Industry meet-ups are the perfect place for an exchange of ideas. At Connections By Finsa, we like to highlight the most important points to come out of these events to make sure that you stay in the know. With that in mind, here are five tips for more sustainable construction from one the roundtable discussions held at Barcelona Design Week 2021:
- We must define sustainability and what it affects: Does it refer to the materials used or is it about the whole process, from workers to the person who plants a tree to the person who enjoys the final product?
- Collaboration is key. Only by collaborating can we come up with the right solutions for the market. The construction industry must work with other industries to create new materials and construction systems that can adapt to current needs.
- Construction needs to be digitalised and industrialised. Given that projects will require changes to be made in real time, standardising construction systems would make things a lot easier. A building’s structure would still be the same, but the elements would be industrialised, meaning they can also be personalised. This would require changing how we define a building, seeing it more as a product than anything else.
- Standardised personalisation. Serialisation and standardisation don’t equate to everything being exactly the same. The ideal situation would be to have a standard of production which could be used to design unique spaces. For example, we can personalise a space by using a standardised additive 3D printing process.
- Understand the purpose of the spaces we are building. We must communicate more with those that will be involved with or use the final product. Even sectors that we know well are now using spaces in new and different ways. For example, some hotel chains are making better use of the space that they have available by offering spaces for guests to work in for times when they are not in their rooms. Knowing that a space will be used for different activities allows us to provide more tailored solutions.
