September 27th: Duncan Baker-Brown

Everybody in the construction industry is feeling the financial squeeze at the moment, and I think we all realise that to keep competitive we need to reduce labour costs. However we can’t do much about the price of raw materials; they just keep on rising, as is the cost of throwing material away. So we need to consider how to turn our waste into a valuable resource to save money and help save our beautiful planet.

Duncan Baker-Brown will discuss the world wide environmental issues caused by our throw-away approach to living on Planet Earth. He will also discuss positive solutions such as The Waste House currently being built in Brighton, as well as many other examples of designers, makers and industries proving that “there is no such thing as waste – just stuff in the wrong place” …and that land fill sites are our new mines!

 

Award-winning eco architect, lecturer at the University of Brighton, Director of BBM Sustainable Design, and environmental campaigner, Duncan has been at the forefront of sustainable design for over 20 years. He designed ‘The House That Kevin Built’ with Kevin McCloud in 2008. It was UK’s first prefabricated house made almost entirely of organic ‘compostable’ material and it was built in only 6 days live on Channel 4 attracting 5 million viewers a night. Duncan is the joint curator of the WasteZone, the designer of the Waste Totem for EcoBuild and the University of Brighton’s Waste House currently being built. He is passionate about looking at ways of making our current cities truly sustainable places to live in.