Other names on the line-up included Great Portland Estates, Tipping Point East, World Green Building Council, MACE, and Landsec, while Duncan Baker Brown co-hosted the event.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of attendees gathered to hear keynote speeches from Danish architect and circular economy pioneer Anders Lendager \u2013 his first UK speaking event \u2013 and Dutch architect and OMA partner Reinier de Graaf, who set out key arguments from his provocative new book Architecture against Architecture<\/a>, which suggests, among many other things, that architects give up new build entirely in favour of adapting existing buildings.<\/p>\n Want to hear more? Here are five key takeaways from this year\u2019s event:<\/p>\n 1) Reusing materials is preserving culture and \u2018form follows availability\u2019<\/p>\n Anders Lendager, the Danish creative director and founder of Lendager, told the room that architects needed to look beyond historic building restoration and see reusing materials as also preserving culture and nature.<\/p>\n \u2018We\u2019re doing a lot of retrofit projects,\u2019 he said, \u2018and in Denmark, keeping buildings is really accelerating. What I\u2019m advocating for is that it\u2019s not about saving cultural buildings anymore \u2013 there are fewer and fewer cultural buildings every year that needs to be saved [thanks to retrofit] \u2013 but the fact of the matter is that we need to look at materials being cultural and natural heritage. That is what we need to save.\u2019<\/p>\n Expanding on the idea, Lendager used the phrase \u2018form follows availability\u2019, a motto of his practice, to showcase how circularity can be the centre of redevelopment. As examples, he cited his Warehouse 47<\/a> and Warehouse 53<\/a> projects, which converted industrial structures into mixed-use office buildings in Copenhagen.<\/p>\n Both projects included reuse of existing columns, beams, ceilings, and walls as well as other materials \u2013 and the retention of the 1950s warehouses themselves to show off the heritage.<\/p>\n AJ CircularBuild (16 September 20226)<\/p>\n He explained: \u2018So for us, these two warehouses are a way of accelerating the idea of what we have, and that we can cut out pieces of the building, use it inside the building, and then it becomes circular in itself, and that we don\u2019t have to do that much with them.\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018By taking off what was there, getting into the skin and bone of the building, getting the beauty out, the aesthetics and quality, and the smells, and keeping them, and preserving them, and in this case, cutting in them, making daylight come in, invites the building to become actually an office building that will work today.\u2019<\/p>\n 2) The importance of the brief \u2013 and putting longevity in it<\/p>\n Landsec\u2019s development director Sophie Morgan and Bennetts Associates director Peter Fisher stressed the importance of getting the brief right on a reuse project \u2013 and ensuring longevity and adaptability are the focus.<\/p>\n Using their recently completed Timber Square development in Southwark, London, as an example, the pair outlined how the original 2019 brief, which prioritised embodied carbon targets (initially set at 900kg CO2 per m2), was ahead of its time, focusing on reuse, and mandated visible, reversible structural joints.<\/p>\n Morgan told CircularBuild: \u2018I think one of the things that came through in this brief, particularly, was the sustainability elements and that focus on longevity. Something that we are kind of challenged with as developers is how do we create buildings that are [long-lasting].\u2019<\/p>\n Timber Square, Southwark<\/p>\n Source: Hufton + Crow<\/p>\n The major hybrid steel and timber project retains part of the site\u2019s five-storey 1950s printworks, roughly doubling it in height, as well as adding a separate 15-storey block. The design also focused on \u2018efficient entry convergence,\u2019 integrating low-carbon design with evolving workplace needs.<\/p>\n Morgan added: \u2018It\u2019s on all of us to create buildings that do stand the test of time, and so by putting longevity at the forefront of our brief, I think [we have ended up with] something that has a long life, that is flexible and can really adapt, because you know a lot of these developments they will come forward, and in 10, 20 years we may need to adapt the building.<\/p>\n \u2018It may be we need to use it for something else, and so that ability to kind of flex and adapt the building \u2026 was integral, and that\u2019s something that we would really focus on now.\u2019<\/p>\n 3) There\u2019s money in circularity<\/p>\n Another of Lendager\u2019s boundary-pushing ideas was the (shock) notion that architects should get paid more for coming up with solutions that save materials, save the planet and save clients\u2019 money. He revealed that on one of his recent jobs in Denmark he received both his standard architect fee and an additional \u2018innovation fee\u2019.