Tag Archives: design

A Regenerative Body Of Knowledge for the Built Environment

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Welcome to the Fairsnape blog and webpages.
You will find information and background to myself Martin Brown and Fairsnape here.

“We are on the cusp of something regeneratively wonderful

regenerative or something irreversibly disastrous”

Along with the increased use of the term ‘regenerative’ we have a changing narrative. And this is important, as it is narratives that define us and contribute, in turn, to how we define and shape our future. The future is not something that just happens to us, but it is something that we create. As Arundhati Roy noted in April 2020, we need ‘to imagine the future we want and be prepared to fight for it’. Yet, unless we urgently address the level of ecological and climate literacy, and levels of climate awareness within all areas of education, we will not have the narratives, insights and knowledge to imagine our future, to recognize goodness and what it looks like and to be able to fight for it.

Martin Brown RESTORD 2030

Over the past four years, the RESTORE Cost Action has created an important and significant Regenerative Body of Knowledge, (rBOK), for the built environment, A collection that includes many thought-leading publications, videos, presentations and more, covering the built environment spectrum from changing mindsets and system thinking, to design, construction, operations and internal environments.

Free downloads are listed at end of this post and watch out for forthcoming of workshops, courses and other dissemination events based on the wide scope of the rBOK Regenerative Body of Knowledge.

KEY rBOK PUBLICATONS

RESTORD a regenerative guide for educators, students and practitioners. Editors Martin Brown and Carlo Battisti

RESTORY. FAD_Restory The main results and insight into the project management strategies for RESTORE. Editors Carlo Battisti and Martin Brown

RESTORE Final Book: Rethinking Sustainability Towards a Regenerative Economy 22 Chapters, 45 Authors, 22 Countries, Free open access ebook Editors: Andreucci, M.B., Marvuglia, A., Baltov, M., Hansen, P.

SUSTAINABILITY, RESTORATIVE TO REGENERATIVE  An exploration in progressing a paradigm shift in built environment thinking, from sustainability to restorative sustainability and on to regenerative sustainability. Editors Martin Brown and Edeltraud Haselsteiner

REGENERATIVE DESIGN IN DIGITAL PRACTICE A Handbook for the Built Environment. Editors: Emanuele Naboni and Lisanne Havinga 

REGENERATIVE CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATION Bridging the gap between design and construction, following a Life Cycle Approach consisting of practical approaches for procurement, construction, operation and future life. Editors: Giulia Peretti, Carsten K. Druhmann.

REGENERATIVE TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE INDOOR ENVIRONMENT Inspirational guidelines for practitioners. Editors: Roberto Lollini, Wilmer Pasut 

SCALE JUMPING Regenerative Systems Thinking within the Built Environment Editors: András Reith, Jelena Brajković.

DOWNLOADS

Restord 2030Download
RestoryDownload
Sustainability-Restorative-to-RegenerativeDownload
Regenerative_Design_In_Digital_PracticeDownload
Regenerative Technologies for Indoor EnvironmentsDownload
Construction and OperationDownload
Restore Scale Jumping Download

Other publications, papers and videos are available through the RESTORE webpages

Regenerative Design

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The transition to a Regenerative Economy is about seeing the world in a different way: a shift to an ecological world view in which nature is the model.

The third publication in the ‘Regenerative Sustainability series from COST Restore is now available (free download from the CostRestore webpages)

Design can no longer be only concerned with reducing environmental impacts within the threshold of greenhouse gas emissions. Buildings today must be developed to reverse the effects of climate change, enhance natural systems, the built environment and habitants health.

“Regenerative Design in the Digital Practice” explores how the regenerative concept is now being applied to the regenerative design of cities and buildings. A series of digital design approaches are exemplified via a series of examples drawn from leading international practitioners and researchers.

This inspiring and comprehensive publication, stretching to over 400 pages is a huge achievement by editors Emanuele Naboni and Lisanne Havinga,working with Co-Editors: Martin Brown, Dr.Angela Loder,  Sergio Altomonte, Terri Peters, Luca Finocchiaro, Ata Chokhachian, Clarice Bleil de Souza, Catherine De Wolf and Antonino Marvuglia  it contains over 100 contributors.

“Regenerative Design in the Digital Practice” fills a gap in the existing literature by introducing fundamental design principles of regenerative design practice whilst acknowledging the potential and imperative of integrating science, big data and multi-discipline digital tools in the design process.

