Architecture's ripple effect: Designing for big impact | Thomas Bryans | TEDxGuildford

at their most fundamental buildings provide shelter at their best they enrich people's experiences and improve lives but the effect of architecture on both individuals in wider society is far broader than that for buildings have ripple effects beyond their walls their immediate site and the people that use them every day buildings affect the communities around them they affect the economy and they impact the environment and these ripple effects can go on for a very long time buildings take years to design and build and they're around for decades sometimes centuries so the impact that buildings have on the world around them really matters too often however these aspects of architecture the wider impacts of buildings are not considered with really unfortunate results to understand why this is we have to look at the development of architecture over the past hundred and fifty years a lot of the built environment around us is the legacy of modernism which emerged at the beginning of the 20th century out of the Industrial Revolution and industrial society modernism liberated Architecture from its past largely through cheap fossil fuels suddenly we were able to light our homes with electricity we were able to warm them up and cool him down this meant that walls could get thinner and we could use more glass and it didn't really matter back then if buildings leaked heat or not materials - were much more readily available architects and builders were no longer restricted by what was available to them locally or regionally and the revolution in transport particularly the car fundamentally changed the way we build design and navigate our cities so while industrialization brought huge progress it has enabled us to lead healthier longer and more comfortable lives as a result the impact that it has had on the evolution of our built environment has had some negative externalities and some unfortunate consequences sometimes those consequences are obvious large glass skyscrapers some of which have literally burnt things and some of those architects have managed that more than once on a far bigger scale however the way we've built our buildings and designed our cities is affecting the climate around a third of global co2 emissions come from our built environment and this pollution will be around for far longer than any individual building affecting people worldwide for generations to come buildings use 40 percent of global energy 40 percent of global resources and around a quarter of the world's water supply so the impact that buildings have is huge and the ripple effect really matters but what if we designed for this ripple effect rather than just ignoring or accepting its unintended consequences well again history has some interesting examples in rural Europe and the United States barn raisings created social interdependence bonds required a lot of hands to build them and if a barn was being built for one individual of the member one member of the community it would be built by everyone else it was a network of social support knowing that that favour would be repaid this was not by design this was out of necessity but it demonstrates the power that buildings can have to support the society around them today there's significant evidence in the financial and psychological benefits of urban greenery green roofs increased biodiversity and reduce rainwater runoff mitigating the effect of storms and reducing the risk of urban flooding and views of trees and plants have been shown to make the sick recover more quickly and to improve mental health in London research has demonstrated that in areas with higher dead cities of urban trees there are lower rates of antidepressant prescriptions so if we can design our buildings to include plants and trees and greenery we're not only benefiting individuals but we're supporting the community at large so when these ideas become intrinsic to the design process when we think about the big picture we can create buildings that do extraordinary things buildings that strengthen the local community and connect people to one another buildings that support the local economy both in how they are built and in how they work buildings that filter the air that increase biodiversity that improve health and well-being and that support the environment two and a half years ago two friends and I set up a new architecture practice to investigate some of these ideas and I've got three examples to show you today I would start with a really small one in Waterloo in central London the local council and a Community Interest company called meanwhile space approached us to help transform a temporary building that was put up 20 years ago the library it had been built to accommodate had been relocated and the building the site was going to be redeveloped in a few years time so the question was rather than allowing the building to sit empty how do we use a very small amount of money to make use of the building before it was demolished how do we maximize the benefit of what's already there essentially what more can we make this building do for the local community to begin with we wanted to bring some joy to the streetscape to help transform the outside of a pretty rundown building so we made it smile it's a relatively light touch solution recognizing the temporary nature of the project just a lick of paint and a lightweight timber screen but it's enough to transform a relatively ugly building into a vibrant visual asset more important though is what happened inside the building and it was essential to the project that it be a place that brought the community together so we worked with a diverse range of stakeholders to create a co-working space that provides a low-cost accommodation to startups as well as housing an organization that supports people in finding jobs training or apprenticeships the building today is nurturing companies that wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to be in such a central location allowing them to grow and establish themselves over the coming years so the project encapsulate s' the benefits of such projects it takes a building that would have been sitting empty and transforms it into a social and economic asset for that community the smile creates pride in everyone who uses that building from the entrepreneurs who are working in the co-working space to individuals going to the job shop looking for employment or advice for us though the ripple effect of architecture doesn't just start from when the building is built it starts right at the beginning of a project how can the very fact of designing a building support the community around it in July last year a chance encounter led to a conversation with the headmaster of Sint Teresa School in Effingham Surrey he was looking for an architect to design a new set form Center the project was going to take about two years to design and build and in that time the school was going to be investing a huge amount of effort and money in the process so the question we asked right at the beginning is what more can this investment do how can we use the school's investment in design to help the students so as part of the project we're using the whole process of designing and building the building as an educational tool for the pupils teaching them about architecture and sustainability about how buildings are made and the impacts they have and importantly we're opening their eyes to a range of jobs and professions that they may not have considered or even known about when the building is built it will benefit the school in many other ways as well it will be carbon neutral with enough solar panels on Rufe to power not just itself also to power back to the rest of the school network and a series of green roofs new trees and built-in burden bat boxes will enhance the biodiversity of the immediate site so while the project will deliver much-needed social and educational spaces to the school it also gives so much more to the center eases community and it's been intentionally designed to link that community and Link the students to the wider landscape and woodland around it in County Cork in Ireland we've been working with a fantastic client to create a holistically sustainable project over the next 10 years Joseph Walsh is an internationally renowned furniture designer and maker but his studio and workshop is deeply rooted in its context it's based in the old family farm around this old cottage that was once the family home it's a place that has generated enormous social value bringing highly skilled people from all around the world creating a diverse cultural and creative environment in this small town in rural Ireland and it's a place that has great economic value to its community with high skilled high paying rural jobs and the export of high-value products and having a positive environmental impact is inherent in what they do they invest hugely in tree planting and biodiversity programs to increase to improve the landscape and the ecosystem around them but when we started working with them they were facing some pretty serious challenges the scale of their work had grown and while they wanted to stay where they were the physical limitations of their buildings was preventing that pieces were literally too big for their buildings so the challenge that we had was how to enable the campus to grow and develop but at the same time also further their social and environmental ambitions so with the enlargement of the buildings and the streamlining of the production process there's a environmental strategy that underpins the whole design large photovoltaic arrays will provide operational energy to the site boreholes and reedbeds will create a closed-loop water cycle that filters the wastewater on-site and waste wood and coppiced fast-growing woodland will provide zero mile renewable biomass for all of their heating all combined with in a holistic site strategy the architecture itself has been designed to create a sense of place natural lime render and corrugated roofing from the local vernacular with paving that were extracting from the farms own quarry less than half a mile away it's the quarry that produced the stone to build the original farmhouse the workshops have been designed by driven by the needs of their program but they've been designed so that everyone has a view out to the surrounding environment so that everybody who works there will have a visual link to trees or plants in the surrounding landscape so in thinking deeply about the wider impacts that architecture has both locally and globally it results in an architecture that is deeply contextual an architecture that responds both to its social and environmental context as much as its historical and physical one so when we design to maximize the positive social economic and environmental ripples of architecture when we design with the big picture in mind we can create buildings that benefit everyone our buildings can do so much let's make them more [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 68,253

Rating: 4.9414635 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, United Kingdom, Design, Architecture, Economics, Environment, Future, History, Impact, Industrial design, Initiative, Innovation, Positive Thinking, Social Change, Social Interaction

Id: ZVpABMspmD8

Length: 13min 16sec (796 seconds)

Published: Thu May 04 2017