[Music] how do buildings affect the environment buildings have a big impact on the environment the construction and renovation of buildings uses precious natural resources then when in use buildings are responsible for a significant proportion of all our carbon dioxide emissions energy used in the construction and use of our homes and other buildings accounts for around half of the uk's total carbon dioxide emissions under the climate change act 2008 we have a legally binding target to reduce these emissions by at least 80 percent by 2050. globally it's a similar picture buildings account for around thirty five percent of resources forty percent of energy use consume twelve percent of the world's drinkable water and produce almost forty percent of global carbon dioxide emissions so what can we do producers of building materials like us can ensure this is done in ways so as not to adversely affect the environment we believe we've performed one of the largest number of life cycle analysis in the uk on our product range these environmental product declarations or epds show how our products have been made in a sustainable way minimizing energy usage and helping to protect the environment in addition many of the products and solutions we produce then go on to help minimize energy use in the buildings that have been built or renovated poorly designed and constructed buildings use more energy increasing the demand on energy production and contributing to global warming reducing energy use in buildings is one of the most important ways to reduce humans overall environmental impact [Music] like it or not everyone's talking about the climate and it's about time after years of grim prophecies about the state of our planet it seems that governments and industries are finally taking some action on carbon emissions or so it seems but whether these measures are enough there's one area of construction that simply has to change if we're to win this fight and it's been almost completely ignored road building forget renewable energy and electric cars this is the area of infrastructure that urgently needs a change of direction [Music] warnings about our planet's changing climates are nothing new but in august 2021 we received perhaps the most serious one yet a new report from the intergovernmental panel on climate change revealed scientists are now seeing unprecedented changes in every region caused by human activity the first major review of its kind for almost a decade it's been called a landmark study and a code red for humanity we won't dissect all 1300 pages here but we can summarize it by saying the future looks pretty bleak if we carry on pumping out carbon emissions at the rate we currently are [Applause] but we've kind of known about this for some time and it's not as if we've done nothing about it for example there's the 17 sustainable development goals set up by the un in 2015 which all member states intend to achieve by 2030 ranging from ending poverty to giving everyone access to clean affordable energy [Music] while this all looks great on paper many believe there's too much talk and not enough action on the climate agenda and we don't just mean greta blah blah blah others feel little progress is being made towards those 17 goals they were very ambitious when they were agreed and they remain very ambitious now jessica resp is a senior advisor to the un's sustainable development solutions network which promotes ways to reach these goals consequently we're not on track to achieve them at the moment almost none of the goals are on track we've only got nine years left to meet the deadline which is 2030 and if we're gonna do that then we need to have you know really fundamental um rethink and conversations in all major industries um to make sure that you know everyone moves at the same pace and realizes the urgency of this the goals are all important but the ones that focus on responsible consumption and production sustainable cities and communities and industry innovation and infrastructure are particularly key those three goals are about sort of trying to encourage us to fundamentally rethink some major heavy industry and infrastructure and the way we build and design the urban landscape um and all of its associated trappings including road infrastructure and transport systems it's hugely important this is especially true when transport accounts for a significant proportion of all co2 emissions worldwide yet there's one area within transport that contributes massively to the problem and yet it's almost completely overlooked as a sector that needs to evolve we've been building roads for millennia and they remain an essential enabler of mobility and trade however despite the huge progress we're seeing with the vehicles that use them and the emergence of new trends like 15-minute cities and car-free centres developments in road building have been minimal the thing is we can't just do away with roads entirely even in the future they're still going to be pretty essential for electric cars and autonomous vehicles what does need to change is the way they're built construction and road building worldwide hold the key to significantly lower emissions but there's very little reporting about the impact of road building now on our future we've we've had we've had over 100 years of a process that everybody's accepted and we've reached a point where that process can't continue why is that well you only have to look at how unclean and flimsy current road building practices are our roads need to be repaired or replaced far too often and there's a continued reliance on cement and bitumen which make up over 10 of all carbon emissions if you look at them they're out of step with the needs of our time transportation infrastructure and construction and road building are responsible for over one-third of our emissions worldwide and one-third of that comes from cement and bitumen [Music] things are beginning to change in the world of road building driven by new trends like autonomous and digital technology automated production and new materials several new ideas and pilot projects have emerged in that last category pretty recently i think innovation in the area and some of the great technologies that people are working on can change our our industry dr ellen feeney is an associate professor at arizona state university and an invention ambassador at the american association for the advancement of science i think bio based material and bio-inspired approaches as a whole they have a lot to offer one other round of innovation that i see many people are trying to do is use of a lot of recycling and reuse of material that are so-called waste several new companies have used these methods to come up with alternatives to regular concrete and asphalt including uberbinder based in seattle this startup's created an advanced binder product one that it claims will significantly lower the energy and carbon impact of road building binders are the components of a road surface that as the name suggests bind and hold the aggregate material is a revolutionary organic polymer binder that's purpose engineered to replace the carbon and energy-intensive cement and bitumen binders in concrete and ash felt it uses industrial and agricultural byproducts and waste to make the binder itself so to start with we're drawing recyclable or withdrawing materials that are readily available these include sulfur the fifth most abundant material on earth which is also low cost and easily scalable it promises several other benefits over regular asphalts like higher strength and durability and it can be used to ambient working temperatures we have a proof of concept we've done a good deal of testing we're keen to work with road builders towards better sustainability better performance better roads the challenge now is to convince an industry that's been hesitant to evolve to adopt new ideas like these even when the benefits can be quite clear we've been doing the same material concrete for since roman time and we're still doing it the same you know cement and aggregate mix because there are a lot of resistance to change innovation and invention are much needed especially when we are dealing with all the environmental stressors climate change and all the issues major problems that we are facing getting road authorities and governments to shake their habits is going to be crucial if we're to improve our chances of hitting those targets mentioned earlier but with more highly sustainable new ideas coming through on the material side than ever before we might finally be on the cusp of a much needed breakthrough it's not the only solution to our troubles of course but overhauling this forgotten area of transport infrastructure will be key to getting our planets on the road to recovery this video is made possible by uberbinder you can learn more about their new binder material at the link below and as always if you enjoyed this video and you want to learn more about where construction is headed make sure you subscribe to tomorrow's build [Music] [Music] with the university of glasgow we took two of their buildings and that they're brand new buildings and we've created a full digital twin live operational digital twin of those buildings we've also created a number of digital twins of existing buildings on the campus to show how it can also be applied to existing buildings of different types and scales so buildings that might not have any control and they're only controlled by the user to buildings that might be controlled by the energy manager to buildings that we can fully automate and via their bms system [Music] the digital twin is an accuracy and a true virtual representation of the real building so it's based on the actual physics of the building its envelope its systems the related heat and energy flows and that's augmented by the real data to replace any of the design assumptions so in this way the is digital twin it virtually acts like the real building does and in real time so that allows you to gain insights into how the building's performing you can compare it against an ideal building to identify where it's underperforming you can identify any faults that might be happening you can simulate interventions before you carry them out to check that they'll have the desired impact you expect them to have and by simulating the intervention before you carry it out you can also de-risk your investment because you have that insurance that the intervention will have the desired impact you've tested it in that virtual world before you've actually carried it out [Music] there's a number of benefits to having a digital twin especially within an energy management con context and i would say the key thing for me personally as an energy manager is that you can see a number of systems layered over the top of each other at one point in time so historically energy management has been taking bits of information and understanding how they all fit together the digital twin