesday 29th Sept 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Bryn Thomas | Brighton Permaculture Trust
Applying permaculture design to the climate emergency
The need to take action on climate change is urgent. But kneejerk responses will cause new problems and may not be very effective. We need to avoid the sticking plaster approach and focus instead on integrated solutions that allow people and planet to flourish.
Permaculture design offers an integrated approach to plan solutions. By considering other social and environmental needs when designing we can come up with regenerative solutions that address other needs.
We can design nurturing urban areas that reduce energy use and the needs to travel while inviting in nature. We can design productive, biodiverse and beautiful landscapes that are carbon sinks. We need an integrated planned approach to achieve these things permaculture design offers tools to help achieve this.
Tuesday 29th Sept 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Clara Bagenal George | Associate at Elementa/ Initiator LETI
A climate emergency design guide and LETI Embodied carbon primer
Clara from LETI will talking about their latest publications the Climate Emergency Design Guide. We are in a climate emergency, and urgently need to reduce carbon emissions, this guide outlines the requirements of new buildings to ensure our climate change targets are met – setting out a definative journey, beyond climate emergency declarations, into a net zero carbon future. It is specifically aimed towards developers/landowners, designers, policy makers, and the supply chain. It aims to help to define ‘good’ and to set clear and achievable targets. Clara will also talk about the LETI Embodied carbon primer which offers supplementary guidance to those interested in exploring embodied carbon in more detail. The Climate Emergency Design Guide is a collaborative publication that has been produced by over 100 LETI volunteers. For information on LETI go to www.leti.london
Thursday 1st Oct 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Ehab Sayed | Founder and Director of Innovation at Biohm in conversation with
Sally Lowndes | Onion Collective
A Biomimetic Future: How can nature inspire us to revolutionise the built environment and restore local equity
Four billion years of evolution have resulted in remarkably elegant and intelligent solutions in the natural world, making our built environment appear somewhat underwhelming. Taking inspiration from nature, we can develop regenerative living materials and circular construction systems that will revolutionise the built environment as we know it. Combined with community-led bio-manufacturing and equitable business models, we can restore local equity and expand the circles of value beyond material flows. Biohm is working alongside the Onion Collective in Watchet, UK, to set up the world’s first community-led bio-manufacturing facility and demonstrate a new way of doing business to bring ground-breaking technologies to market in a socially just fashion.
Thursday 1st Oct 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Dusty Gedge | European Federation of Green Roof Associations
Rethinking green roofs for the Net gain and the carbon neutral economy
Twenty years ago, sedum blankets were the only approach to greening roofs in the UK. Since then we have been reasonably successful in ensuring that a wildflower/biodiverse approach better. Yet, with the urgent and increasing interest at national, region and local government levels along with companies varied from transport to real estate to hit carbon neutral targets, green roofs need to adapt to help achieve this. How can this done? How could the green roof construction model change to meet this? And what do policy makers, designers and the construction industry need to do to achieve this whilst also helping deliver Net Gain – biodiversity, environmental and importantly carbon neutrality.
Dusty Gedge brings his 20 years knowledge of green roofs in London, UK, Europe and across the globe to consider the above issues, challenges and opportunities to ensure that green roofs do make a real difference and aren’t just an ‘ecological’ roof covering.
https://brightonpermaculture.org.uk/events/event/green-architecture-day/