Spotted: Germany created 225.8 kilogrammes of packaging waste per inhabitant in 2020 – the highest level of all countries examined in Europe, even though its recycling rate stands at almost 70 per cent. One of the biggest drivers of this issue is e-commerce waste, which boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic and doesn’t look set to stop.
To battle this scourge, Germany-based Rhinopaq has created a sustainable and reusable packaging system to replace existing single-use bags and boxes.
The startup’s packaging consists of sturdy envelopes and boxes made from recycled polypropylene – reducing the need to produce more plastic in fossil-fuel-reliant processes or fell trees for more ‘sustainable’ paper alternatives. Notably, Rhinopaq emphasises that each of its boxes or packs tells a story, meaning that their customers can track carbon savings and the packaging’s previous usage.
Rhinopaq is commercially available across Germany, offering its reusable boxes on a pay-per-use model as well as a plugin that allows its e-commerce clients to easily provide reusable and disposable packing to their customers on their own websites.
Customers simply put the packaging back in a postbox when they are done – with no stamp required.
In the archive, Springwise has spotted other innovations working to lessen the climate footprint of e-commerce, including nano-fulfilment centres and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to minimise clothing returns.
Spotted: If you’ve ever ventured out of a city, you’ll know that transportation in rural areas is often unreliable. This leaves people immobilised, often cornering locals to purchase vehicles of their own. Having reliable, shared transportation in these areas is not only a more affordable solution for residents but a more sustainable one too: helping minimise the number of combustion-engine vehicles on the road. UK-based RideTandem decided to put this idea into action, turning local transport providers into smart shuttles for work and educational needs.
To mobilise those in rural areas, the startup has partnered up with local taxi, minicab, and coach companies. Using an app, RideTandem matches these transport partners to those wanting to book a ride into a shared vehicle. The result is an affordable shuttle-type service for commuters living in areas with poor and expensive transport links.
“Even before the cost-of-living crisis hit, public transport outside of big cities was broken – expensive, unreliable, or simply not there for people who need it,” explains RideTandem co-founder and CEO Alex Shapland-Howes. He adds: “Almost 5,000 bus services – more than one in four – were axed between 2012 and 2022. Many that remain, especially outside cities and large towns, are under threat from the recent end of the Bus Recovery Grant.”
Following a recent seed funding, RideTandem has now raised £2.3 million (around €2.7 million) with the aim of extending its reach beyond the UK.
Springwise has previously spotted other innovations in the archive aimed at increasing mobility through ride-sharing, from a company that offers ride-sharing in greener vehicles and remote-piloted shared cars in Las Vegas.
Spotted: Lithium is a vital component in the high-energy batteries that power electric vehicles (EVs). But lithium is in increasingly short supply — threatening the conversion to EVs. According to estimations, by 2025 lithium demand is likely to marginally outstrip supply, with this gap widening dramatically by 2030.
Most of the world’s lithium reserves are found in brines – natural salt-water deposits. The conventional process for extracting lithium from brines requires evaporation in large ponds. This process is environmentally damaging, slow, and vulnerable to weather. However, startup Lilac Solutions has developed a new technology to extract lithium from brines without the need for evaporation ponds.
Lilac’s process uses specially developed, nano-coated ion exchange beads to absorb the lithium from the brine. Once saturated with lithium, hydrochloric acid is used to flush the lithium from the beads, yielding lithium chloride. This is then processed on-site using conventional equipment to create the finished product.
According to Lilac, this process offers a seamless scale-up and an 80 per cent recovery rate for lithium, as opposed to 40 per cent using conventional evaporation techniques. Lilac’s solution is seen as a potential game-changer.
Optimising mineral extraction is not limited to lithium ponds. Springwise has also spotted innovations in the archive that include the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to discover minerals important for green energy and environmentally friendly processes for mineral extraction.
Architizer is thrilled to announce the winners of the 11th Annual A+Awards! Interested in participating next season? Sign up for key information about the 12th Annual A+Awards, set to launch this fall.
