海角视频

海角视频 has a broad definition of circular design. We think holistically about circular design, starting with our supply chains 鈥� where we source our materials, where they come from, the people who make this possible 鈥� and the way that we work with them in the construction and design industry.

Circular design means we can, and should be, interrogating the stages in the supply chain where we can have great environmental and social impact, such as manufacturing, risks to front line communities, and disposal of materials. It鈥檚 thinking beyond the common advice of reduce, reuse, recycle to radically think about the materials we use and impact we have beyond our project as part of early-stage design decisions. This is an incredible challenge for our industry which requires the kind of creative thinking that inspires the best solutions from architects, engineers, and contractors.

To help implement circular design, Kathleen Hetrick, Associate Principal – Sustainability, has highlighted 5 things to guide any creative thinker looking to improve their projects.

1. Early decision making is key

Making decisions early on in a project can yield dramatic results when thinking about circular design. Circular design is not only about reducing waste during deconstruction; it鈥檚 just as much about specifying the best materials early on in a project that can be reused and cause the least amount of pollution, raw material extraction, and harm to communities across the material life cycle. Selecting materials with low embodied carbon footprints and high durability is key, but so is human health. When decisions start to get complex, simplify your material choices. Get back to basics. You will often find that better material choices work in your economic favor.

Early decisions making around materials allows design teams to get creative and think outside the realm of business – or design – as usual. Thinking about our materials early in a project lets us rethink how we design. Instead of specifying materials from faraway places or getting materials made from carcinogenic materials such as polyvinyl chloride, neoprene or polystyrene, we can consider what materials might work better with a project鈥檚 surroundings 鈥� its local climate, the local architectural vernacular, the hands and sweat and tears of local artisans 鈥� and that thinking can in turn influence and embolden the overall design of a project. The materials that we build with give people a sense of place and a sense of community. With circular design, material selection cannot be an afterthought.

2. Think local

Thinking locally requires us to start interrogating the sourcing of products. For instance, if a project in the U.S. specifies the use of marble, the cheapest marble will, more often than not, be coming from Europe or Asia. If we reverse engineer the decision to use marble while keeping a project budget in mind, we are able to ask if it鈥檚 the right material for the project or is there is a local material we can use instead where we can ensure the safety and health of the miners and manufacturing workers while also eliminating the carbon required to transport heavy materials. With the emergent macroeconomic forces of international tariffs, we will see a rise in demand for domestic manufacturing that reduces risk and hidden costs. Circular design鈥檚 goal of material optimization (the reduce part) can be an integral part of any successful value engineering exercise.

Sourcing local is the corner stone of circular design. It allows for close monitoring of supply chains so materials can be reused more readily, limiting our reliance on raw material extraction. However, this is also where circular design becomes especially challenging for a construction project. There are cases where the best steel must come from a particular manufacturing plant or the best engineering design for a product鈥檚 performance requires sourcing from a faraway part of the world 鈥� and using these materials will ensure durability and longevity. But we still need to know our supply chains and we need to stop deferring to the default. We need to get to know the people and places behind these materials to ensure that material origins do not detract from the principals of circularity, importantly that raw material extraction is only done when no other option is available, and that the human health and wellbeing of any community across our supply chains is not jeopardized in this process. 

The people behind our material supply chains are miners, manufacturing workers, painters, but also, they are the children that go to school or live next to manufacturing sites and port complexes. They too are affected by our decisions or lack thereof. It can seem like an overwhelming task, but pausing to reflect on the design integrity and supply chain journey of terracotta versus aluminum versus polycarbonate may raise important questions of durability, pricing and performance just as much as health, carbon and future reuse.

For instance, when designing and constructing the Living Building Challenge certified Santa Monica City Hall East, we had to get intimate with all of our material choices – from carpet to ductwork. Some materials on this project were local. But some critical components for the composting toilets or high-performance glazing came from farther afield. Our big take away was that even though we were designing to the more stringent sustainability certification requirements in the world, a siloed approach to sustainable design could sleepwalk us into solar panels connected to human rights violations, electrical wiring reliant on forever chemicals, or mass timber from old growth forests. If we only focus on occupant health, or only on the cheapest path to net zero energy, our best intentions can have a negative impact on cities and families all over the world. Circular design implores us to think about our entire supply chain and to get specific about where our materials are coming from and who is part of the supply chain.

3. Think about creating a circular ecosystem

As mentioned above, not all materials on every project can be sourced locally. However, there are still great opportunities to promote circular design by specifying materials that will have long lifespans and are easy to repair (designing modular systems, for instance, make repairs easier) that help to create a circular design ecosystem.

For instance, 海角视频 is currently working on a pilot project for the New York City, SPARC Kips Bay, which requires the deconstruction of a 1950鈥檚 nursing school to transform into a life-sciences education and innovation hub. This is part of the city鈥檚 first circular design guidelines, part of a wider effort that 海角视频 is working with NYCEDC on to support the cities growing green economy. In part because this is the first circular design project in the city at this scale, we鈥檙e also tasking ourselves with establishing a circularity ecosystem directory in New York to pave the way for future circular design projects. As an industry, we need to work together at a regional level to develop reused building materials supply and demand resource databases so other design teams can easily find (and create like Decon Dave!) reused resource centers throughout the city. We鈥檙e asking ourselves how we can spread this project鈥檚 circularity tendrils into the other parts of the city and start the journey of establishing a network for circular design. We鈥檙e working closely with the city, in tandem with the design team, to make circular design as easy as possible for future project teams.

