The talk highlights how architecture often has unforeseen negative impacts such environmental destruction due to mining of raw materials and the creation of huge amounts of waste. Duncan reviews ethics of materials, labour sourcing and how green building does not need to be more complex or expensive.

“There is no such thing as waste only stuff that is in the wrong place”. This principle has inspired a lot of the work Duncan has been working on in the past few years.

Two buildings are discussed within this presentation. “The house that Kevin built” which was constructed in 2008 for the Grand Designs Live tv program. This prefabricated house was made entirely from compostable material in six days live on TV.

This house was going to be rebuilt however funding was not available at that time. However, in 2010 an opportunity arose for the house to be replicated, but Duncan changed the brief from working with organic materials to working with waste. Together with over 360 design and construction students he built Europe’s first permanent public building made of material others discarded. Known as “The Brighton Waste House”, this building had become part of The University Of Brighton campus and used as a learning space for students and community groups. For further details on these two buildings visit our projects page.

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