Des Fagan – AI:Lab: Artificial Intelligence in Low Carbon Building

The AI:Lab asks: how can processes of Artificial Intelligence (AI) target the reduction of carbon expenditure in the design and construction of buildings, and what role do architects, engineers, our students and the public have in the process of de-carbonisation using new tools of AI?

The built environment has a vital role to play in responding to the climate emergency - addressing upfront carbon is a critical and urgent focus. Buildings are currently responsible for 39% of global energy related carbon emissions: 28% from operational emissions with the remaining 11% from embodied carbon in materials and construction. Working with Grimshaw Architects, and with a focus on Morecambe Bay, the key objective is to establish the AI:Lab as a vehicle to recognise the cross-disciplinary demands and opportunities of AI, to capture these at an early stage, and produce impactful research in communities and across the construction sector.

Ana Costa – Building a Circular Future: Accelerate Material Re-Use in Construction

Since 80% of buildings that will exist in 2050 have been already built, it is imperative that we make the most of the materials already in existence, this is a real-life challenge. Re-use of construction materials is the most energy-efficient solution for a circular economy, ensuring material value is preserved for as long as possible. This project is essential to enable the acceleration of material re-use in construction, advocate deconstruction of existing buildings instead of demolition to enable the integration of re-used material into the supply chain and have 100% of all newly designed buildings as Net Zero carbon by 2030. By partnering with architectural practice Orms, the joint the policy paper provides a suit of guidance and templates to facilitate the immediate and comprehensive adoption of materials passporting across Architecture, Engineering and Construction industry to support a circular economy. This will be achieved through the publication of a policy paper and Orms Material Database (OMD) that uses Material Passports to give an identity to existing materials and building components. The full policy paper can be consulted here: Materials Passports Policy Paper

Andrea Canclini – Towards an Architectural Theory for Sustainability

Sustainability has become a critical concern for architecture due to the visible impacts of climate change, resource depletion, and pollution. Addressing these multifaceted issues requires rethinking the built environment as a key tool in creating sustainable ecological, economic, and social systems. Over the past 50 years, the role of architects in environmental issues has been received little professional recognition, but recent initiatives by architects and institutions have shifted the profession toward greater environmental involvement.

While disciplines such as engineering and the sciences are already leading the way in finding solutions to sustainability issues - architecture must be able to meet these challenges with its own disciplinary discourses. By fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and expanding its theoretical foundations, architecture can play a pivotal role in promoting sustainability and responding to the urgent demands of our time. Significant questions emerge: how can the disciplines of architectural theory, history and criticism contribute to these demands? How do we theoretically frame environmental concerns to organise our professional activity, and to what extent does architectural education need to rethink how and what it teaches in the coming years? Developing a comprehensive approach will help solidify architecture’s relevance and effectiveness in addressing global environmental challenges and offer unique disciplinary insights.

Serena Pollastri – Coastal Nature Lab

The Coastal Nature Lab investigates the benefits and viability of using locally sourced natural materials in the design of locally relevant interventions for coastal protection that are co-created with local communities. Specifically, the aim of this pilot project is to develop an initial understanding of materials, processes, and designs for sediment trapping and stabilisation. To do so, we employ a Research through Design methodology, in which knowledge is generated through a reflective and iterative design practice, conducted in collaboration with experts in crafts, community groups, and the engineering team and policymakers at Lancaster City Council (LCC), our project partner. The findings from the project will be published as a Pattern Book, which will be made available online. The format draws from the weaving industry practice of compiling organised catalogues of combinations of motifs and colours, but also from the open design practice of sharing instructions to encourage community self-building practices. It will be divided into three main sections of indexed materials, processes, and designs. Each item in the book will be described for its main characteristics, and for its viability in interventions aimed at promoting sediment retention and accretion, buffering, and scour protection.

Mirian Calvo – Placemaking with Young Adults

This research project on placemaking established collaborative ecosystems among design-researchers, young adults, and policymakers to explore innovative methods for sustainable planning policies in the Lancaster District. The project team conducted placemaking workshops involving 22 young adults and 20 policymakers, held 12 interviews with participants and experts, and facilitated over 80 participant interactions to gather insights and aspirations for sustainable development. The analysis highlighted the significance of creating welcoming spaces, implementing well-developed active travel infrastructure, incorporating essential housing qualities, promoting food growing initiatives, offering diverse travel options, utilising renewable energies, and establishing a strong sense of place identity.

The placemaking framework integrates the three pillars of sustainability: environment, economy, and social systems. It encourages collaboration between diverse stakeholders to address urban challenges and complex issues associated with the Climate Emergency from multiple perspectives and disciplines. The placemaking engagement model offers a pathway to effective governance, inclusive policymaking, and sustainable development. It emphasizes the importance of engaging young adults and incorporating their aspirations and values into the planning and design of communities.

The findings from this project will inform policy development, not only in the Lancaster District but also in other communities in addition to generating impact and engagement beyond Academia. The project is featured in RTPI’s documentary, “Planning for Tomorrow’s Environment” as an example of best practice in community engagement, which has generated +600K views and 2.75M impressions to date. Friends of the Earth also highlighted it as an example of unlocking transformative climate action.

Richard Brook – Mainstream Modern

Mainstream Modern is an ongoing project that encapsulates Professor Brook’s research into the modern, modernist, functional and industrial architecture of twentieth century Britain. Mainstream modernism, might be understood as everyday, unremarkable even - the type of architecture that was practiced almost exclusively in Britain after the mid-1950s. The concept of a mainstream modernism enables exploration of the manifold external factors acting upon the procurement and production of various government buildings and allows their consideration in relation to British social, cultural, political and economic history. Much of the fieldwork for this project can be seen on the website Mainstream Modern. Of particular concern and seen within published works are the renewal cities of the 1960s, the landscapes of post-war infrastructure and the works of official architects working for the various arms of the nationalised state in post-war Britain. His expertise is drawn upon by Historic England, CADW, Historic Environment Scotland the Twentieth Century Society and the Modernist Society.

Matthew Pilling – Making the Future

This research centres upon the act of making and uses Design Fiction as a method for exploring alternative futures, to allow us to consider what futures are possible, probable, or preferable. Significant engagement with Maker Room communities across Europe, including a founding role in Blackburn’s facility, create opportunities to work with the manufacturing traditions of the region in fascinating new ways. Through the use of diegetic prototyping, artefacts are created that can be used to engage the public in futures thinking, to consider, what does preferable mean, for whom, and who decides. The process of making plays a key role in all of this work, both as a means of producing artefacts that engage members of the public, and also as a process that they themselves engage in. The focus of this work has been personal data security, sustainability of edge computing, and the repairability and lifecycles of IoT and smart devices. The outcomes include a mobile research platform that hosts immersive interactive experiences, has travelled the country, and welcomed more than 1000 members of the public to contribute to future thinking.