How can cities have high urban standards and improve residents’ quality of life? As history has demonstrated, if the choices and strategies to achieve positive results are appropriate, the outcome delivers inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities; if wrong, the outcome is devastating, forcing cities to face challenges such as pollution, high energy consumption, insufficient affordable housing, inequalities and health risks, among many others.
Architecture must generate urban quality and environmental sustainability while reflecting the cultural heritage and empowering residents. The growing process of cities leads to transformations, and such transformations need to be associated with sustainable models to improve the social, economic and environmental conditions of cities, ensuring the quality of life of current and future residents.
The Mobile Joy-city in Jingxi Xiangyun, Beijing, China, offers creative solutions for a community plan that integrates work, home, shopping, transportation and green spaces. The design focuses on three design concepts: “open archipelago concept”, “landscape urban place”, and “community space shaping.” Design and images by MAT Office.
Architecture as a Contributor to the Sustainable Growth of Cities
Architecture can incorporate social and environmental factors as a core part of its design strategy and contribute to cities’ goals as centers of economic growth, culture and innovation, which will translate into improved quality of life. Understanding architecture as an isolated discipline aimed at creating buildings uniquely might lead to a lack of cohesion and functionality. On the other hand, if we see it as one in dialog with other urban domains, such as landscape design and transit, we can build urban areas that are accessible, livable and affordable, ensuring that cities are engines of sustainable economic growth.
SOM‘s master plan for Alárò City lies in the growth path of Lagos, one of Africa’s fastest-growing cities with a population of over twenty million. Alárò City reinforces Lagos as the economic and cultural center in West Africa through a new sustainable community. The master plan highlights the site’s unique conditions enabling long-term resiliency. Design and renderings by SOM.
Co-Living, Transit-Oriented Developments and Sustainability
The examples of projects illustrated below show how different cities address their growth challenges through a mixture of spaces, functions and services that are accessible to the population. Each responds to the specifics of their economic, social and environmental situation differently but with a common goal: achieve quality of life and efficiency.
These examples are mixed-use developments that integrate housing, retail and community spaces to promote urban connectivity and social inclusion while making cities safer for pedestrians, motorized vehicles, and bicycles. Most of them feature an architecture that incorporates green strategies aiming at minimizing environmental impact.
Super Babylon is conceived as a co-living community. The concept prioritizes sustainable living and shared communal spaces while giving privacy equal due. Design and renderings by MAT Office.
MAT Office proposes a series of linked transformable structures inspired by the New Babylon, a megastructure that Dutch visual artist and Situationist Constant Nieuwenhuys developed a half-century ago. MAT Office‘s Super Babylon is a modular structure composed of units that can generate four types of spatial and social relations: individual basic units, small family spaces, communal spaces and collective community buildings with access to commercial spaces at ground level. Following the shared community — or, co-living — model, New Babylon attracts a diverse population of young professionals, retirees, singles, and families, all working together to create a lifestyle that reflects their shared core values.
Periferico 2008 is a residential high-rise with public amenities on the ground floor and a rooftop terrace with panoramic views. Project by BRAG Arquitectos. Image by Felix Fernández.
Periferico 2008 is a multi-unit residential tower close to San Angel, a neighborhood south of Mexico City known for its colonial history, monuments and religious architecture. The abundant greenery in the area set the tone for Periferico’s design: a thirty-story tall parallelepiped with two carved-out sections to make room for green terraces. The building’s 184 apartments — with areas ranging from 700 to 2,690 square feet (65 to 250 square meters) — feature spacious layouts and optimal orientations to maximize views and optimize natural lighting and ventilation. The ground floor amenities include a gym, swimming pool, spa, business center, playroom, library, and a movie theater. The rooftop terrace offers opportunities for relaxation and entertaining with views of the city and beyond.
Connecting Cooksville in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada is a development project that offers many connections for pedestrians and vehicles, highlighting opportunities to prioritize the human scale and overall urban connectivity. Design and renderings by SvN Architects + Planners.
