Circular economy
“In the UK, construction, demolition and excavation account for 60% of material use and waste generation. Humanity is on course to triple material extraction in the next 30 years and triple waste production by 2100”
— UKGBC JAN 2019
The principles of Circular Economy are central to how the carbon footprint and wider environmental impacts of the built environment can be reduced. Is it really too difficult to consider what might happen to construction materials and components at the end of their life? We don’t think so. In fact, Natural Building Systems takes the idea of circularity a bit further. Not only do we design for disassembly, re-use and re-cycling; we plan how a building can adapt over time to respond to changing occupational needs and circumstances.
A significant proportion of the whole life carbon footprint of a dwelling or workplace is embodied in its servicing and maintenance. An essential feature of our system is that all parts are designed to allow easy access to mechanical and electrical services and straightforward renewal and replacement of building elements.
Material Efficiency
The difficulty with many construction products, is that they weigh a lot. The predominant materials of concrete, masonry and steel also need a great deal of energy to process and manufacture. Even if embodied carbon could be ignored, construction costs are typically correlative of the density and energy intensity of materials, leading to unnecessarily expensive structures. Moreover, heavy superstructures need heavy substructures, requiring millions of tonnes of concrete to be poured into the ground every year to support them.
An argument in favour of this approach is that, when interior surfaces of concrete or brick are left exposed, the fabric of the building acts to moderate indoor temperatures. But you don’t need physical mass to do that.
We use digital technologies to optimise the material efficiency of lightweight structural elements, while the exceptional hygrothermal characteristics of Hempsil and other biogenic materials harness an effective thermal mass many times greater than their physical mass. Our superstructures can perform just as well as their overweight alternatives, without the extra cost and environmental burdens of heavy components.