does that for you analysis of what's happening within the building can take away while the digital twin does all that instantaneously [Music] energy management for a long time was almost like a black art where bits of information appeared from different sources and they were overlaid together to produce an answer that nobody really like out with the energy management community could almost understand a digital twin makes everything very visual and very easy for everybody to understand and usable and so and one of the main benefits from that is that rather than just having one person look at information and data you have lots of people looking at information and data because it is so easy to understand we expect as you would for a digital 23 energy savings if you understand where energy is consumed within a building very basics of energy management you can then do something about it it can absolutely be used as a model for other campus groups and it doesn't even need to be university to be campus groups either i mean the idea of a digital twin is replicable throughout the entire construction industry or building an industry and it doesn't matter whether you manage university buildings or hospital buildings or shopping centres i mean these types of buildings all align themselves very well to digital twinning [Music] if we think about it but the time we're looking to get to net zero trajectories of what people the targets that people are setting currently 80 percent of the buildings that are are are built are going to still be here so the new buildings and the new construction that we're getting is one thing but we have to understand how our older buildings and our current building stop work [Music] paris is famous for its food museums and landmarks but there's also some less desirable things like heavy traffic poor air quality and most notably a lack of green space but that's all about to change as the capital of fashion gets the mother of all makeovers one that will see a challenge for the title of europe's greenest city [Music] if there's one thing paris doesn't have it's enough greenery just 9.5 percent of its land is dedicated to gardens and green areas lower than any other major european city at 33 london beats it three times over while in oslo a whopping 68 of the city is green space paris doesn't just want to climb off the bottom of this league table it's set its sights on competing for the title by 2030 it plans to have planted areas covering half the city everything from rooftop gardens to entire new parks in total over a hundred and seventy thousand more trees are expected to be added in the next five years several projects are being put forward to help achieve this goal but one kind of stands out above the rest the chancellisse the city's most famous street is said to be transformed into this urban garden it involves removing road lanes and replacing them with pedestrianized green space adding tree tunnels to enhance air quality and introducing dedicated cycle lanes that's quite a lot of work that needs to be done around one of the city's most historic landmarks a bustling hive of activity for more than 150 years as well as connecting the arc de triomphe to the plastila concord the avenue offers some of the city's best shops theaters and restaurants and it regularly hosts events like the bastille day parade in normal times that is not in the middle of a pandemic hundreds of thousands of people a day would come here and it's not exactly unpopular so why the major facelift well it might be a hit with the tourists but the locals are no longer quite so keen many residents now avoid it claiming that the old boulevard has lost its splendor and cultural importance something that would have been unthinkable a few decades ago independent businesses have been replaced by large chain stores and air pollution has become a big issue with tens of thousands of vehicles passing through each day nitrogen dioxide levels here are double the limit set out by the world health organization pedestrianizing much of the roadway would halve the amount of traffic and dramatically improve air quality already the chancellisse is closed to traffic for one sunday each month along with the first four aaron diesemanns opening up a vast area of the city center to just pedestrians the new project will hopefully entice more parisians back to the promenade and encourage more local traders to set up shop reinvigorating the city's cultural district the 300 million us dollar scheme is part of a wider plan to make paris greener with less cars and better air quality although work on the champs-elysees won't begin until after the 2024 olympics in the meantime other similar projects are due to get underway across the city including one that will spruce up the biggest attraction of all the eiffel tower here a new park will be built around the base of the iconic structure turning more than 100 acres of land into one of the largest areas of green space in the whole of paris now this part of the city is already quite leafy but a lot of people find the current parkland overcrowded and inaccessible which is why the decision was made to reimagine and extend the existing gardens stretching for over a mile the plan involves constructing a green amphitheatre at plastitrocadero across the river and converting the pondiana into a pedestrian garden bridge although that idea didn't go down so well in london on top of that several urban forests are popping up around the city including outside hotel d ville the city hall and the garda leon train station paris has already gone green in other ways too in 2020 the world's largest urban farm opened here around seven percent of the city is going completely car free and almost half of the street level parking spaces are being removed that's around 60 000 overall all of this sounds like great news for the people of paris it's going to make the french capital an even more desirable place to live and visit once everything is finished but not everyone's pleased with the idea some motorist groups are angry about having less space to drive and park in what is already a highly congested city especially for local people who rely on their cars to get around the idea of course is that these measures ultimately reduce congestion and encourage people to use other forms of transport the fact is paris has been under pressure to act for some time and not just because of poor air quality and traffic it's needed to clean itself up ahead of the olympics and it was here that the international treaty on climate change the aptly named paris agreement was signed back in 2015. it wouldn't have looked great if the city where such an historic agreement was made did nothing to tackle its very visible problems with traffic pollution and lack of green space many have been pleasantly surprised by the lent paris is going to to freshen up its image a move that will hopefully inspire other cities to embark on a green renaissance of their own if you enjoyed this video and you want to learn more about where construction is headed make sure you're subscribed to tomorrow's build [Music] imagine that you're living in 2030 producing carbon emissions during the construction or use of a building is now heavily restricted and the materials we've built with for centuries are being banned automation has become the norm transportation has been transformed productivity is key pandemic proofing is essential your fellow team members are spread across several continents and energy efficiency is everything with this new world just 10 years away this is how to build in 2030. [Music] our world is changing faster than ever before growing populations are increasing the demand for buildings like homes hospitals and schools city structures are shifting how we plan our infrastructure a global pandemic is impacting every country we're seeing seismic political and economic change and our planet's climate sits at a critical junction while the world we described at the start may sound far-fetched these challenges are all coming to a head and simply have to be solved in the next 10 years how we deal with each of them will shape our societies for generations to come it's a context that's forcing construction to take a hard look in the mirror but far from having to be buffeted by these events the industry can actually shape what happens building successfully in 2030 will come down to two areas sustainability and efficiency governments have set big targets for cutting carbon emissions by mid-century and with construction now responsible for 40 of all greenhouse gas emissions the industry has to act fast projects will have to be more sustainable in how they source and use materials avoiding almost any waste the construction process will need to cut its emissions and once completed our buildings must be highly efficient some countries are making progress on materials with timber other natural products and even recycled plastic starting to replace steel and concrete the concrete industry alone now produces 2.8 billion tons of co2 and accounts for a tenth of the world's industrial water usage while some efforts are being made to create alternative carbon neutral concrete products a bolder shift will be needed timber from sustainably managed forests can be stronger than standard materials and more durable quicker and easier to build with carbon dioxide is absorbed and locked into the wood and fewer electric truck deliveries are required when building with it it's already on the rise and finland is looking to double its use of wood in construction while in france all new public buildings must be made from at least 50 percent wood or other sustainable materials from 2022 it's an encouraging trend but some feel a more fundamental change in mindset is also needed there is a bit of a skill gap happening in in the knowledge on how to build with timber you know most of the architects of my generation even younger we've all been taught by using concrete and steel so i think that there's a way to to actually start educating yourself for how to do it best they'll also need to be much more focused on recycling while reusing leftover material from a previous build for example is already routine in some places applying this across the life cycle of a building has to come next you should actually start thinking about the recycling process and the reusability process early on in your design these little things you know what kind of motor you use what kind of fixings you use start thinking about that maybe in x amount of years you can start to dismantle it again europe is where many of the standards are being set the european union alone currently produces around 850 million tons of construction and demolition waste each year but while this used to go almost entirely to landfill some member states are showing what can be done with germany now recycling 68 million tons annually and the netherlands reusing ninety percent of its waste material in new projects many of the buildings