Like many things in 2020, the 27th RSAW Annual Conference was an online affair this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Taking place across a week in November, delegates joined speakers and contributors in a series of webinars to contemplate the three R’s in architecture: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
A recent UK Statistics on Waste report stated that the UK generated 221 million tonnes of waste in 2016, with 61.6% of the total produced by the construction industry. With both the climate emergency and finite planetary resources in mind, it’s clear that urgent action is required. The speakers across the week showed delegates how the architectural profession can work together to reduce waste and design within the limits of our environment.
The week began with a focus on heritage. John Edwards (Edwards Hart Consultants) examined how best to raise standards in energy efficiency retrofit, while Edward Holland (Holland Heritage) outlined the main challenges of adaptive reuse. The student day considered how background and culture can influence design ethos (George Aboagye Williams), informed many of the student delegates of RIBA’s Future Architects programme (Kate Hunter, RIBA) and showcased the innovative Re-Fabricate initiative (Paul Daramola).
Day three of the conference looked at place and space in a post-pandemic context. Nicola Gillen (Cushman and Wakefield) analysed the future of office spaces and Sarah Featherstone (Featherstone Young) shared with delegates her thoughts on light-touch living and designing in ‘baggy’ space.
Day four switched the focus to housing. Justin Bere (bere:architects) scrutinised the role of Passivhaus, Steven Harris and Catherine Roberts (CRSH Energy and Architecture) provided an update on the performance of their net-zero home 10 years after its construction and Andy Sutton (Sero Homes) detailed Sero’s continued work on optimised retrofit.
To round off the week, delegates welcomed two international speakers to give an overview of their respective works. Anders Lendager (Lendager Group) provided a whistle-stop tour of his vast experience of building with waste, while Ingrid van der Heijden (Civic Architects) gave an overview of her practice’s public architecture – a series of generous buildings and places.
RSAW would like to thank Conference co-hosts Rockpanel, event sponsors Sero Homes, Vandersanden and Design Commission for Wales for their valued support of this year’s event.
