meyerbellmarit
Veronica Simpson and Dr Paula Carey
PROF. DOUG KING URGES CONSTRUCTION PARADIGM CHANGE
Brandon 3 October 2013: At the Lignacite Lecture 2013 Professor Doug King spoke about Building on Evolution, and called for the need to change the construction paradigm to ensure high performance, low impact buildings, which are essential to the future of humankind.
The Lecture, which was this year held at The Royal Society in London, was attended by architects, specifiers, designers, environmentalists and representatives from construction and local authorities, who came to hear Professor Doug King speak about the need to learn from the evolved wisdom of historic builders.
He said: “In the next 40 years, to accommodate the rapid growth in urban population, humankind will likely have to build as much new urban fabric as already exists today. We will not have time to correct mistakes. We need to ensure that the buildings we put up are genuinely sustainable: appropriate for their cultural and climatic locations, as well as minimising use of resources.
“Everywhere I look, I find evidence of underlying physical properties that have influenced the choices of generations of builders. From structure to roof tiles to paint, the properties of certain materials and methods have brought benefits to buildings, despite these rarely being overtly recognised. We need to examine these with a view to identifying new opportunities for creating high performance, low impact buildings that have not yet even been imagined.”
Chairman of leading masonry products manufacturer, Lignacite, Giles de Lotbiniere, was delighted Professor King accepted his invitation to address this year’s Lecture: “He is a building physicist and one of the most influential figures on sustainable construction in the world. He raised some important points, and at Lignacite we are already working to address his challenge of developing high performance, low impact buildings and conserving resources by using up to 50% of recycled materials in our products.
“Recently we also launched The Carbon Buster, which is the world’s first carbon negative building block, and incorporates recycled materials and carbonated aggregates, which are derived from by-products from waste to energy plants. We believe this block has an important role to play in helping to meet the UK’s zero carbon homes targets and build a more sustainable future,” he said.
The Lignacite Lecture is an annual event, which dates back to year 2000. Since then, a variety of topics ranging from The Relationship between Art & Architecture to Biomimicry and the Ecological Age have been covered by high profile speakers, including Sir Terry Farrell, Anthony Gormley OBE, Ken Shuttleworth and Professor David Mach.
ENDS
More information:
An edited version of Professor King’s Lignacite Lecture is available here: www.dougking.co.uk/building-on-evolution/
For more information, please contact marit@meyerbell.co.uk
Lignacite:
Lignacite is a leading UK manufacturer of masonry products designed for internal or external use. Founded in 1947, it remains a family owned company managed by Allan Eastwood. The Lignacite masonry range incorporates a range of recycled and waste materials, including glass, wood particles, Furnace Ash, Recycled concrete, china clay and shells. The company also provides products to encourage biodiversity in construction. The company uses aggregates from its own local quarry in Brandon, and has supplied many high profile buildings in the UK, including the Shard, the Gherkin, Olympic Village, Heathrow Airport, Stanstead Airport, Canary Warf and the Olympic Stadium. For more information, visit www.lignacite.co.uk
Professor Doug King:
Doug King FREng CEng CPhys CEnv FInstP FEI FCIBSE HonFRIBA is, according to Building Design, one of the most influential figures in UK sustainable construction. He has been the environmental engineer behind numerous ground-breaking, critically acclaimed, buildings including; the Stirling Prize shortlisted Weald & Downland Gridshell, The Innovate Office Leeds, which triggered the introduction of BREEAM Outstanding, The Genzyme Centre in Cambridge Massachusetts, at the time the largest LEED Platinum building in the world, and Sainsbury’s original Eco-Superstore at Greenwich. Doug King now works as a freelance consultant, helping construction clients, designers and supply chains to realise genuinely high performance, low impact buildings. He teaches environmental design widely, to both engineers and architects and is a visiting professor at universities in the UK, China and Russia.