in vienna's huge new district are being built with material excavated from a lake and a disused airport buildings will be subject to much stricter rules and energy efficiency too perhaps unsurprising as they currently account for a third of all global energy consumption the world green building council wants all new buildings to be net zero carbon from 2030 offsetting any energy used with renewable energy generated on site while it might seem daunting the early signs in some areas are promising energy efficiency is hugely important and we see this in in building practices now new buildings going up they have much much more stringent requirements about their efficiency you know thickened wall installations all sorts of um interesting window constructions where you've got triple glazed and some other coating materials and really trying to make these places almost to what we would traditionally call as like a passive house sort of standard [Music] the second key to building successfully in 2030 is efficiency [Music] the shift we're already seeing in this area is partly being pushed from a world that needs construction more than ever before and has now noticed its low productivity and partly being pulled by some serious tech advancements now digitizing the sector despite rising population levels creating a higher demand for buildings fewer people are choosing to come into construction and the sector has a severe shortage of skilled workers this combined with those technology advances is driving automation robotics and artificial intelligence will be widespread by 2030 with machines working alongside humans and taking on repetitive or labor-intensive tasks more companies will use drones for site surveying and data collection while much of their statistical analysis will be dealt with algorithmically while around 15 of construction jobs could become automated by 2030 new roles will emerge in managing and controlling our technology so there's quite a few people looking at automating certain design processes right uh using ais for example now ai's what they're good at is doing something that has been done before right you can because you need to teach an ai to teach an ai with existing data but what an ai is not good at is doing something completely new the primary driver behind that of late and it will continue into the 2020s is more about the health and safety implications because the driver for those is so strong now that anything that construction project can do to remove people from the construction process to automate is gonna get a lot of traction even if that costs a little bit more [Music] the demand for buildings drive for efficiency and riser technology has given new life to the field of prefabrication or off-site manufacturing where some elements of a building are produced in a factory before being transported to site for assembly the approach can improve safety cut costs reduce construction timelines and raise quality able to get the benefits of standardization with the adaptability needed for a range of sites and building types offsite will shape how we build in 10 years time modular construction where prefabricated elements consist of whole building sections is projected to be worth 130 billion us dollars in just the us and europe by 2030 cutting build times by up to 50 percent and construction costs by as much as 20 percent 3d printing is also trying to transform the speed we build at and is likely to become more common in the next decade especially if successfully applied at scale further developments are inevitable in other categories of technology too with more countries now mandating its use information modelling will become commonplace in the run-ups 2030 alongside software that enables digital collaboration and helps to streamline the build process [Music] digital tools are already transforming paper-based workflows allowing companies to cut down on waste and talk to colleagues and partners in other locations they've allowed many projects to carry on during the pandemic and are likely to form the basis of our long-term working practices going forward especially as the world continues to globalize and as project teams work together across continents we have to show quality records we have to show things have been built to the correct standards and inevitably that leads to a lot of documentation but actually the tracking of every material and every bit of document and every bit of how the thing was put together in a right way the workmanship and all of that has to go through digital the next decades yeah i mean 2030 i could easily see paperless being the norm though 2030 may feel far off for an industry that's always hesitant to evolve it's not a lot of time our world faces immense challenges and construction has the power to turn the tide on many of them [Music] ultimately being able to build quicker more efficiently and with more respect for our environment will benefit this great industry and create a better world for us all this video was made possible by bluebeam learn more at the link below and as always if you enjoyed this video and you'd like to get more from the definitive video channel for construction subscribe to the b1m [Music] [Music] this is the venice we're all familiar with and this is the version that's a little less ideal over time the city famous for its canals bridges and architecture has also developed a reputation for flooding yes it's always been prone to the water but the frequency and seriousness of its floods has gone up a few notches in recent years to solve the problem the city invested in a one-of-a-kind new defense system costing billions and featuring some amazing engineering its task is to stop this unwanted water problem once and for all but it's not gone entirely to plan far more expensive than first predicted and now decades in the making this game's been marred by corruption environmental opposition and questions about its long-term effectiveness in the face of a changing climate this is a story that any coastal city needs to hear and remember as we build the future both for its triumphs and its tribulations [Music] built in the middle of a lagoon venice has been susceptible to a natural phenomenon known as aqua alta or high water since its founding in the 5th century it's where a combination of weather factors take place at the same time a high tide low atmospheric pressure and strong winds blowing in from the adriatic sea the result is flooding and though it's been a part of life here for centuries it's now becoming an existential problem [Music] what used to happen just a few times a year began occurring more than 60 times a year by the end of the last decade and 2019 saw the worst flood in over 50 years with 80 percent of the city underwater combine this with rising sea levels more extreme weather events a city that's gradually subsiding albeit very slowly and bond james bond sinking buildings and you have a situation that needs an urgent fix that's where this near 6 billion euro or 7 billion us dollar flood blockade comes in now finally up and running 18 years after construction began called the mosaic system it's formed of 78 gates each 20 meters wide that rise up out of the water when flooding is imminent these pop-up barriers are located at three points along the coastal cordon that separates the lagoon from the adriatic the two lower inlets malamoko and kiyoja have one barrier each while there are two at lido in the north where a new artificial island fills the gap between them when they're not needed the gates are filled with water and lie in submerged giant reinforced concrete housings allowing boats to pass overhead to raise them compressed air is sent into the gates this forces the water out and causes them to rotate on their massive 42 tonne hinges eventually breaching the surface once empty of water they form a barrier high enough to block even the highest tidal waters from getting through they can resist a three meter high tide that are designed to be effective even if sea levels rise by as much as 60 centimeters in the future once the tide passes the gates are refilled and they flip back to their closed position they can be raised in about half an hour and the sinking process takes about 15 minutes because each barrier has multiple gates and they can be controlled separately the whole system is flexible depending on the size of the tide and other conditions [Music] the way the gates work may be clever but it's the enormous housings or cases that are perhaps most impressive from a construction point of view these immense structures which are as big as apartment blocks and weigh many thousands of tons each had to be manufactured in three separate locations before being dropped into huge trenches on the seabed there are also two shoulder casings at all four barriers which connects the housings to the mainland these allow workers to reach the system's inner mechanisms via service galleries that run underneath each barricade at kiyoja and malamaco different methods we used to launch the casings into the water those manufactured on the kyogre side were constructed in a dry dock which was filled with water causing the finished structures to become almost buoyant barges armed with huge cranes were then used to pick up the casings and maneuver them to their resting place over at malamoko the units were moved by massive rolling platforms mounted on tracks once at the water's edge a crane lifted them in before barges and tugboats arrived to take them away across all three sites when it came to lowering the cases hydraulic dampers in each corner helped to absorb the force of these massive structures hitting the seabed even when moses is deployed there's still a way for vessels to get through locks were built alongside the barriers to ensure some boats could still come and go even when the gates are up it's a clever flood defense system that could also make a difference around new york city on san francisco bay or in sydney harbour in the years ahead but before these cities add the idea to basket it's important to ask a fundamental question does the system in venice actually work well the good news is it passed the first major test in october 2020 mosaic successfully protected the city from a 1.3 metre high tide and it's performed multiple times since but this doesn't mean that flooding's been stopped entirely in december it was unable to prevent an unexpectedly high tide from sweeping in and drenching the city once again but this wasn't the fault of the system weather forecasters underestimated how high the water would get so authorities kind of didn't think to switch it on [Music] it was far from the first blunder for the project in 2014 dozens of officials including the city's mayor were arrested in a corruption scandal with millions of euros in bribes thought to have changed hands over this game its final cost is now around 4 billion euros higher than originally predicted and that's without the 100 million euros required each