With sustainability now a complex and evolving project driver, we showcase buildings that combine low-carbon performance with elegance, utility and respect for the past
Discussions on sustainable design have become more nuanced of late, moving from concerns over operational and embodied carbon, to take in wider impacts on nature and biodiversity, human health and wellbeing, and even questioning whether, in a climate emergency, we should build at all.
Helping negotiate this crucial, but pitfall-ridden, territory of design, this PiP webinar explored the experiences of architects delivering some of the most sustainable and future-proof architecture and interiors.
Chloe Bullock, founder of Brighton-based Materialise Interiors, shared insights from case studies in her new book, Sustainable Interior Design, available from RIBA Books, which explores 11 different themes, from reuse and the circular economy, through to healthy buildings and biophilic design.
A chapter on the sharing economy looks at the work of Opendesk, an online marketplace for independently-designed furniture, which is shared online and can be CNC-routed at any location, then flat pack-assembled on site. ‘The materials don’t have to travel to you, it’s rethinking the way we manufacture and distribute furniture,’ said Bullock.
Another, on regenerative design, highlights the Burwood Brickworks building in Melbourne by NH Architecture – a former suburban brickworks transformed into a shopping centre combining retail, accommodation and a cinema with parkland and a rooftop farm.
Petal certification under the Living Building Challenge required every building tenant to commit not to use toxic materials or chemicals on a red list. When a nail bar had to rethink its products, it ‘had ripple effects on other parts of the company’s estate’, proving the ideas ‘had positive repercussions that go much further than simply interior design.’
How do we convince retail clients to think more long-term and avoid a continuous cycle of fit-outs based on the latest fashions and trends, asked webinar chair Jan-Carlos Kucharek? Bullock pointed to her former employer, the Body Shop, which adopted a component-based approach to enable fixtures to be reformed and reused, ‘creatively rethinking the process’.
Next, Ben Hancock, managing director at Oscar Acoustics, conducted a virtual tour of the firm’s new EPC A-rated HQ comprising six warehouses and a main warehouse/office building on the site of a former cement works.
Low carbon features include a large roof-mounted PV array and an MVHR system that recovers heat for hot water. The company’s acoustic Sonaspray was applied to the underside of insulated roof sheets, not only dampening sound in warehouses, negating the need for ear protection, but also boosting thermal performance.
From clearer sound to clearer sites. Michael Lynas, owner of Boehm Lynas, discussed The Arbour, 10 carbon-negative, net-energy-positive houses in Walthamstow, London, winner of the 2024 RIBA London Sustainability Award.
These ambitious targets required the deconstruction, and reuse within the site, of all components and materials in the existing light industrial units. Concrete blocks taken from the inner leaf of brickwork walls were reused in beam and block ground floors, new concrete footings were expanded with a traditional form of brickwork, re-using bricks. Metal from the industrial shed roofs was made into structures for bike storage and landscape features, such as drainage channels.
To cut embodied carbon, photovoltaics for homes were bought early and used to power around 60% of construction activity, while ‘internal finishes are reduced or eliminated and structural elements left exposed.’ Timber offcuts were used to create furniture and embedded in kitchen worktops, while plastic panels for showers incorporate old yogurt pots and white goods.
Did insurers and building warranty providers require specific regimes to verify the performance of reused materials, asked one webinar viewer? Yes, said Lynas: ‘Where we used existing steel to create connections everything needed testing, it meant working with the testing house and consultants.’
Cathi Ramsbottom, UK technical manager for sponsor Thrislington Cubicles, said lifecycle assessments increasingly appear in information requests, as she gave a concise lowdown on the methodology.
Among other things, most product manufacturers’ LCAs cover cradle to (factory) gate emissions, but this fails to consider subsequent storage in warehouses. ‘Products have a continuous carbon impact when stored in a facility, requiring energy. Always look for companies who deliver direct to site with intent to install immediately,’ she advised.
Factory gates didn’t exist until the industrial revolution and in the next case study FCB Studios architect Tim Greensmith detailed the repair and adaptive re-use of one of the most important buildings of the period, Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings.
Built in 1797, this grandparent of the modern skyscraper has a cast iron and masonry frame, considered the world’s first fireproof composite structure. Developer Historic England wanted ‘an exemplar of sustainable refurbishment, adhering to principles of light touch, preserved fabric, long-life and loose-fit design solutions’.
The existing structural frame was inadequate for current and future loads, but rather than insert a new one, masonry around the original cast iron frame was reinforced to enable higher levels. Wall structures were repaired to increase lateral stability and existing beams and arches enhanced to raise loading capacity.
An environmental engineering strategy saw the reinstatement of original passive measures such as opening windows, exposed thermal mass and only heating spaces that need it. A three-year testing programme for internal breathable insulation aimed to prevent interstitial condensation.
The low-carbon scheme now has 15% the upfront embodied carbon of an equivalent size newbuild, and the social and economic benefits are arguably even greater: ‘Statistics show every pound we put in generates £5-7; crime has come down 42% in the area with reductions in policing,’ said Greensmith.
Concrete isn’t something you’d expect to see in a sustainability webinar, but Ed Lazenby, managing director of sponsor Lazenby, related his company’s journey to cut the emissions of its decorative concrete products, in a move to replace Portland cement with GGBS and cement substitutes.
Its new trials involve blending captured carbon with a mineral to produce silicon-enriched magnesium carbonate as a replacement for GGBS or PFA in concrete.
Patrick Bradley, founder of Patrick Bradley Architects, rounded off the webinar with Barneys Ruins, the boldly inventive conversion and restoration of an old Irish clachan (hamlet) deep in the Ulster hills.
The project, to rectify ‘a significant loss to our historic built heritage’ and reinstate ‘the physical connections that we have to our past’, leaves the 200-year-old ruins intact on lower levels while a small new house formed from a reclaimed shipping container floats dramatically above, lending uninterrupted views of the surrounding countryside.
‘Sustainability and adherence to passive principles, including reuse and recycle,’ was a key driver, with items ranging from existing cladding to ‘Granny’s old gate’ making their way into the scheme, and a wind turbine to satisfy all its power needs.
The historic clachan was treated with such sensitivity that the container and supporting structural steel were always at least 100m away from the ruined walls.
As architecture tends to ‘go big’, with corresponding environmental implications, Barney’s Ruins stresses need over want, showing how well designed, minimally-sized homes can ‘meet all the needs anyone could have and on a minimal budget.’