This book offers those involved within the built environment a wide range of insights into regenerative design from international design practitioners and researchers in the field. As well as theoretical insights into the historical, cultural and philosophical development of regenerative design, practical insights are framed in a set of key regenerative design principles, methods and performance simulation tools. Finally, the ability to create regenerative designs and the positive impacts they bring are demonstrated through a series of built examples.

Pillars of Regenerative Design

CONTENTS:

REGENERATIVE DEFINITIONS FOR DESIGNERS
The Pillars of Regenerative Design
Edited Martin Brown, Emanuele Naboni, Lisanne Havinga
TOOLS AND DATA FOR HOLISTIC MODELLING
Simulating Regenerative Futures
Edited Emanuele Naboni, Clarice Bleil de Souza, Terri Peters, Lisanne Havinga
CLIMATE AND ENERGY FOR REGENERATIVE URBAN DESIGN
Local Context, Adaptation, Resilience
Edited Emanuele Naboni, Ata Chokhachian, Luca Finnochiaro, Lisanne Havinga
CARBON AND ECOLOGY WITHIN THE DESIGN PROCESS
Environmental Impact Assessment
Edited Lisanne Havinga, Catherine De Wolf, Antonino Marvuglia, Emanuele Naboni
HUMAN WELL-BEING VIA CERTIFICATION AND TOOLS
Comfort, Health, Satisfaction, Well-being
Edited Angela Loder, Sergio Altomonte, Emanuele Naboni, Lisanne Havinga
CASE STUDIES SHOWCASING REGENERATIVE DESIGN 346
From Theory to Realisation
Edited by Emanuele Naboni, Lisanne Having

The other COST Restore Publications, also free to download, include:

Sustainability, Restorative to Regenerative

An exploration in progressing a paradigm shift in built environment thinking, from sustainability to restorative sustainability and on to regenerative sustainability.

Regenerative Construction and Operation

Bridging the gap between design and construction, following a Life Cycle Approach consisting of practical approaches for procurement, construction, operation and future life.

Future titles will include Regenerative Technologies, Scale Jumping and Atlas of Solutions.

A different Saturday that will change your minds.

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Delighted to be involved in the second edition of REGENERATION Design Competition in the Trento region of Italy next week and the Conference on Saturday 16th April.

The following is a re-blog from Carlo Battisti’s blog

2016_03_24-06 Centrale Fies

It’s time to imagine a “Living Future” made of “living buildings.” Living Building Challenge is a building certification program, advocacy tool and philosophy, suitable  for projects that want to go beyond being simply “less harmful”, to truly become “regenerative”. The Challenge defines the most advanced measure of sustainability in the built environment possible today and acts to rapidly diminish the gap between current limits and the end-game positive solutions we seek.

Connected to REGENERATION, the 64 hours non-stop design competition organized by Macro Design Studio  together with the International Living Future Institute, the Conference will return on Saturday, April 16, 2016morning at Centrale Fies – Dro (Trento). The Conference is the premier annual event of the Living Building Challenge Collaborative: Italy, a community born with the aim of sharing LBC knowledge and principles and create the local conditions for the development of “living” buildings, territories and communities.

The program (the event will be in English)
Saturday April 16th, 2016, h 10-13

  • 10:00 – 10.50: Registration
  • 10:50 – 11:00: INTRODUCTION |Macro Design Studio
  • 11.00 – 11.40: NOW IT IS THE TIME FOR A WORLD OF LIVING BUILDINGS AND COMMUNITIES |Amanda Sturgeon, The International Living Future Institute – CEO
  • 11.40 – 12:00: CHALLENGING UK CONSTRUCTION. THE UK FIRST LIVING BUILDING PROJECT |Martin Brown, Fairsnape – Founder
  • 12.00 – 12:20: THE EXPERIMENTAL UNDERSTANDING OF COMPLEX ENVIRONMENTS FOR THEIR REGENERATION | Emanuele Naboni, Royal Danish Academy Copenhagen, School of Architecture – Associate professor
  • 12.20 – 12:40: REGENERATION 2015. PROUD TO BE ZERO. |  The YELLOW Team, REGENERATION 2015
  • 12:40 – 13:00: Questions and answers

2016_03_22-02 Amanda SturgeonThe international speakers are experts who have long been working to introduce the principles of LBC in Europe, including a special guest: Amanda Sturgeon was appointed by former Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary Clinton as one of the “10 most important women in sustainability.” FAIA, LEED Fellow, Amanda is from this year President and CEO of the International Living Future Institute after having been Executive Director. She sponsored also the first edition of REGENERATION.