On this project, the entire team is working together to use circularity audits, BIM, data analytics and contractor know-how to quantify the material value from existing building assets. The entire team is taking a holistic approach to specifications, material choices, and manufacturer engagement. When we have to source new materials, we鈥檙e ensuring we鈥檙e using materials that will have the longest lifespan for this project and beyond, and we鈥檙e keeping records of those materials so they can also be slated for reuse in the future.

There鈥檚 no simple, sexy, quotable answer. Neither construction nor design are a simple process. Circular design is a once in a generation opportunity to co-create a brave new way of design. As much as there’s a lot to learn and a lot to leave behind, that is the creative journey that gets the best minds thinking. This is why we chose design, to change things, to leave a mark, to build unique, meaningful creations that last beyond us.”

Kathleen Hetrick, Associate Principal, Sustainability

4. Ask product questions

Huge change can come from the questions we ask. Even for products we know, love, and use often in our projects, it can be illuminating to ask suppliers, 鈥淲hat chemical ingredients are in this?鈥� or 鈥淲hy do you source this from here?鈥�

In our experience from the Santa Monica City Hall East project and others, some manufacturer responses have been that they don鈥檛 know because they鈥檝e never been asked before. However, they get curious to find out, especially when a project or a customer requires it. This has led to a rise in transparency tools such as environmental product declarations (EPDs), Building Transparency, and Tangible software. This movement is developing across industries from technology to apparel to groceries, leading to improved product development and cleaner supply chains over time.

We have also seen the emergence of health product declarations in recent years and there are now many community nonprofits and environmental justice organizations like the Habitable, Rise St. James, and mindful MATERIALS and working in this space. People are doing great advocacy work around the transparency of our materials and supply chains. This is leading to better public health outcomes through cleaner insulation and non-toxic flooring; the decarbonization of ports, logistics hubs and energy infrastructure; and the fight to clean up legacy industries like the concrete, steel and petrochemicals while demanding cleantech industries like batteries, data centers and sustainable aviation fuel learn from the mistakes of the past.

Our role in generating demand is essential for changing supply. The purchasing power of the construction industry is not fully appreciated as a tool for environmental justice and climate action. We can ask our suppliers to clean up manufacturing, start a take-back program or invest in biomaterials that can collectively create the demand for change in communities. If we look back to the early days of LEED, for example, we see a paradigm shift in the way people were talking about material health. With the advent of LEED, USGBC helped pave the way for one of the construction industry鈥檚 most significant public health wins through the increased demand for reduced volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by educating people, designers and beyond, on what VOCs are and the health risks associated with having them in our buildings. Year by year the industry changed to adopting materials that reduce VOCs in buildings. In thinking about circularity, we can imagine the same shift taking place. It鈥檚 part advocacy, part education, and part empowerment to see our design choices as catalysts for improving lives far beyond the boundaries of our projects.

As designers, we are empowered to be the demand for cleaning up our communities and our material supply chains. Every line of specification can be a win for environmental justice.鈥�

Kathleen Hetrick, Associate Principal, Sustainability

5. Think about deconstruction from the onset

Circular design inherently requires us to think beyond our singular project to embrace an ecosystem approach. One aspect of this is thinking about deconstruction and the future use of a project or its component parts from the very beginning. While it may seem counterintuitive to think about how a project will be disassembled, this thinking ensures that a building can be repaired, adapted, and repurposed without creating unnecessary waste. Thinking about deconstruction from the onset of a project not only helps to ensure less waste and material reuse, but it also requires design teams to design systems and components that are easier to take apart and disassemble. For instance, instead of using glue or welding to bind connections, we can specify bolts and other types of reversible connections which are easier to modify or disassemble.

When 海角视频 leads a circularity scope we encourage the entire design team to think about deconstruction alongside the initial design and to prioritize modular design and reversible connections as well as material transparency and thorough material documentation. To achieve circular design, it鈥檚 critical to think about deconstruction of designs from the beginning of a project and to specify easy to deconstruct mechanisms in drawing sets.

It’s really hard to innovate if you don’t know the basics or if you don’t have a complete grasp of why we design facades, for instance, the way we do. What are the different components? What is the baseline? What is the standard? If you don’t have the best of the best engineers who know that data in and out, you can’t innovate, you can’t bring in new ideas.鈥� 

Kathleen Hetrick, Associate Principal, Sustainability

Architects, contractors, and engineers are primed to find creative and elegant solutions to achieve circular design on any project. By working collectively, we can work across scales with cities, developers, and clients to enact policies and strategies that promote long-term circular design and closed loop construction. The benefits of doing so include environmental, economic, and societal. Buildings not only become part of a more circular supply chain ecosystem with the resources they use, but they can also become a lever for change across the industry and the communities we are all a part of.