year to maintain the system opponents have voiced their concerns about moses impact on the lagoon's ecological systems as holding back water in this way could lead to depleted oxygen levels this would get worse the more the barriers are used and it's likely they'll be seen more frequently as sea levels rise others have cast out over it actually being able to withstand the higher warf levels that are expected to occur later this century the time it's taken has also been heavily criticized the system might be new but it was designed in the 1980s when attitudes to climate change were less serious than they are today many also question whether it's as effective as much older and less expensive defenses like the thames barrier in london or rotterdam system whether the pessimists are proved right or not this is what the people of venice are putting their faith in for years to come and for many it'll be a huge relief it might not turn out to be the perfect solution but the main thing is that it works at least for now and it stands as a powerful case study for other cities facing rising sea levels to look to if you liked this video and you want to learn more about where construction is headed make sure you're subscribed to tomorrow's build [Music] hi everyone today i'm going to be discussing the topic what is sustainable construction the aim of this presentation is to help you to find construction understand its misconceptions focus on the core concepts and recognize the importance of sustainability now by definition the term sustainable construction refers to the balance of environmental social and economic issues to ensure a viable and valuable industry for future generations sounds simple enough right well the majority of students find it hard to grasp the core concepts of sustainable construction there is often a clouded view of what it involves how it impacts the built environment and how it is achieved [Music] this confusion among students is likely due to the nature of the construction industry having an enormous impact on the environment impacts of construction such as the use of natural resources clearing of land and the generation of waste often contradicts a student's view of sustainability so how can construction be sustainable the truth is sustainable construction has a lot more to do with the design of buildings management of construction and the choice of materials not just how energy efficient a building is it is applied to all phases of the project from design to operation and demolition how is sustainability achieved there are many ways to achieve sustainable construction in recent years there has been a focus on the efficient use of energy and water examples include low consumption sanitary fittings and controls sustainable urban drainage systems rain water harvesting and greywater recycling also solar pv panels gas-powered tri-generation plants sustainability can also be achieved through waste management during construction operation and demolition examples include recycling of timber concrete bricks tiles and steel prefab or pod buildings and materials that reduce waste such as densel and logic wall systems example is the use of recycled materials such as the reuse of concrete recycled backfill material recycled hardwood timber recycled plastic such as plastic lumber containing fly ash or c d wood and finally sustainable planning design and management for example designed to meet the green building council of australia's green star rating system designed to maximise natural light and passive ventilation and selection of long lasting and renewable materials is sustainability important it is expected that the world's population will grow by 33 to 9.6 billion by 2050 leading to an ever increasing building construction activities population growth is impacting on our resources and the natural environment 32 percent of landfill waste comes from the construction and demolition of buildings as you can tell there will be an increasing focus on sustainable construction in the coming years and for a good reason as future managers it is important that we understand the concept of sustainability and learn how to apply it to construction projects now and in the future thanks for listening hello and welcome to fully charged my name's robert llewellyn this is a series about the future of energy and transport electric cars all kinds of cool stuff like this and today i've just come along to see this normal town just another town in dubai in dubai in the united arab emirates and i don't know it's very nice it's very quiet as you can tell not a lot of traffic in fact none in fact it's amazing this is the sustainable city [Music] first of all thank you for coming i mean this is uh it's a delight to show you all of this so this is the sustainable city and we we regard it as our goal is to have a net zero energy development so everything you see first of all the principle design elements is to reduce the energy intensity of the city and so if you notice as we drive through those streets the orientation of the villas you know these villas they benefit from the shade we decided to design and to orient all the villas towards the north so all these villas are north orienting which means they get a lot of shade and we avoid the sun and that is so important in this part of the world because otherwise your air conditioning cost is going to go up through the roof and that's not good for carbon and carbon emissions yeah we also have uv reflective paint which means you deflect a lot of sunlight and you reduce the uh the thermal heat gain right the windows also have tremendous thermal values and the roof as well just it's such it's such an attractive place to live i mean we're now going past these beautiful ponds yeah these are these are the water features right uh this is actually gray water and this comes out of our wash basin this is water from the showers right and the the washing machine and we actually treat it we we separate the water which enters the city into two streams so we have black water and grey water so what you just saw is the gray water that is treated and we treat it here inside or on site in the community and you will see that in a bit and then we pump it up through that stream and we have these storage ponds and all along this farm we're now driving through the farm which runs the length of the city we tap into the gray water system to irrigate the landscape and we also use the gray water to keep these pads if you can see those streaks those streak marks you know those pads we keep them moist with treated gray water and those are pads that we utilize to cool the biodomes right so they actually provide fresh air into the biodomes and we're going to enter one of those and see what's inside wow and then this is the thing that i first saw when i arrived is that all the car park yeah this is shaded with solar panels which is so sensible yeah well two points first of all all the cars are assembled so we wanted to keep the cars away from the clusters which means when we drove through a cluster it is completely car free right that's amazing for kids exactly this is their space the entire cluster is their space so we have all the cars in one location and under a roof panel and so we have in the city we actually have 10 megawatt peak installed let me put that into perspective that's 40 000 panels pv panels so far we've installed 26 000 and of those 10 megawatt three megawatt come from the parking areas wow so that's a lot of electricity yes so we can produce 10 megawatt hour of of uh of electrical energy uh solar energy per day wow and this feeds into the grid yeah this feeds into the grid because we are grid connected and then we tap from the grid you know we take it back to to supply energy in different sections of the city right all the services the cooling pads the farm the street lights the water features all of that is actually uh utilizing electricity from the car parks right yeah so there is one community pool and this this has always been a contentious point about sustainability but right you know we've designed in such a way first of all this is a closed system so the water is filtered yeah and we just top it up replenish it because of evaporation during the summer and we have a very environmentally friendly treatment system as well installed but it's also clearly very popular you know living in dubai without a pool at least one pool has been difficult it's it's become expected because it's such beautiful weather here today here when we're in january uh you know so i have been in this area before in the mid summer and i know that it is extremely hot so it can get yeah exactly so now the weather is beautiful we're at 25 degrees celsius if you come back in four months it's going to be 45 yes so then then the store is different yeah so the water that you see here this water is streaming down this is this is gray water right treated and we have a little bit of slope so we utilize the slope to have that movement of is it clean does it so it's treated it is first of all it is treated and then we can we improve the treatment if you notice these these um uh these grass yeah this is papyrus right that's what they had in egypt right to make paper for example and those are called biofilters so we planted those and they actually soak they're soaked down in the water and they biofilter the water as well because they there's a lot of nutrient uptake yeah so they improve the water quality even more the trees that you see now the landscape here is only two years old so what you see is only two years old so we've tried to balance between the amenity and the utility value of the landscape we don't just want beautiful trees and landscapes and shrubs we also want to have trees that are going to bring something back to us so the date palms these we pollinate in the spring and then we're going to harvest we harvest the dates in august and then the trees scattered along the farm we have avocado papaya pomegranates mulberry fig trees so those are spread and they will benefit from the shade of the palm trees and all of that is actually irrigated with treated sewage affluent so these pipes that you're going to see everywhere right this is actually treated sewage afterwards right wow and so right here on on our left now what you're going to see are the buggies is the the gray water treatment plants so it's underground and you know it's just next to the villas so people are not offended by it no odors whatsoever that's the water that we treat lovely plants i can't smell anything else that's the water that we treat and then we store it in the lake and then we pump it up and then it it trickles down again and we tap from the lake for irrigation purposes we have recycling stations spread throughout the city so we have a ratio we actually have uh nine of these for every 90 villas um so this is the farming that we try to have uh for the the cooler climate so for about six months of the year we can grow food outside