The 2 week School of Re-construction was headlined with some fantastic key speakers.
Duncan Baker-Brown
Founder of BakerBrown, Climate Literacy Champion at the School of Architecture & Design University of Brighton
Member of RIBA Council, ACAN, Architects Declare Steering Committee, Member of Brighton & Hove City Circular Economy Oversight Board, Member of South Downs National Park Design Review Panel
Duncan is a practicing architect, academic and environmental activist. Author of ‘The Re-Use Atlas: a designer’s guide towards a circular economy’, he has practised, researched, and taught around issues of sustainable development and closed-looped systems for more than 25 years. He recently founded BakerBrown, an architectural practice and consultancy created to address the huge demands presented by the climate and ecological emergency as well as the challenges of designing in a post-COVID world. Over the years Duncan’s practices have won numerous accolades including RIBA National Awards and a special award from The Stephen Lawrence Prize for the Brighton Waste House – the prize money has since been used to set up a student prize for circular, closed loop design at the University of Brighton where Duncan teaches.
Duncan is currently the Principal Investigator for NWE INTERREG FCRBE research project focussing on the reuse of construction waste, building deconstruction and re-construction. He is the lead coordinator and curator of the digital summer school for August 2021 that will ask teams of students from across Europe and beyond to focus on re-working material from de-constructed buildings. Called the ‘School of Re-construction’, Duncan is working on this project with colleagues from the University of Brighton, Rotor DC from Brussels, Bellastock from Paris, together with Brighton & Hove City Council.
Links to further information
- aj100 Talk ‘Wake Up!”
- Recent Written Work
- Academic Research
- Practice
- Recent Waste House News
- TEDx Talk
Cat Fletcher
The Resource Goddess: It’s not waste until you waste it.
In 2009 Cat co-founded Freegle: UK’s biggest online free reuse network now with 3 .5 million members and she still does all their publicity. Each month Freegle activity keeps ~1,000 tonnes in circulation (and not in landfill or incinerators) around the UK.
Cat is a driving force behind the multi-award winning Waste House at the University of Brighton (built 2012-14) – it’s 90% constructed with ‘waste’ which Cat sourced as part of Design Team. Consequently contributing a chapter for Duncan Baker-Brown’s book about the circular economy “The Reuse Atlas” (2017).
When she’s not talking, lecturing, nagging and enthusing about waste and reuse, Cat is actually enabling it! She operates a creative reuse depot from 12 shipping containers, is sub-contracted by Brighton & Hove City Council, the NHS and others to facilitate reuse for their estates (2014-present).Cat has contributed to conferences, debates, policy, consultations, tenders, strategy and research programmes for corporates, public bodies and the voluntary sector and is considered an expert in waste prevention and transitioning to a circular economy.
Cat has 100k+ social media followers – sharing solutions and inspiration to prevent unnecessary waste.
Marc Maurer
Marc Maurer is an European architect and urbanist.
He grew up in Germany and the Netherlands and graduated cum laude as Master of Science in the field of architecture, urbanism and building technology at the Eindhoven University of Technology.
He co-founded ‘Maurer United Architects’ in 1998. This creative interdisciplinary agency received several grands and awards for its identity strategies and innovative designs on various scales
Based in the international Meuse-Rhine agglomeration around Maastricht, he feels challenged to work across the borders. He worked as researcher at the Technical University of Delft and Eindhoven on the Faculties of Architecture and the Built environment and since 2019 at the faculty of Urban Design of the Aachen RWTH University.
Césare Peeren
Césare is passionate about reducing humankind’s use of virgin resources and energy.
In 1997, with Jan Jongert, he founded Superuse Studios, recognised pioneers and frontrunners in waste architecture and ‘circular’ design. Since then, Superuse Studios have been developing creative design and architectural re-use potentials for a variety of wasted resource and energy outputs. Their many realised projects are unique and iconic.
Cesare’s current focus is to apply and integrate within a given project as many as possible of the themes that he has been investigating and developing over the last 22 years: re-use/superuse, circular design, lightness, passive energy, passive ventilation, appropriate technology, shared living and urban agriculture. He sees this as his architectural contribution to the transformation to a human culture with positive impact