SvN‘s design for Connecting Cooksville is a vision for an integrated transit-oriented development in Mississauga, one of Canada’s fastest-growing cities. The project will transform a site dominated by surface parking into an interconnected, transit-oriented, mixed-use development with interior streets and a regenerative landscape. At nearly 1.7 million square feet (157, 900 square meters) , the development will provide nearly 2,200 new apartment units and close to 100,000 square feet (9,290 square meters) of commercial space, including a community gathering space covering almost half of the site.
Walking trails, outdoor kitchens, classrooms, cafe seating, areas for recreation, exercise and outdoor daycare play zones provide additional ground-level programming. SvN, in collaboration with WHY Architecture Workshop, designed an urban forest as part of the development, which prioritizes climate resiliency by strategically designing the cluster of towers and the landscape responding to the City of Mississauga’s Climate Action and Strategic Plans.
Quayside in Toronto, Canada, is conceived as an electrically powered, zero-carbon community where residents will have easy access to their daily needs, including jobs, education, healthcare, food, and recreation. Design and renderings by Norm Li.
Quayside is a mix of market-rate and affordable housing in Toronto for individuals and families of different backgrounds and incomes. A total of six buildings, including Canada’s largest mass-timber residential building, will also provide commercial and institutional spaces, as well as access to a three-and-a-half-acre public space. Additionally, a one-acre urban farm on the rooftop of the mass-timber building will be accessible to residents and the public. The project was conceived with sustainability in mind resulting in an all-electrically powered, zero-carbon community. The use of environmentally friendly materials and technologies will promote biodiversity and create comfortable and accessible green spaces, which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to the efficient management of severe weather risks.
Aiming for Sustainable and Livable Cities
The creation of high-density buildings offering easy access to daily needs and the use of sustainable building solutions can be considered good examples of how architecture can bring social and environmental change. City growth is inevitable but manageable with the right tools and the right decisions. The prominent role of the architectural community in envisioning and designing cities demonstrates that it can be beneficial to the betterment of citizens’ quality of life, social equity, health and the environment. Healthier places — no matter what their functions are — will result in healthier people, communities and cities.
Architizer is thrilled to announce the winners of the 11th Annual A+Awards! Interested in participating next season? Sign up for key information about the 12th Annual A+Awards, set to launch this fall.
Dezeen Showroom: 3D-printed room dividers made from food waste and mycelium are among recent sustainably-designed products on Dezeen Showroom.
In order to address growing environmental concerns within the furniture and wider design industries, brands are opting to make their products using renewable, recyclable and reclaimed materials, and processes with circular principles in mind.
We’ve rounded up eight recently released furniture pieces made from recycled materials, including waste plastic from abandoned fishing nets, electronic waste from the tech industry and materials derived from the process of making paper.
From a bar stool made from coffee shells to a recycling bin made out of post-consumer plastic, read on to see our selection of the latest furniture designs made from sustainable materials on Dezeen Showroom.
Superpop tables by Paolo Cappello for Miniforms
Miniforms’ Superpop tables – created in collaboration with Italian designer Paolo Cappello – have a rounded rectangular form and a speckled finish reminiscent of terrazzo.
The pieces are made from recycled plastic, which creates the mottled pattern. They are lightweight and durable enough for use either indoors or outdoors and can be recycled further at the end of their lifespan.
Find out more about Superpop ›
Veggro collection by Interesting Times Gang and OBOS
Design studio Interesting Times Gang worked with cooperative homebuilder OBOS on a duo of screens called Loom and Jugoso.
Loom has a pale finish and is made from mycelium, whereas mustart-hued Jugoso is made out of orange rinds. Both are created using 3D-printing techniques and have biomorphic patterns representing the natural materials they are made from.
Find out more about Veggro ›
Eternity high stool by Space Copenhagen for Mater
Danish furniture brand Mater has created its Eternity high stool in collaboration with designers Space Copenhagen, which is made from Matek – the brand’s patented circular waste material.