and this is actually managed by the community by residents right and some of that furniture that you see scatter these benches the picnic tables and this giant table or chair this is made of uh of construction waste this is all construction waste from phase one uh wood pallets and uh around the plant and exactly and the planters so this area is really at the entrance of the city and it's part of the master plan this is the mixed use area which is open to the public and so here we have 15 000 square meters of space of rental space and this is only for rent and the idea behind it is that this is going to generate rental revenue and a portion of the rental revenue is gonna pay all the service fees and the maintenance fees in the city so we have promised all the residents in the community that they will pay zero service fees and zero maintenance fees wow hang on let me get my head around that you move into the city yeah whether you're a tenant or a homeowner a owner so you can't you can buy one of them you can buy yeah this is called freeholding so you can you can buy property or you can rent yeah right in both both options in both cases you will not incur service fees or maintenance fees it's zero so when you look at concierge service or sweeping the streets or sweeping uh the panels or we actually dry clean the panels or solar panels all the landscaping the water features the grey water treatment the security outside uh the mosque etc all of that is provided for free i mean for free meaning it is offset by revenues that come from this plaza and this this you know this is related to ensuring that there is also economic sustainability and social sustainability it is not only about the energy features and the water features the economic dimension also has to make sense and i mean has the general sort of public response to what you've done here been well it's been tremendous i mean it's been tremendous some people were there was a lot of skepticism right if we go back four or five years when the planning started most people kind of just brushed us aside right even even you know bankers and uh i mean there was little interest we did we did draw attention but i don't think many people believed in this concept and the design that was post-financial crisis global financial crisis things have really picked up and now when you demonstrate what we've what we've done so far in phase one i think it's becoming more and more obvious that this is doable yeah and it is not more expensive you know apples to apples oranges so this is a myth and uh you know when you design sustainably from the start yeah from the start it's not an afterthought no an afterthought is expensive but when you plan it right from the beginning and you also capture the latest technology or the latest you know features from the market uh then it's not more expensive right and we've demonstrated that right all the way down to social sustainability and economic sustainability we've we've brought down just to talk about carbon on average in the world each one of us from uk to dubai to lebanon to australia we emit on average seven metric tons of carbon dioxide per person per year here we've we did our estimates because we're doing a greenhouse gas inventory of the city and we are at approximately three 3.1 metric tons per person per year right that applies for residents living in the city wow including commutes to outside the city wow so but and that's and you're talking people who've got you know a lot of people have quite substantially large vehicles in dubai unfortunately they're not they're not all in super little so this is this is something we have we have our own targets as well to transform the mobility not only inside the city because that's you know we've achieved that already with electric vehicles and buggies and and bicycle tracks and jogging tracks etc so we've we've provided that but more importantly we want people to begin to switch to electric vehicles and so we've done two things so far we've provided charging stations second and that's really unique as a developer we are actually providing an incentive a cache a subsidy to villa owners who wish to purchase an electric vehicle right and who live in the city so if you live in the city and you're a villa owner you will receive up to ten thousand euros or forty thousand that hum towards your first evie purchase yes so that's the incentive so that's that's part of your sales contract you know so whether you you make use of it or not that's that's your choice [Music] [Music] this is amazing yeah so we have 11 of those right and this is uh our you know attempt to um to grow food we started with herbs we now have we spent most of last year 2016 experimenting with different herbs and different temperatures and so we've now selected 40 herbs what you see here in this biodome we have we have leek we have parsley we have mint we have basil chicory spinach coriander cherry tomatoes lettuce because it's much cooler in here than outside but then the fat so the fans are blowing air outside this is the beauty of of of having a low-tech solution this is a desert technology right this has existed for more than 40 years in farms all across the arabian desert right and the system is very simple we actually have we call it fans and pads fan and pouch so we have four fans blowing air out then you have a negative pressure inside so passively air is gonna flow in through that yeah these are called pads it's like cardboard corrugated cardboard and then we wet them we moist them all the time we're treated gray water so if you see them you have these streaks of water you can just see some drips coming exactly and if you stand in front of it it's like an air conditioning system wow so the temperature is going to drop from 45 to about 30. well the other thing is if you were doing this 10 years ago you would be you know burning some form of fossil fuels in order to run the motors that drive the fans but all this electricity is all coming from the solar so this is coming from the the car parks that we saw yeah that's what we call the solar farm and these are just motors it doesn't take a lot of time very simple various technology just motors motors motors so there's no air conditioning system right [Music] i think that's my argument really for the british property development sector that i want to watch this is pull your finger out guys because you because there's a huge amount of this technology could be used in the uk it's not it's not all everywhere i mean every country has it has its opportunities i mean there are things you can do in the uk that we cannot do in dubai and vice versa so uh but it is about you know being future ready that's what we say we want to be future ready meaning the climate is changing things are getting more difficult uh and we all have this responsibility to bring down our footprint and uh and so we try to personalize the uh the problems and the solutions here yeah you know by getting everybody involved and then presumably like in the even in summer at night actually well it gets quite it gets colder it gets chilly doesn't it yeah but i mean you could eat up you could have a meal up here in the fourth year in the evening when it was it wasn't quite so well we can use this space you can use this space for about eight months but then you have four months you don't want to be outdoors it's just huge yeah uh that would be mid-june through mid-september right it's it's uh you know upper mid-40s lower to mid-40s and then it's humid as well towards the end of the summer but otherwise you know eight months and so if you notice a feature we have here is that you know we tend to associate panels solar panels with ah this you know put it over the garage i don't want to see it it's not it's it's unsightly but we've actually incorporated it it's part of the architecture because when you look over there you wouldn't think all those roofs are solar panels because you're expecting to see something like that [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] this is the singapore that we all know it's modern futuristic incredibly green and home some of our world's most impressive buildings from airports to hotels and even floating apple stores but there's one thing you won't really find here farmland [Music] singapore currently imports 90 percent of its food supply that means when something like say a global pandemic or geopolitical tensions to shrop the supply chain being able to produce your own food within your own borders suddenly becomes really important to make its food supply more resilient the singaporean government has laid out an ambitious goal produce 30 of its own food by 2030 but unused land in singapore is hard to come by so urban farms are popping up inside outside and everywhere in between as the world's urban population continues to grow these might just be the farms of the future and construction will need to know how to build them [Music] today singapore's population is 100 urbanized and traditional farmland makes up just one percent of the city's landmass but it hasn't always been this way agriculture has never been a huge part of singapore's economy in the 1960s it accounted for around four percent of gdp but as singapore continued to invest in urban development economic focus shifted away from farming and towards manufacturing and by the early 2000s agriculture's role in singapore's economy was almost non-existent we have lost probably generations of knowledge and also participation in in food production in you know in our country so i wanted to see what i could do to sort of reignite that a little bit that's bjorn lowe a digital marketer turned urban farmer who co-founded edible garden city we built 260 edible gardens in singapore whether it's for homes hotels restaurants on top of shopping malls in schools and then in a lot of various under utilized land around the city over the last decade bjorn has seen the sector shift from being led by smaller farmers like himself to getting major government and industry investment so you have a lot of big commercial players coming in whether it's from the fish farms or the egg farms you know you have technology providers coming from holland from japan wanting to use singapore as a platform as a launch pad for their technology it has become a well oiled ecosystem or almost an ecosystem at this point in a sense the groundwork has already been laid for edible landscaping in singapore thanks to a 2009 city planning policy called lush which stands for landscaping for urban spaces and high rises it requires developers to incorporate greenery into their plans and has helped give rise to a massive landscaping industry in the city in 2017 lush was updated to include a provision that allowed rooftop farms to count towards the required landscape replacement area of a building now with the government's 30 by 30 push to produce more of its own food urban farming is looking like it could have its own renaissance building quite literally