2016_03_22-01 Martin Brown

Martin Brown is the founder of Fairsnape, active since 2005 as a consulting company, providing a wide range of support services to organizations in the built environment. He deals with innovative sustainability, social media and business improvement, with over 40 years of experience. He is a Living Building Challenge Ambassador, with a passion for the promotion of LBC and regenerative sustainability concepts in the UK.

2016_03_22-03 Emanuele NaboniEmanuele Naboni
(BArch, Dip. Arch., MPhil, PhD in Science, LEED AP, Licensed Architect) He is since 2010 an associate professor at the Institute of Technology of the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen, Faculty of Architecture. He teaches and researches in the field of technology and sustainable environmental design.

2016_03_22-04 Team YellowThe YELLOW team is the winning team of the 1st edition of REGENERATION (15-18 Apr 2015) and it is composed of (from left in the picture) Emanuele Mondin (architect, Vicenza), Guido Zanzottera(energy engineer, Turin), Luigi Greco (urban planner, Agrigento), Bernardette Soust Verdaguer (architect, Sevilla) and Maija Krizmane (civil engineer, Riga).

Further information about the event:

When: Saturday April 16th, 2016, h 10-13
Where: Centrale Fies, Dro (TN) | Coordinates 45.986691, 10.926922
Contact: +39 0464 443418 | eventi@macrodesignstudio.it
Registration: partecipation is free but seats are limited. Deadline for registration: Thursday April 15th, 2016. Registration through Eventbrite here.
Language: the conference will be in English (with simultaneous translation).
Educational credits: 3 educational credits for architects will be provided in agreement with Ordine degli Architetti Pianificatori Paesaggisti e Conservatori di Trento. This conference has been approved for 3 LFA (Living Future Accredited professional) CEU hours.

We are waiting for you:-)

Circular Economy and the Built Environment

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KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA

Updated: Ready for a Circular Economy?

This coming week sees a number of circular economy events, for example Green Vision 10th Feb  (#GVis2016) in Bradford and ConstructCE 12 Feb (#cethinking) in London. Also see the Build Well 2016 Feb 10/11 event in the USA.  If you are at all interested in learning more about Circular Economy and its current popularity in construction, get along to at least one for these, and, engage via their twitter streams

This blog has mentioned and covered concepts of Circular Economy, Cradle to Cradle and related themes on many occasions, including the 2008 Constructing Excellence Lancashire Waste is Stupid event and presentation for that asked the question when did the construction Take Make Dump become acceptable, and why it remains so.

Whilst we see an increase in interest and a hunger to understand, an occasional interface with mainstream sustainability (as represented by BREEAM) and with BIM (GreenBIM), circular economy thinking struggles to gain any real traction within the built environment.

Research shows that the circular economy could be worth up to £29billion to the UK economy. It remains unclear how much of this would be construction related, but is this another area we can apply the rule of thumb 40% factor to, making a significant impact on the sector?

The Living Building Challenge provides a great framework for circular economy thinking, requiring for example, Conservation Plans not just Site Waste Management Plans, and pulls on the DfD (Design for Disassembly or Design for Deconstruction) principles as a guide for material selection and management within Living Building Challenge projects.

And it is DfD principles that will form the core of my talk at the Green Vision circular economy with examples from recent visits in the UK, Europe, Canada and the US.

Circular Economy and DfD principles present great opportunities and challenges for todays design and construction within the world of BIM. Can we for example design buildings with materials and components that have a secondary designed life after the first? and, how can we incorporate materials and components that are already insitu within existing buildings? The Alliander company ‘new’ HQ building in the Netherlands demonstrates it is possible, using concepts such as Material Passports to incorporate 80% raw materials from existing buildings and have designed re-use potential for 80% of the new building.

However, if we are serious in designing and constructing buildings with circular economy thinking, with a planned lifetimes reaching to 250 years, as for example in the case of Bullitt Centre, is it acceptable or responsible to specify or include unhealthy or toxic chemicals or materials?  We would be potentially locking risks into many years of use and potentially many future buildings. A good place to start is to ensure the buildings are LBC Red List compliant. The Bullitt Centre has demonstrated toxic material free buildings are possible in six-storey, city centre commercial buildings.

The era of just harm reduction should really be history, and, in an age of responsible construction, the Precautionary Principle (to do no harm where evidence of health or ecological risk exists), should be forefront in design. And if unhealthy or toxic materials are really unavoidable, then project Deconstruction Plan’s must detail the designed replacement rationale and methodology as soon as healthy alternatives become available.

