The Ecospot – The Brighton Waste House

The Brighton Waste House

The project began in 2008, with the ‘House that Kevin Built’ (Kevin McCloud) with a prototype for a new kind of housing which challenged the methodology of traditional construction. Since 2008, this first prototype has been re-designed and re-designed by the students and team leaders from the University of Brighton, where the Waste House is located, to become a ‘contemporary representation of the constantly evolving ideas in the field.’

Once built, the project, which is currently on site,  will remain at the University of Brighton as a living experiment to how architecture can support and create sustainable communities and provide valuable insights and models for the development of construction.

So why is a ‘waste house’ so important?

In the UK, around 45% of our carbon dioxide emissions come from architectural structures, which also produce considerable waste. If we can produce a new model for construction that can be adopted by the industry there would be measurable reductions available.

What is different with this project is that not only are the materials responsibly sourced, carbon neutral or recycled, many have been diverted directly from landfill and are being used in very new ways.

One of the concepts developed by the students and project leader, architect and senior lecturer Duncan Baker-Brown is a ‘cassette’ style system which is made from timber and filled with a variety of materials as insulation, such as toothbrushes and even textiles.

The house will of course also feature solar panels, whole building natural ventilation and a heat recovery system which is expected in a building of this nature, but it is the experimental use of otherwise waste materials which we think is really exciting and could signify an industry re-think on what we consider building materials.

A ‘trend’ which we hope stays with us for a very long time to come.

(images via University of Brighton)

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