on top of the success of lush so singapore is looking at a strategy of increasing production from that one percent of land true technology approaches whether it's building vertical farms factory indoor farms battery farm production systems for eggs and intensive aquaculture systems right now you're probably picturing something like this and to some degree you're right indoor farming is part of singapore's plan artisan green grows spinach in a controlled indoor environment using water instead of soil and pesticides everything from the light to the temperature can be optimized for the specific crops sky greens uses hydraulic power to rotate and irrigate crops in modular vertical frames the racks can be stacked up to 9 metres and housed in outdoor greenhouses but while controlled environments can help avoid some of the pitfalls of traditional farming like water pollution caused by pesticide runoff the process can be quite energy intensive and after labor energy and technology costs it can be hard for urban farmers to compete with the price of imports we know that the food system is challenged because of the approaches of industrialized production by creating control environment agriculture warehouses of plant factories for example we're falling back into the same space so while once we have that as one approach which is highly publicized and focused on we need alternative approach to that one alternative to growing crops inside buildings is to simply build farms on top of them in partnership with the singapore food agency city ponix opened a pilot commercial farm on the rooftop of a multi-story car park where it grows lettuce spinach and basil or basil if you're watching in the u.s using its hydroponic vertical farming racks and edible garden city has designed urban farms to live on top of shopping malls car parks and even in an unused outdoor jacuzzi government's making more space available for larger scale farms too since 2020 it's offered up to at least 16 car park rooftop sites to be rented out for three years as urban farms in addition to contributing to the 30 by 30 goal the government said urban farms can also help to cool the city through rooftop greenery [Music] design firms are also looking to the urban island as they think about the future of sustainable design gensler's come up with ideas to incorporate farming solutions into park benches building facades and even ceilings and arab visited singapore back in 2019 to explore the future of urban agriculture but when it comes to urban farming going from concept to construction is only half the battle the biggest challenge of all may be getting people to actually eat the food especially when it comes with a higher price tag it really requires everyone to participate in it right whether it is growing that leafy greens at home and understanding that process or then starting community farms within you know their hdb blocks to drive a community effort to food growing i think that is that is really important because we may never hit the 30 by 30 if we don't have a whole society approach because industry can only do that much government can only do that much so everyone needs to participate singapore isn't the first to turn to urban farming in the 1990s cuba began building its own urban farming infrastructure out of necessity because of the collapse of the soviet union which led the country to lose roughly half of its oil imports and today cities including sao paulo seoul and tokyo all have their own urban farming initiatives what makes singapore unique is that it's essentially building an agriculture industry from the ground up what if we can develop and maintain a purposeful landscape or edible landscape and if we can start to build or landscape nutritional index instead of how much greenery that is we can start to count how much carbohydrates there is in this given development uh how much protein are we producing from the root vegetables or or the moringa tree the leaves are high in protein it can become a latent food bank to build a layer of resiliency for the state and that potentially can get us to hitting the 30 by by 2030. right now singapore is a kind of test case for modern day urban farming if it takes off then it could serve as a blueprint for how we build the food resilient cities of the future but only if everyone gets on board if this video is growing on you and you want to learn more about where construction is headed make sure you're subscribed to tomorrow's build it's raining again in china none of us like the rain but here it's gone from mild annoyance to a serious problem once a largely rural country china now has more than 100 cities with populations of over a million people and all that building on former farmland has led to a major downside flooding but instead of constructing big barriers like others have done china is turning back to nature for the solution upgrading its cities that they welcome the water rather than hold it back get yourself comfortable and prepare to soak up china's sponge cities [Music] china's home to more large cities than any other nation sixty percent of its 1.4 billion citizens now reside in urban areas and creating a space for them to live work and play has meant replacing huge areas of green space with sprawling buildings and infrastructure that's a lot of land that would have previously absorbed rainwater being replaced with surfaces that do the opposite and all in a country that regularly experiences heavy storms little surprise then that flooding's become such a serious problem even in places with good drainage in 2020 over just two months more than 400 rivers flooded across china many of them worse than ever before and at least 50 million people were impacted on top of that water shortages are occurring in some cities where water runs off the streets too quickly to enter water systems that are already overstretched the response from trans governments was to mop up this mess and convert many of these areas into so-called sponge cities this is where areas are redesigned to cope with and process rain water in a few different ways soaking it up storing it and then releasing it when needed a bit like you guessed it a sponge now this usually involves combining what's known as gray and green infrastructure so things like advanced drainage and water treatment systems alongside natural and semi-natural areas the us russia and india have all dabbled in sponge cities but china's program is on an entirely different scale brace yourself for quite a few numbers 16 cities were chosen to be part of the scheme when it launched in 2015 and another 14 joined a year later the aim is to have 80 percent of these 30 cities absorbing and reusing 70 of rainwater by 2030 hopefully you followed all that that means massive changes to land use surfaces underground infrastructure and more across the world's most populated country although it sounds like a lot of work that needs to be done in not much time this is china we're talking about so of course they've already made huge progress chongqing which has a population of over 16 million can now rather grandly call itself one of china's leading sponge cities here a new park in the tongnang district helped the area quickly recover from the worst storm for a hundred years in 2020 up until 2019 just a small concrete barrier separated the fu river from land that was becoming increasingly vulnerable to flooding now the barrier is gone and when levels rise water is free to flow into this incredible maze of constructed wetlands built over 99 hectares it's an impressive network of native plants trees ponds islands and elevated walkways making it more than somewhere for excess water to go people want to be there too soaking up their surroundings chongqing was also the first sponge city to be given a smart digital control system which lets authorities monitor its sewer and storm water networks in real time with this they can control how water flows into the natural environment more precisely analyze how well the whole system performs in extreme weather and then use the data to prevent future floods to the east of the country on the banks of the yangtze river zhen zhang has also gone big with sponges as well as rain gardens and creeks that drain and retain rainwater the city's been equipped with a system of bioswales which stretch first several kilometers in total these specially engineered channels with sloped sides funnel storm water inside where it filters down slowly into the ground beneath often with debris and pollutants removed as part of the process go for a stroll in any decent sponge city and you'll also find permeable roads paths and cycleways all of which allow water to soak directly into the material instead of forcing it into drainage systems that can become quickly overwhelmed polyurethane binders are combined with gravel or stones to create a surface with similar properties to concrete or tar but with tiny cavities that let water through around 4000 liters of water per square meter can be absorbed each hour and there are now networks of these across china from tianan city to hangzhou which is set to host the 2022 asian games now that event is actually relevant to this video because this site for the tournament was designed as one big sponge city project a fantastic place to soak up the sporting atmosphere previously a flat piece of land the area is being transformed into a 116 acre eco park spread across a rolling hillscape rainwater will be collected filtered and reused for water features plumbing heating and cooling according to architectonics which designed the master plan but despite all this work china's sponge cities haven't been able to prevent every flood from occurring including one notable recent example in july 2021 the city of zheng zhao had almost a year's worth of rainfall in just four days leading to extreme flooding that tragically killed hundreds of people zhengzhou spent over seven billion dollars upgrading hundreds of flood prone areas as well as the drainage system unfortunately these improvements were completely overpowered leading many to criticize the city's efforts and question the effectiveness of the entire programme but chinese officials responded by pointing out the severity of the storm claiming that no city would have been able to avoid taking heavy flood damage in such a situation experts also say that sponge hissy projects are only really meant to protect against light to moderate storms and floods which kind of brings us to the main point schemes like these do their job in most scenarios there are loads of different options to suit a variety of cities and they look great too but with severe events like the one in zhengzhao expected to become more common we'll need more than this to stop further tragedies from occurring even with that said for most cities worried about water levels introducing a sponge strategy of their own or something similar is likely to put them on a much firmer footing in the future if you enjoyed this