Joe Giddings
@joegiddings
Built Environment | Climate Change | Architecture | Biobased Construction | Green Works at Built by Nature. Founding member of Architects Climate Action Network. But views here are my own.
After many days of prolonged heat our indoor temperature is not dropping below 25. That's even with fully opening windows for hours to purge. 1970s build with solid concrete walls - the building is like a heat battery, which keeps soaking it up through heatwaves
Awful take here from Dale Vince, founder of Ecotricity, who argues we should ditch Net Zero and instead shift to using the vague & fluffy "green economy" instead. Net Zero is a good target because it is specific, measurable and science based. Drop it and we lose sight of the goal.
The devastating effects of the extreme heat this week in London: - the highest number of life threatening 999 calls for a single day -a 30% increase in cardiac arrest. Now tell me we're going too fast on net zero.
"according to Opec, the next quarter-century will be a golden age for global oil producers. Oil demand is set to rise strongly to reach 124.1mn barrels per day, the report projects, up from 105.1mn bpd last year" They're on a different planet.
In Malmo, the uncompromisingly ambitious builder-developer ETC Bygg has achieved something revolutionary. This here is a building made from straw: 12 storeys, 38 meters tall, with a fully timber structure (including core), wrapped in EcoCocon's straw panel external wall system.
Here is the offending extract from the proposed new Approved Document B
Wes Streeting has changed his tune. It's clear he wants to delay. Do you think it could be because he hasn't come out looking good from the mandelson scandal, perhaps?
I would like to be able to say that this is only a #Lewisham problem but I moved from #Southwark and it was almost as bad there. This picture was outside my last flat I hate to see it and I hate to say it, because I love this city, but there is shit everywhere in London.
I know that this is mundane. But its this shit that is grinding people down right across the country. Week in week out. Walking past piles of shit to get to your front door. These were in late January and December
We recently had a single recycling bin provided (for a block of 20 flats) But the address was not added to the recycling collection round because 4 weeks later it has never been collected. So guess what happens? This one was 2 weeks ago:
Last year I moved to #Lewisham and my god, the waste management is bad. These photos are 1 week apart, outside my front door. Every single week the bins overflow, foxes get at the contents. Flytipping is a twice weekly occurence. Old mattresses, smashed up sofas, dirty nappies.
81 homes in Nantes, designed by Atelier Ramdam. Built in timber with external walls from hemp straw (hemp shivs) & lime. This material is usually sprayed or poured on-site. In this case the hemp panels were prefabricated in the carpenter's workshop and lifted in place. Completed 2025.
Last week Metabolic published a report which has reinvigorated the debate on how much harvested wood is eventually wasted by being burnt for energy or used in short term products (think packaging) This material flow diagram highlights the scale of the problem
The merging of green conservatism and right-wing anti migration politics:
AI is having a massive effect on our built environment, already. This table from the Urban Land Institute's Emerging Trends in Real Estate report tells a very clear story: Real estate investors and developers both rank Data Centres & Energy Infrastructure as the two biggest prospects for 2026.
Following up, at COP30, a coalition of governments endorsed the Principles for Responsible Timber Construction - recognising that wood can play a powerful role in decarbonising how we build, if it’s sourced and used responsibly. 15 in total:
Terrible news for Londoners this. The fact you can pick up an electric car on most streets in the capital - for not much more than an ebike - has kept car ownership down, which reduces parking congestion, saves money and benefits the climate
4️⃣In further bad news for forests, a roadmap to the halting of deforestation was dropped from the final deal. One look at this graph should higlight how important forests are for preventing further climate breakdown. See Land Sink:
They also recommended that Government encourage adoption of biobased materials such as hemp. This is good to see from a parliamentary committee, as biobased materials have not had much air time in parliament despite their incredible potential for climate mitigation.
The committee reiterates its previous recommendation that Government introduces ratcheted limits on embodied carbon for new buildings. This would simply bring the UK in line with EU, which has rapidly progressed in this area since the UK left.
This has been stimulated by a dramatic increase in demand with at least 640 completed mass timber buildings. Flagship projects include social housing, public and educational buildings. Here is the excellently named Biblioteca de los Mil Soles (The Library of a Thousand Suns) in Madrid:
The livestream has dropped off but prior to losing connection we could hear Rachel Kyte, UK climate envoy, announcing that the UK is endorsing. The Government under Labour has already recommitted to the "Timber in Construction Roadmap" - so this fresh endorsement is a welcome follow up
You may have noticed from the abysmal quality of image I previously posted, that I am not on the ground, but watching a livestream. Here is a photo from Built by Nature colleague Harry Mills:
Paul King, CEO of Built by Nature is introducing the session, framing the need for the Principles: "the population of cities around the world is projected to double over the next 25 years"