The material contains both e-waste and coffee shells leading to the stool’s characteristically dark colour. It can be upholstered with Kvadrat’s Re-wool material, which is made from 45 per cent recycled wool.
Find out more about Eternity ›
Alted H01 tiles by Berta Julià Sala for Alted Materials
Spanish brand Alted Materials worked with product designer Berta Julià Sala on a range of tiles made from cellulose waste, a byproduct of the paper industry. The tiles are also coated with a water-based sealant distilled from waste vegetables.
Alted H01 tiles come in three grooved patterns and various earthy colourways. The material allows the tiles to be recycled circularly, preventing material from ending up in landfill as is the case with traditional construction materials.
Find out more about Alted H01 ›
Ovetto waste bin by Gianluca Soldi for SoldiDesign
Italian design brand SoldiDesign has released an egg-shaped waste bin named Ovetto that is both made from recycled materials and is designed to contain them in different compartments for easy disposal.
The bins are made from post-consumer recycled ABS and polypropylene in different amounts depending on its colour. The matt black Ovetto bin is made from 100 per cent recycled content.
Find out more about Ovetto ›
Centenniale coffee table by Joanna Laajisto for Nikari
The Centenniale coffee table was made for Finnish brand Nikari by architect and designer Joanna Laajisto out of 100-year-old wood.
The table’s angular top is supported by contrasting chunky, rounded legs. It can be made from solid oak or ash wood, and emphasises the importance of utilising existing renewable materials.
Find out more about Centenniale ›
Liberty Ocean chair by Humanscale
Office furniture brand Humanscale used up to one kilogram of plastic derived from disused fishing nets for its Liberty Ocean task chair.
The chair represents the next evolution of the brand’s classic Liberty chairs. It shares the same ergonomic technology and comfort as the other chairs in Humanscale’s catalog but is made from sustainably-conscious materials.
Find out more about Liberty Ocean ›
Gaia recycled upholstery fabric collection by Skopos
British brand Skopos has created a collection of materials made out of recycled textiles and post-consumer plastic waste.
Gaia mimics the appearance of textured wool boucle and comes in a selection of 21 earthy colourways.
Find out more about Gaia ›
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Spotted: Home delivery grocery shopping in European countries is expected to double in value by 2030. And, in the United States, researchers expect sales to be double 2021 levels by 2025. All those shipments require packaging, and many of them require temperature-controlled packaging for cold foodstuffs and other products.
Wanting to eliminate the polluting Styrofoam that would likely go along with many of those food shipments, US-based TemperPack has created a compostable packaging material suitable for shipping pharmaceuticals, groceries, meal kits, flowers, and more. Not satisfied with simply providing a Styrofoam alternative, the company seeks to improve efficiency and reduce waste along the entirety of the cold shipping supply chain with its insulation production station.
Called WaveKraft, the platform provides suppliers and distributors with on-demand packaging customised to the current temperature demands – of both the goods being shipped and the external weather conditions. Businesses buy the paper required to make the insulated packaging, and then fill the required sizes and shapes of paper forms with as much or as little air needed to maintain the required temperature.
ClimaCell thermal liners help maintain correct temperatures within the packaging. Made from paper and cornstarch, the liners are also recyclable, and, as a direct replacement for Styrofoam, they meet certified performance requirements.
Green Cell Foam is TemperPack’s third product, a compostable material that quickly breaks down in water and flushes down the kitchen sink. Made from corn, it provides both cushioning and temperature regulation, and for disposal, it can be fed to plants as a healthy supplement.
Biobased packaging is an exciting area of growth, with innovations in Springwise’s archive including a recyclable waterproof coating and single-use bags that dissolve in water.
Architizer is thrilled to announce the winners of the 11th Annual A+Awards! Interested in participating next season? Sign up for key information about the 12th Annual A+Awards, set to launch this fall.
Now home to 1.4 billion people, India, the most populous nation on Earth, is under immense pressure across numerous socio-economic factors. This is rarely more evident than the challenge of developing urban areas in livable ways.
