WRAP/RIBA competition results - Designing out Waste
Pohkit Goh proposal for a prototype E-Office building
The results were released yesterday for a RIBA/WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) competition whose brief was to design a project (an office building, a school, or a warehouse) which demonstrates principles for reducing waste. The competition finalists included one architect, Pohkit Goh, and two engineers: Buro Happold and Battle McCarthy.
I participated in the jury which judged the surprisingly small field of entries - just thirteen, and only seven from architects. This competition was very much about the design process, spelled out clearly in the brief, but many entrants confused ‘designing out waste,’ with a broad approach to sustainability without getting down to the specifics of reducing waste.
That is because architects have yet to get to grips with waste. When it comes to sustainability, the profession focuses on reducing operational energy use and embodied carbon, but that rarely translates into preoccupation with reducing the overall waste stream from a project. WRAP launched a campaign in October 2008 to reduce waste to landfill by half by 2012. Many contractors have signed on, but so far only two architects (Ryder and White Design).
The time to consider this is now; a good starting point is WRAP’s recently released report, Designing out Waste, discussed in a previous Footprint post and available for download on the WRAP website. In addition, WRAP will be running CPD across the UK starting in September and offering in-house CPD as well as an e-learning option. A series of case studies which demonstrate ‘quick wins’ and cost savings will be available on the WRAP website soon.
Filed under: Eco-projects, Green practice
This is very disappointing news and architects and engineers still have a great deal to learn and do.
The design process is extremely significant in cutting overall waste from a project, but it appears that attitiudes to managing wastes are still ” the contractor’s problem”.
The project’s SWMP should highlight the design process in reducing waste and I wonder whether the SWMP reports are not getting scutinised as much as they should be and we are reporting the lessons learnt from each project.
Here at Earth Exchange we have come up with an award winning system for enabling and encouraging construction materials reuse and all of our time and effort is put into resolving the construction waste problem. I wonder how many architects and engineers start every working day with a “how shall we reduce the waste on this project” mentaility?