<\/p>\n Finding, repurposing, testing and then ensuring materials meet the relevant warranties takes time and effort. But there are also significant paybacks for the client, not least in terms of carbon. For instance, the exterior fa\u00e7ade panels for the upcycled timber skyscraper Trae in Aarhus cost just $10,000 for the entire 20-storey building.<\/p>\n TR\u00c6, Aarhus, completed May 2025<\/p>\n Source: Anders Nymann Wejse<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Thijs de Goede of Building Circularity Index (BCI) made a separate financial argument, championing the residual value of materials in a circular economy-focused future. In simple terms, he said, if you design a building so that its components can be taken apart cleanly rather than smashed up at the end of their life, those components retain more value \u2014 and that future value ought to feature in the financial case for the building today.<\/p>\n De Goede said that we can increasingly view buildings as banks of reusable components. For example, if a fa\u00e7ade can be removed intact rather than demolished, it will hold a financial value which can be factored into an owner\u2019s business case \u2013 especially where the owner has a long-term interest (for instance a housing association or government).<\/p>\n Time and money spent thinking about reuse at the very start of a project can have greater payoffs in years to come, he concluded.<\/p>\n 4) Don\u2019t wait for legislative change<\/p>\n Founding partner of the East London-based circular construction hub Tipping Point East, Joel De Mowbray, urged the conference to \u2018crack on and get it done\u2019 within the scope of what is currently possible, rather than waiting for political realities to change first.<\/p>\n As it turns out, a lot can be achieved in the here and now, which De Mowbray has proved with the success of his ongoing project to redirect valuable \u2018waste\u2019 construction materials away from the skip and towards a second life.<\/p>\n Joel De Mobray speaking at CircularBuild (16 September 20226)<\/p>\n Having launched Tipping Point East less than a year ago, Mowbray is now eyeing up an expansion on the other side of London, aiming to sign another lease in around eight weeks to create what could be Tipping Point West.<\/p>\n He argued that while it\u2019s easy to look to aspects of the system we might want changed, there remains \u2018a fair bit\u2019 that we should \u2018crack on and get done\u2019 right now.<\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019m not really waiting for legislative change,\u2019 said Mowbray. \u2018Water doesn\u2019t ask a rock to move; it finds its way around. Within existing regulations, I see it\u2019s all there, it\u2019s all possible.\u2019<\/p>\n 5) Archigram\u2019s idea of the walking city is worth revisiting<\/p>\n De Graaf built the final third of an arresting and wide-ranging closing keynote speech around the idea that buildings should stop being fixed objects.<\/p>\n His speech focused heavily on rapid urbanisation, the inevitability of climate change and sea level rises. Given this, he said, the flexibility, adaptability, and mobility of buildings should now be the most central concern for architects.<\/p>\n Tackling embodied carbon is also necessary but can be regarded as simple \u2018good manners\u2019, he suggested.<\/p>\n De Graaf said building lifespans were becoming ever shorter and would \u2018in the near future\u2019 become negative.\u00a0\u2018Buildings have to be used for what they were not designed for, and they have to be easily transformable. They have to easily be taken away.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018The means of transport and the means of dwelling can become one and the same thing, as we are already seeing with massive urban developments based on houseboats\u00a0in the Netherlands\u00a0and, you know, walking homes and\u00a0walking cities. All of a sudden, the\u00a0crazy phantasmagoria of Archigram, Superstudio, Archizoom, from the 1960s acquires a strange sort of relevance.\u2019<\/p>\n The most sustainable city in the world now is the Hajj tent camp in the valley of Mina in Saudi Arabia, which is erected and taken away every year, de Graaf said, calling it \u2018a massive city of completely movable objects\u2019.<\/p>\n Talking of things moving, CircularBuild itself will head to Brighton in 2027 and will be held at arts venue the Brighton Dome, a Grade I-listed Regency building recently upgraded by FCBS<\/a>.<\/p>\n To register your interest, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/55530926987_b0d6103c15_o-scaled.webp\")
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