FR_Visuals_FINAL

Circular thinking and DFD are explored within my upcoming RIBA publication FutuRestorative as inspirations and challenges for a new sustainability in the built environment.

Event Links:

Green Vision 10th Feb   Hashtag #GVIs2016 @lsigreenvision

CE Thinking 12 Feb  Hashtag #CEthinking @constructCE 

Build Well 2016 Feb 10/11 @BuildWELL_EBNet

3 R’s for rethinking built environment sustainability

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Its over ten years since rethinking construction became the driving force for improving the construction industry. Back then, in 1998, sustainability wasn’t on the agenda for many construction organisations, and didnt feature in Egans influential report.

Now at the close of 2012, it is of course one of the key challenges for construction.

But is it now just a ‘must do, tick box’ matter, rather than a real agenda for improving, reducing costs and reducing our impact?

Earth2.0 Hub in an excellent blog post ( The Future of Business – inspired by and in harmony with nature.) provides a framework and the language of 3 R’s for future businesses working in harmony with the earth .  And its a framework we should learn from, borrow, adopt or adapt  at project and business level in rethinking built environment sustainability; Re-Design, Re-Connect and Re-Kindle.

Re-Design. Not only design of buildings, but to re-design the way we build. No longer are transactional efforts (reducing waste, conserving energy and recycling) enough.

How?: Take a look at Cradle to Cradle thinking, Circular Economy, Designing out toxic materials, Designing out Landfill, 

Re-Connect. Time to rethink our relationship with nature. However just including nature as a natural capital to be costed is not meaningful approach. We need a relationship that is deeper, that is deep green thinking.

How?: take a look at Living Building Challenge – what if every building, like a flower, contributed to its environment. Or the One Planet Living ten principles

Re-Kindle. Time to rekindle the sustainability debate – moving away from the negative, harassment to doing less bad, to encouraging a move towards a positive new world of doing more good,  better. Resilience.

How?: Learning and benchmarking from other industries and sectors, for example Patagonia, or closer to the built environment, Interface Flooring

This blog, since 2005, has had as a tagline built environment improvement and its connectivity to the natural world . Since then, it has been a core philosophy within fairsnape.

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Since 2005 we have organised and facilitated benchmarkwalks, discussing sustainability issues , across and within sectors, whilst walking in the natural environment. Rather than in the conference of training room. You would be amazed how diffierent, how green, sustainability discussions when conducted in the great outdoors. Try it !

…

Cradle to Cradle, Circular Economy, Healthy Products Standard, Designing Out Landfill , Interface UK, and the UK Living Building Challenge all featured in our #GVis2012. Green Vision Conference in Leeds on the 12 Dec 2012.

>>> See Green Vision event material, links, blogs and more here  <<<<

<<< Read the Cradle to Cradle tweetchat transcript here <<<

The Living Building Challenge UK Collaborative will be ‘launched’ at this event on the 12th.

And, Cradle to Cradle is the book-topic for our Dec #GVisChat tweetchat on Dec 10th at 8pm.

Built to Last – Designing Out Landfill

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There has been an increase in circular economy thinking and the built environment recently, and no doubt we will see much more in the coming weeks and months.  It forms a core element behind the Green Vision half day conference in Leeds on the 12th Dec.

Whilst researching back ground information on “Designing Out Landfill” for a client I was struck by these useful paragraphs from Sophie Thomas  co-director of design at the RSA and published in a Guardian Sustainable Business article in September 2012

Built to last

Design sits at the heart of the challenge to create a circular economy. Approximately 80% of a product’s environmental impact is “locked in” at the design stage, so understanding production cycles and reconfiguring them for maximum effectiveness is key. We cannot simply substitute one material for another without understanding the consequences.

Designing in this way is complex. Gone are the days of “sustainable” or “eco” design, when a simple change of material to a recycled alternative would give a project environmental credibility. This system calls for investigation into materials at a molecular scale. It demands true co-creation, with all stakeholders involved in the lifecycle of a particular product. Finally, it requires a new logistical approach to capturing and recirculating materials.

This effort needs to be led by businesses. At the moment, it is rare to see a company setting a design brief that includes requirements to recover material. Now, however, the business model is changing and the economic imperative for recovery is growing stronger.

So…

How well is design, construction and facilities management prepared for such ‘deep green’ thinking to waste elimination?

