Designing for longevity or deconstruction?

There was another full house for our Open-City event on 26 April as part of this year's Green Sky Thinking Week. Speakers from Studio Partington, AECOM, Integral Design Engineering, Nomas and Bennetts Associates presented compelling cases that roughly concluded the two are probably not mutually exclusive.

Recognising that raw materials will run out sooner or later, the circular economy concept makes a lot of sense, but some serious collaboration will be required for effective and economic application in the construction industry.

Building in layers helps, and consideration must be given to both embodied energy and what is appropriate for the context.

Community spirit also should not be underestimated, but crucially, history shows that good quality buildings do endure, simply because people like them.