video and you want to learn more about where construction is headed make sure you're subscribed to tomorrow's build [Music] the way we gather and consume the energy needed for our buildings and infrastructure is changing fast fossil fuel demand is declining while renewables are more widespread than ever and look set to rise further but while we might be generating it more cleanly reducing the amount of energy we use without heavily disrupting our lives is another challenge altogether with buildings a huge contributor to carbon emissions solutions in this area are becoming ever more critical as we work towards a zero-carbon future but some projects have already reached a goal that until recently would have seemed far too ambitious creating more energy than they use through state-of-the-art technology this is how buildings can power our world [Music] as populations have increased many countries have turned to cleaner energy to meet greater power requirements renewable production is now expanding quicker than expected driven by huge growth in low-cost solar power and an upsurge in wind and hydroelectric projects this shake-up of the global energy system is crucial to reducing greenhouse gas emissions improving air quality expanding access to clean energy and hitting carbon targets none of this will be possible without the efforts of the construction industry but while it's imperative that this transition continues it's arguably more important that we focus our efforts on how to reduce the amount of energy we use as well with buildings responsible for around 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions new solutions are needed to make them more efficient transforming the way that new and established structures are designed built and operated our buildings and the process of constructing them are responsible for more than a third of the world's overall energy consumption too and this looks set to rise further in the future however despite being one of the largest contributors to emissions and energy usage the building sector holds the potential to tackle these problems several buildings and projects already exist that show the incredible feats that can be achieved with energy efficient practices today with technology and clever use of design playing a key role officially unveiled on earth day in 2013 the six-story bullet center in seattle was designed to be the greenest commercial building in the world it features 575 rooftop solar panels capable of generating 30 percent more energy than the building uses which is then sold back to the grid making it a positive energy building the panels also funnel rain water inside where it's filtered for drinking all waste is processed on site and is made entirely from locally sourced non-toxic materials [Music] hong kong's zero carbon building is another example using 45 percent less energy than similar buildings of a traditional design the three-story structure in kowloon bay is also equipped with 80 different eco building technologies including thousands of sensors that record and monitor environmental parameters [Music] these feed into a building management system which analyzes and optimizes energy performance but while these projects now highlight what can be achieved with energy efficient new builds our existing structures must also be taken into account [Music] with around 80 percent of the buildings we will have in 2050 already built new innovations to upgrade whole districts that no longer meet modern standards are now emerging an entire positive energy block is being created in limerick ireland's third largest city as a way of reducing energy consumption within a key area of the city centre while retaining its unique georgian heritage part of the positive city exchange project the scheme envisions a new renewable energy management system allowing for the two-way flow of energy with excess power returned to the grid icl digital twin technology from ies has played a crucial part in the first phase helping to reduce energy consumption as much as possible before the application of renewable technologies here an intelligent community information model was built using data provided by the local council openstreetmap and other sources this gave the ies team an understanding of co2 emissions as well as energy consumption and distribution across the district five buildings were then picked to form the positive energy block and each given its own digital twin these virtual energy models are accurate replicas of physical buildings using real world data and other information obtained from physics-based simulations and machine learning algorithms next small operational measures that could achieve significant energy savings were identified such as modern heating controls while the impact of upgrades like improved air tightness and led lighting were calculated finally the team investigated the effect of deeper actions including replacing boilers with heat pumps and the integration of renewable energy sources suggesting solar panels on the roof and the installation of a tidal turbine in the nearby river implementing all of these measures will reduce electricity demand to just 0.6 gigawatt hours per year with the block expected to generate one gigawatt-hour per year a positive energy result this process is designed to be easily replicated across other city districts worldwide starting with one of limerick's partner cities trondheim in norway with the scale of the climate challenge becoming more evident all the time the need to overhaul our built environment and boost efficiency is getting increasingly urgent but projects like these can give us hope they show that transforming how our buildings use and also generate energy is not only possible but it can be achieved right now while the construction sector has a lot of work to do if it's to turn the tide against climate change arming the industry with cutting-edge technology and inspiring examples to follow could shift the balance in its favor after all this video is made possible by ies to find out how its digital twin technology is being applied on other projects and helping to hit zero carbon targets click the link below and as always if you enjoyed this video and you'd like to get more from the definitive video channel for construction subscribe to the b1m [Music] make sure you stick around to the end where i will reveal the world's smartest building when people ask me why i study architecture i show them this graph buildings are responsible for the most amount of carbon emissions out of all sectors but this doesn't have to be as we have the technology to make carbon neutral buildings we start in barcelona where a building which looks like it's been wrapped in bubble wrap is actually a prime example of how we can use technology to make large buildings respect our environment the technology used on this building keeps the inside cool therefore dramatically reduces the need for air conditioning air conditioning in hot countries such as spain can make up for 40 of the total building energy consumption just to cool the inside of building that is far too much so how does the technology on this building work using sensors the building detects when the sun is shining on the facade and pumps nitrogen into the etfe cushions which causes them to expand this creates a block between the heat of the sun and the cool building interior in two different ways firstly on the southeast facade the cushions create a pattern of reverse design which creates a shade effect inside secondly on the southwest facade the longer cushions insulate the building as the nitrogen acts as a cloud-like solar filter this combination of design stops approximately 114 tons of co2 entering our atmosphere per year this is equivalent to planting over 5000 trees every single year we also must use sustainable materials etfe is a polymer that was also used for eden projects in the uk it is 100 recyclable and requires minimal energy for transportation and installation due to being only one percent of the weight of glass this dramatically reduces the need for large supporting structures too finally the addition of a roof garden for extra insulation and solar panels for the generation of energy make this building an excellent example of environmentally conscious architecture roof gardens aren't typically the main design feature of a building however this next building makes the sky forest the core design feature the capita green building in singapore was designed around a simple concept with major benefits the building is crowned with a red flower-like sculpture the petals capture and guide the wind down into the building's cooling void which stems its way right down the core of the building this providing air conditioning to all 40 stories a vastly reduced rate of energy consumption the air at 242 meters high travels at a high speed and is cooler and fresher due to the sky forest which has been planted the building is 55 of the exterior covered with lush foliage this not only reduces the solar heat gain but also has a positive effect on the users within by promoting the sense of biofuelia this building has shown that using nature as a design inspiration is one of the best ways we can combat climate change this next design can be best introduced by the mayor of london this building really does represent a glimpse into the future bloomberg are a company who've made a large effort in reducing their ecological footprint in their buildings in total they have saved a massive 95 million dollars in operating costs have also drastically improved employers productivity this goes to show that smart buildings aren't just benefiting the planet they are also benefiting our economy and well-being too this building achieves such high sustainable credentials due to the new solutions it has for ventilation lighting power and water four thousand integrated ceiling panels have been included with the petal leaf design the panels combine heating cooling lighting and acoustic functions and use forty percent less energy than a typical office lighting system the building takes up 3.2 acres and yet can still be naturally ventilated usually buildings of this scale require high energy intensive mechanical ventilation systems however this building has the ability to breathe naturally the bronze fins and the facade hold vents which can open and close pulling air through the office space into the atrium and out of the roof the water conservation systems save 25 million litres of water each year enough to fill 10 olympic swimming pools the building also has its own on-site combined heat and power system therefore the waste heat generated from creating energy can be reused for heating and cooling the building this building has shown that design can be improved in almost every aspect to help save our environment but in order to have a big enough effect we need every new building to be designed in such a thoughtful way finally the one you've all been waiting for the world's