Retrofitting the physical world is one thing but you have to retrofit the user. We start every project with a workshop where we ask the client “what does sustainability mean to you?” If we asked “what does regenerative architecture mean to you?” they’d probably say “Huh?” One of them, a nuclear physicist, said “I want nothing to leave the site.” So we’re digging up the ground for rammed earth; we’re building furniture using the timber from demolition…
We’ve recently been appointed as Advisory Board members to the Education Africa UK Trust. The University of Nottingham, where we have taught for seven years, has a longstanding relationship with the Thusanang Trust in South Africa, which trains teachers in early childhood development and identifies areas in the greatest need of classrooms. Each year they set a brief for our second-year students to design a crèche. The Trust works with the teachers to choose which one goes ahead.
All the students work on the technical drawings and detailing the design. We help with buildability. We work with the same engineers every time, which is critical for the feedback loop and lessons learnt. We take the students out to build it, and we always visit projects from previous years. It’s taught us the vital importance of maintenance. How does a building give back and regenerate. How much energy does it cost to run and maintain? Last time, we found doorknobs had been replaced with handles. It turns out it’s impossible to turn a doorknob with a small child in your arms.
We’ve got funding to host a workshop with the Nelson Mandela Trust, which has £18 million to build more crèches. It would be a missed opportunity if it was just about delivering the buildings. Our role is to develop the brief. What are the risks? Who can we partner with? How can we set up the infrastructure to get the best value for money on the initial investment?
We have been hugely inspired by Peter Buchanan, particularly the Big Rethink series he wrote for The Architectural Review. He taught us at the LSA. He encouraged us to ask what extra-terrestrial life would make of us earthlings, and encouraged us to envisage the city we’d like to inhabit in the future. He was like “Do you really want to be surrounded by concrete, steel and glass?”
Source: Architecture Today
