Global stakeholders from the built environment will gather at the inaugural WasteBuild event to explore circular solutions for sustainable buildings. WasteBuild will bring together 2,000 leading architects, developers and policymakers to explore the economic, environmental and social opportunities and challenges for the built environment in transitioning to circular business models
This December, Amsterdam will host the first WasteBuild, shining a light on the most innovative projects and solutions to support the transition towards a circular built environment. WasteBuild is a key forum for architects, engineers and developers to exchange circular initiatives and solutions for sustainable buildings, share best practice, and grasp the commercial benefits of the circular economy. The event will also highlight the urgent need for the construction industry collectively to tackle the climate emergency, by moving towards circular solutions and business models. “Approximately 90% of waste from the built environment comes from the renovation and demolition of buildings,” said Bradley Guy, architect at DfD Catholic University in Washington, DC and co-founder of the Building Materials Reuse Association. “These resources represent both our heritage and our future; we can ill-afford to simply live in the present of wasteful consumption. All buildings must be designed to utilise existing resources and to plan for future change and potential end-of-life with resource stewardship in mind.”
Commercial, economic and regulatory factors have a role to play in facilitating the transition to circularity: WasteBuildexamines all angles. “Circular economy entails a systemic transition,” said Jonathan Verdonck, a project manager at the Kamp C initiative who is due to speak at WasteBuild. “Technology will not be the main driver for this transition. We need a change in our societal and economic system: e.g. long-term prosperity instead of short-term profits, a regulatory framework that stimulates circularity and puts a brake on linearity, taxing of added entropy, use of materials and non-renewable energy instead of labour”.
Also due to play a key role is “technology for better reusing materials, energy efficiency technology, and database technology to mark and recognise products/materials for future usage,” said Kees Verweel, chairperson of C2C Bouwgroep and an exhibitor at WasteBuild. “For countries such as the Netherlands and the UK to achieve the circular-economy targets needed to reduce carbon emissions, a major shift in the way we resource construction projects is needed now,” said Frazer Stokes, event director of WasteBuild.
“WasteBuild highlights the need for system-wide change. More importantly, it offers stakeholders commercially viable solutions and strategies to implement circular initiatives. ”WasteBuild runs alongside the established World Architecture Festival at the RAI, Amsterdam, on December 5-6, 2019. The event will feature a free-to-attend trade show showcasing circular solutions for the built environment, with sponsors and exhibitors including Forbo, Kloeckners, ByFusion, Interface, SUPERLOCAL, Peikko and Ecor. Running concurrently, a paid conference will explore the business case for using “waste” as a resource. The conference will feature speakers from major projects across the built environment, including:
- Martijn Pool from Space&Matter, the architect behind leading circular schemes De Ceuval and Schoonschip
- Peter van Assche, Bureau SLA and Reinder Bakker, Overtreders W, designers behind People’s Pavilion, an innovative circular project for Dutch Design Week 2017
- Martijn Segers from housing association Heemwonen and the rest of the team behind the circular project SUPERLOCAL
- Duncan Baker Brown, BBM Sustainable Design, the leading UK architect and environmental activist pushing the boundaries of what the built environment profession can do to tackle the climate emergency. Their projects include the House that Kevin Built and the Waste House in Brighton
- Erol Oztan, the architect and innovator behind Resource House
- Kasper Guldager Jensen, a circular economy innovator and adviser to the city of Amsterdam on circular built environment strategy
- Karin Dorepaal and Saskia Oranje, architects behind the living circular experiment PIT LAB
- Jonathan Verdonck, a project manager for Kamp C, the first circular development in Belgium
- Jan Jongert, from Superuse Studios, the architects behind Blue City Lab
- Pinar Guvenc, a clean-tech innovator behind Sponge and international architecture practice Eray / Carbajo
For details on how to participate as a visitor, exhibitor, sponsor or media visit the WasteBuild website.
About WasteBuild:
WasteBuild is the first and only international event dedicated to accelerating the transition towards a circular built environment. Register to attend for free today and you will meet the world’s leading architects, engineers, designers and technologists along with the most active clients already delivering circular schemes. Registration to the WasteBuild exhibition is free. Passes for the paid conference can be bought from €300 on the event website. To find out more visit www.wastebuild.com.
For event and media enquiries, please contact:
Frazer Stokes,
Founder,
WasteBuild
+44 (0) 7880 354558