BIM and FM who needs to educate whom?

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Another resounding success for the CKE ThinkBIM series today that explored Building Information Management and Facilities Management and raised acutely pertinent issues and questions for future debate.


There certainly was much learning and sharing, from Deborah Rowland’s keynote, (Cabinet Office and Soft Landings) on the round table discussions, from Marty Chobot (FM Systems) on a live feed from North Carolina, proving FM can manage buildings from a BIM model, and of course from the numerous and entertaining pecha kucha style presentations.

Until today I saw a missing link in really moving BIM forward across the built environment being the lack of awareness / knowledge of BIM from the Facilities Management sector.

However I am once again reminded of the lack of understanding from design, construction and indeed the BIM fraternity of what exactly Facilities Management is really all about, and how they need, and indeed will benefit from access to BIM.

The conference discussions also pulled up memories from the late nineties and early noughties on Design and Construction Integration with FM, on the need for FM to be a process broker for new build, and the role of FM to both feedback lessons into construction whilst feedingforward improvements into the business – feedbackfeedforward

And perhaps, just perhaps, as suggested by a few attendees, BIM has started from the wrong end of the process, and should start from the business and FM side, feeding back into construction. And in the context of 1:5:200 thinking, you would start where most value is generated – the 200 business end, not the 0.5 design or 1 construction end of the process.

It’s probably too late to resurrect the FIM not BIM argument. But we need to be acutely aware that we do not just deliver buildings but collectively we provide facilities to clients, and that usability is far more important to FM than light bulb maintenance. Or should be.

The thinkBIM question take away must now be – who needs to educate whom

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

What is BIM

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The following article was written to introduce PauleyCreative’s excellent BIM Infographic  illustrating the recent NBS BIM survey, providing an important snapshot of our collaborative working BIM journey and future directions.

It was also hosted on the 2degreesnetwork site as part of their BIM series.

It feels the article has been ‘on tour’ and received good responses and comments via twitter and elsewhere, so it seems only correct to ‘bring home’ and post here for readers of this blog. Enjoy, and please do add comments below.

What is BIM?

There are many definitions of BIM, but unfortunately many are wrapped in technical, project management or design terminology.

We can understand and describe BIM as “the total and virtual modelling of all aspects of a project prior to construction, during construction and in use.”

A BIM would typically model all data relating to, for eg, design scenarios, costings, build ability and clash detection, scheduling and procurement, sustainability impact, life cycle and facilities management factors as well as in use predictions. Championed by the Government, milestones are set for achieving increasingly mature levels of BIM. The first being level 2 by 2016.

We should view BIM, not just as new technology but as a continuation of the collaborative working journey within the built environment sector. A journey started, or first articulated, way back in 1934 by Alfred Bossom and core to most sector improvement programmes since, from Latham, Egan, Building Down Barriers, Constructing Excellence, to the recent Never Waste a Good Crisis report.

BIM will be challenging, demanding real collaborative working and sharing of data, knowledge and costings across project parties.

The key to collaborative working being effective and open communications, coupled with trust and importantly being comfortable with sharing within a digital environment. Indeed we need the debate on the potential role of communications, and in particular social media, within BIM environments.

Perhaps understandably, the current BIM agenda is driven by technology and design. But the debate will widen, out of necessity, to include other disciplines such as Facilities Management, Quantity Surveyors, SME contractors, product suppliers and manufacturers, Many of whom still remain unclear as to how work and management will be different when working within BIM projects or suppling equipment to a BIM project.

You may recall a recent Honda advert that played on the expression “everything we do goes into everything we do.”  That ad emphasised how the breadth of Honda’s experience is applied through lean manufacturing to all aspects of their products. This is a great expression we would be wise to adopt to explain how BIM will enable us to bring built environment collective experiences, knowledge, technologies and best practice to every building.

Imagine a built environment industry where the design office, the QS office, the project management team, subcontractors operatives, the manufacturers factory and so on is so lean that everything we do goes into everything we do.

We would be able to reclaim the rule of thumb 30% waste in our sector, improve on safety and sustainability and deliver better, lower cost, fit for use facilities whilst achieving healthy profit levels essential for a sustainable industry.

Increasingly I am helping the contractors that I support on their questions of “what is BIM” and “what do I need” to do through increasing awareness of collaborative working, BIM itself and becoming comfortable with web/social media/digital communication. If you would like to know more please do get in touch or follow the conversations on twitter @fairsnape