Material choices, Powered by PechaKucha

Talk

Tuesday 01 August 2023
18:30 - 20:30

Linked to NLA’s ‘Circular London: building a renewable city’ report, join this PechaKucha showcasing exemplar projects and tools putting materials at the core of circular strategy.

NLA’s research paper, ‘Circular London: building a renewable city’, looks at strategies, best practices and challenges that are pushing the boundaries to build a circular city, showcasing a snapshot of exemplar projects, tools and concepts that embrace circular economy principles.

The London Plan 2021 defines a circular economy as ‘one where materials are retained in use at their highest value for as long as possible and are then re-used or recycled, leaving a minimum of residual waste.’

Understanding the lifespan of materials and their suitability for reuse and recycling is core to circularity. In practice, this can translate to retaining and repurposing buildings and their original fabric, and to experimenting with salvaging and reusing material elements, including steel, concrete, brick, timber and glass.

The built environment industry is also taking action to develop a holistic understanding of buildings’ component parts for future use through material database initiatives. These efforts signal a shift towards a truly circular London, where used materials are treated as valuable resources instead of waste. In this spirit, this Pecha Kucha will present a range of tools and case-studies showcasing how considered material choices are core to circular economy.

The format, Pecha Kucha (ペチャクチャ), was devised in Tokyo in 2003 by the English architect Mark Dytham and has turned into a massive global celebration of design, with events happening in hundreds of cities around the world. Drawing its name from the Japanese term for the sound of "chit chat", it rests on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds. The format makes presentations concise, keeps things moving at a rapid pace and holds its audience.