The construction industry accounts for approximately 60% of UK materials use and one third of all waste produced. Buildings are renovated regularly and often demolished before their designated life span, with hardly any products or materials being reclaimed for reuse. This linear economy model of ‘take, make and dispose’ is depleting the world’s limited resources and is creating excessive amount of waste with very little opportunity for reclamation.
My thesis has examined the use of sustainable wood as both a traditional and advanced building material in the exploration of various sustainable architectural solutions. The overall research has covered the environmental impact and benefits of wood architecture, its important role in the development towards a sustainable built environment and the advanced technologies being implemented in improving the efficiency and productivity of the construction process.
The project has developed a sustainable architectural system that revolves around the use of "Reversible Timber Components" in the forming of spaces and buildings. The system emphasizes on the assembly, disassembly & reconfiguration of structures, using automated robotic construction system (ARCS) to explore beyond the Off-site Manufacturing Construction trend.
A series of small to medium scale projects had been carried out to better understand the implications of designing with such architectural approach. The final scheme was the redevelopment of one of Manchester's public spaces, the Piccadilly Gardens, featuring a food-culture focused market hall. The building design is conceived as a temporary reflection of the dynamic data of the site and the structural behaviour of the material, which themselves change over time, and has the ability to be reconfigured over time to accommodate new needs and requirements.