smartest building it's called the edge and is located in amsterdam the building's orientation is based on the path of the sun the atria invades the building in northern daylight while the solar panels on the sudden bassad collects the energy from the sun these solar panels are then able to power all smartphones laptops and electric cars i find it amazing how your car can be powered while you're at work due to the solar panels on the side of your office building once inside the phone app that all employees have takes the forefront wherever you go the app knows your preferences for light and temperature it tweaks the environment you step into according to 20 centimeters of accuracy this app tells the building system when rooms are unoccupied which means when the zero occupancy is next to zero energy use the building is learning every day and because it is connected to the internet it is future-proofed so they can add new sensors as technology advances in the future finally the building stays warm by pumping down warm water in the summer months almost 400 feet into the aquifer below it sits here insulated until winter when it is sucked back out for heating we are planning to build a lot more buildings like these and the next one will be smarter and the one after that will be smarter as well and we won't stop until all cities in the world are filled with buildings that are intelligent and that are not using any energy anymore [Music] this video was sponsored by the nick moore foundation concrete and steel production releases tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere every year contributing to air pollution and climate change fortunately there are some more sustainable materials which can be used for construction in this video we're going to be taking a look at some alternative yet eco-friendly materials such as seaweed mushrooms and even coffee and their practical applications in construction [Music] formerly used as wine stoppers or bulletin boards in recent years cork has been found to be one of the most sustainable building materials in the world with eco-minded construction companies in search of more lightweight low-cost sustainable and versatile building materials that not only are aesthetically pleasing but also effectively insulate and provide long-term protection from the elements cork ticks all of the boxes cork is harvested from a water repellent layer of bark on the cork oak tree mostly grown in the mediterranean region of south west europe and northern africa one reason that cork is so sustainable is that no trees actually need to be cut down in order for it to be harvested and it is easy to recycle the trees grow for 25 years until their trunks are wide enough and then the cork can be stripped from them every nine years pork oak trees can live up to 300 years and the older cork tree is the better quality the cork that is harvested is too interconnecting blocks and roof tiles made from cork can provide durability and easy assembly while also allowing the structure to blend in with its surrounding environment these are just a few examples of how cork has been used in building homes hotels studios and exhibitions around the world [Music] colombia is one of the world's largest coffee producers exporting an estimated 15 million bags of coffee beans in 2019 alone despite the booming business colombia is also unfortunately one of the world's most economically disadvantaged countries with around 35 percent of its population living in poverty this has led to many people unable to afford housing an issue that boguta-based construction company woodpecker hopes to solve by combining coffee husks with recycled plastic woodpecker has developed building blocks that link together around a steel frame to create lightweight and easy to install tiny homes that can serve as single-family homes or classrooms for rural or more isolated areas the coffee husk is the skin of the coffee bean that dries and falls off during the roasting process and usually ends up in landfills afterwards it is stronger and drier than other fibers and allows for these homes which sell for less than five thousand dollars each to be pest and moisture resistant nearly three thousand of woodpecker's buildings have already been sold and the company is working alongside the colombian government to help house those who have been displaced due to natural disasters [Music] for projects inside the home dutch designer miki maya and a team of five have developed newspaper boards an original material adaptable for floorboards hybrid furniture shelving concept car interiors and more made from sheets of recycled newspaper glued together and layered the pieces then dried compacted sword and sanded giving it the look of wood grain due to the size and strength limitations of newspaper newspaper wood is not aiming to act as a large-scale alternative towards but it does offer a potential solution to the global paper waste problem in the uk alone is estimated that over 6.3 trillion tons of paper are thrown away every year whereas recycling can save millions of trees [Music] imagine a material with the potential to be the key to a sustainable future in the fields of fashion art food shipping construction and more mycelium or the tiny thread-like roots of mushrooms may just be able to fill these big shoes it is 100 biodegradable and compostable yet when dried is strong and durable enough to resist mold water and fire in recent years mycelium has been used for creating eco-conscious packaging materials meat alternatives and even skin care products now however mycelium compressed into bricks is one of the construction industry's most exciting and promising new building materials because fungi are living breathing organisms they self-regenerate quickly and can assemble themselves into lightweight yet solid objects in a very short time for more precise or complex projects like insulation mycelium can be used in 3d printing making it the ultimate non-toxic building material examples of mycelium structures include the hifi in queens new york the growing pavilion in the netherlands created to showcase how mycelium self-assembles and the mico tree project in seoul south korea exhibited to show how mycelium is strong enough to act as essential structure and support for buildings while also adding natural beauty to any space you may think of green algae as something that only grows in your local pond or river but in hamburg germany green algae is being used to provide energy for an entire building the photosynthesis occurring in the algae cells turns the sun's energy into fuel for the building the algae rapidly grows within the glass panels that cover the entire building where it is then extracted and put into a bio-converter which turns the algae into biomass this biomass can then be used for a number of things including a source of food for humans or animals and it can also power cars but its greatest ability is that it can generate electricity and heat for those living in the building when we visited this project in 2019 we were told that the process was actually producing so much energy that it could also power the surrounding buildings too you can learn more about this and other green projects in our green architecture video here [Music] in the uk alone nearly 3 billion disposable diapers are thrown into landfill each year to tackle this issue canadian company no waste are recycling diapers and other absorbent sanitary products into roof tiles the recycling process sanitizes the waste to create two different materials firstly they remove the organic fibers and use them for green energy and paper while secondly they extract the plastic binding these sanitary products to recycle into a variety of other products including plastic cladding decking and roof tiles sending these otherwise disposable products to the no waste facility will save the same amount of space in the uk's landfills as 96 olympic size swimming pools and removes from the air the same amount of carbon dioxide as 7500 cars not to mention that once they've been processed they turn into a much needed building material cobb is a mixture of sandy soil clay and straw it is mixed by crushing the particles together by either dancing on it or using a digger it is an extremely cheap building method this home for example was constructed for just three thousand pounds it is one of the most eco-friendly materials of all the examples mentioned in this video as the materials for construction can be found on the site of construction rather than needing to be imported from elsewhere it is also in my opinion the best looking material as cob allows you to easily create unique home styles curves and furniture built directly into the walls [Music] kenyan engineer zambi mate discovered that nairobi's plastic waste pollution was becoming a serious problem nairobi produces over 500 metric tonnes of plastic waste every single day but less than nine percent of the city's plastic waste was being recycled instead of waiting for the government to do something matty took action machines that mattie designed herself mix plastic and sand together at high temperatures where the plastic when melted acts as a binder the mixture is then compressed into bricks that are stronger than concrete and lighter tone which helps cut costs and shipping and makes their use in building less labor intensive looking towards the future there is no limit to what mattie hopes to achieve seeking investors across africa to scale a business for the whole continent mate hopes to pave the way for upcycling efforts around the world plant-based polyurethane rigid foam is manufactured from materials like kelp hemp and bamboo and can be used in insulation and furniture building it is highly resistant to moisture and heat and offers protection against mold and pests in addition to being considered more eco-friendly some types of plant-based foam have actually been shown to improve insulation thermal resistance and be better protection against issues that often plague homes using typical insulation materials on the island of lacey located off the coast of denmark homes made of roofs of seaweed dot the landscape some of which are more than 300 years old apart from their humongous size they look a lot like thatch but seaweed is far more durable and it reproduces itself every year in the sea and comes ashore without any effort from humans it is then dried on nearby fields by sun and wind and easily carried to building sites due to its lightweight a more modern example of seaweed use in construction are these seaweed pillows which were used as cladding for a home designed by the copenhagen architecture firm vancouver their aim was to design a new house that combines traditional materials with 21st century construction techniques that's it for this video if you enjoyed it please leave a like and if you want to find out more about sustainable design make sure you hit subscribe to the going green channel thank you and we'll see you next time