For more information please visit: www.dougking.co.uk
For video highlights of the lecture please see: www.dougking.co.uk/building-on-evolution
Veronica Simpson and Dr Paula Carey
PROF. DOUG KING URGES CONSTRUCTION PARADIGM CHANGE
Brandon 3 October 2013: At the Lignacite Lecture 2013 Professor Doug King spoke about Building on Evolution, and called for the need to change the construction paradigm to ensure high performance, low impact buildings, which are essential to the future of humankind.
The Lecture, which was this year held at The Royal Society in London, was attended by architects, specifiers, designers, environmentalists and representatives from construction and local authorities, who came to hear Professor Doug King speak about the need to learn from the evolved wisdom of historic builders.
He said: “In the next 40 years, to accommodate the rapid growth in urban population, humankind will likely have to build as much new urban fabric as already exists today. We will not have time to correct mistakes. We need to ensure that the buildings we put up are genuinely sustainable: appropriate for their cultural and climatic locations, as well as minimising use of resources.
“Everywhere I look, I find evidence of underlying physical properties that have influenced the choices of generations of builders. From structure to roof tiles to paint, the properties of certain materials and methods have brought benefits to buildings, despite these rarely being overtly recognised. We need to examine these with a view to identifying new opportunities for creating high performance, low impact buildings that have not yet even been imagined.”
Chairman of leading masonry products manufacturer, Lignacite, Giles de Lotbiniere, was delighted Professor King accepted his invitation to address this year’s Lecture: “He is a building physicist and one of the most influential figures on sustainable construction in the world. He raised some important points, and at Lignacite we are already working to address his challenge of developing high performance, low impact buildings and conserving resources by using up to 50% of recycled materials in our products.
“Recently we also launched The Carbon Buster, which is the world’s first carbon negative building block, and incorporates recycled materials and carbonated aggregates, which are derived from by-products from waste to energy plants. We believe this block has an important role to play in helping to meet the UK’s zero carbon homes targets and build a more sustainable future,” he said.
The Lignacite Lecture is an annual event, which dates back to year 2000. Since then, a variety of topics ranging from The Relationship between Art & Architecture to Biomimicry and the Ecological Age have been covered by high profile speakers, including Sir Terry Farrell, Anthony Gormley OBE, Ken Shuttleworth and Professor David Mach.
ENDS
More information:
An edited version of Professor King’s Lignacite Lecture is available here: www.dougking.co.uk/building-on-evolution/
For more information, please contact marit@meyerbell.co.uk
Lignacite:
Lignacite is a leading UK manufacturer of masonry products designed for internal or external use. Founded in 1947, it remains a family owned company managed by Allan Eastwood. The Lignacite masonry range incorporates a range of recycled and waste materials, including glass, wood particles, Furnace Ash, Recycled concrete, china clay and shells. The company also provides products to encourage biodiversity in construction. The company uses aggregates from its own local quarry in Brandon, and has supplied many high profile buildings in the UK, including the Shard, the Gherkin, Olympic Village, Heathrow Airport, Stanstead Airport, Canary Warf and the Olympic Stadium. For more information, visit www.lignacite.co.uk
Professor Doug King:
Doug King FREng CEng CPhys CEnv FInstP FEI FCIBSE HonFRIBA is, according to Building Design, one of the most influential figures in UK sustainable construction. He has been the environmental engineer behind numerous ground-breaking, critically acclaimed, buildings including; the Stirling Prize shortlisted Weald & Downland Gridshell, The Innovate Office Leeds, which triggered the introduction of BREEAM Outstanding, The Genzyme Centre in Cambridge Massachusetts, at the time the largest LEED Platinum building in the world, and Sainsbury’s original Eco-Superstore at Greenwich. Doug King now works as a freelance consultant, helping construction clients, designers and supply chains to realise genuinely high performance, low impact buildings. He teaches environmental design widely, to both engineers and architects and is a visiting professor at universities in the UK, China and Russia.
For more information please visit: www.dougking.co.uk
For video highlights of the lecture please see: www.dougking.co.uk/building-on-evolution