The United Nations predicts that by 2030 around 40% of the country will be living in cities, a four-fold increase on figures from the turn of the 20th century and significantly more than the 28% recorded in a 2001 census. An astounding rate of urbanization, according to a 2019 study by Manish Ramaiah and Ram Avtar, “Urban Green Spaces and Their Need In Cities of Rapidly Urbanizing India,” these booming centers of human activity are struggling when it comes to public realms and natural assets.
Looking across India’s densest cities with populations over one million, none offer more than 410 square feet (38 square meters) of green space per capita. In Mumbai, it’s less than 110 square feet (10 square meters). We tend to think about the introduction of parkland as a major undertaking that needs vast amounts of potentially profitable real estate to realize, but there’s much to be said about smaller interventions that reuse and rethink infrastructure to address the imbalance between built and living environment.
Promenade Plantée in Paris (C) La Citta Vita
Arguably the most famous example in recent memory is New York’s High Line. A 1.5 mile (2.5 kilometer) stretch of former elevated rail turned into a greenway, although actually modelled on Promenade Plantée in Paris, which opened 20 years earlier, the Big Apple take made the biggest noise and catalyzed similar ideas in other cities.From Atlanta and Los Angeles to Manchester, taking disused transportation routes and creating gardens or parks on them is now relatively commonplace.
Others — for example Toronto and San Francisco — have set out to place modern green spaces on the roof of in-service interchange hubs. Rather than looking up, Mumbai’s One Green Mile offers a narrow 1-mile-long (2-kilometer) public realm at ground level because the street offers one of few potential spaces in the locality. Winning the Jury Award for Built Sustainable Transport at this year’s Architizer A+Awards, the project is located partly beneath the flyover of a major commuter route and alongside a busy street.
Artwork, planting and public realms within One Green Mile, Mumbai, by StudioPOD
Efforts began with an analysis of existing conditions in the area, unsurprisingly concluding there was a severe shortage of open space. Stakeholder consultations also offered an insight into how interventions should and could be made. Three priorities were identified: streamlining traffic movement and street geometry, equitable allocation of space for all and the creation of high quality public realm beneath the road.
Designed by StudioPOD, and completed in 2022, the results are impressive. Play and seating areas, an amphitheatre, Vachanalaya and 130 trees now sit under the flyover. Vertical sections are painted with imagery reflecting the story of the Lower Parel district and have been extensively planted with native species.
Back out on the street, road capacity has been reduced to allow more room for people, to add greenery, open up space for bus stops and to lay street furniture in place. In total, 2.3 acres (1 hectare) of public space has been added to the area, with 21, 500 square feet (2,000 square meters) under the flyover alone. A route taken by more than 150,000 people each day, in the centre of Mumbai’s frantic financial district, has been not only improved but turned into a destination in itself.
One Green Mile’s covered public realm, before the project began in 2018 and today, by StudioPOD
Countless studies have identified a strong link between access to urban space and health, not least in terms of green areas. Physically, we know exercise and active lifestyles keep our bodies in better condition, and One Green Mile clearly answers a call for active travel in Mumbai. But the benefits are also evident in terms of psychological wellbeing, too.
Earlier in 2023, Finish researchers presented one of the latest studies on this subject, concluding that visiting urban green space three or four times a week significantly reduces the likelihood of drug use to combat mental health, high blood pressure and respiratory illness. Rates fell by one third, asthma dropped by a quarter. This was true of parks and community gardens.
A children’s play area (top) and communal seating form part of Mumbai’s One Green Mile, by StudioPOD
Adding further evidence to the benefit of smaller interventions of this type, in 2019 University of Wollongong experts published a paper that showed a tree canopy alone can lower psychological distress by as much as 31%.It’s also important to consider the specifics of One Green Mile’s masterplan when gauging its success. Of course there are designated areas — the children’s playground is specifically for children to play — but much of the space is adaptable.
Sites of loose congregation, to some extent they reflect the public realms celebrated in the book Designing for Disorder. A conversation between architects Pablo Sendra and Richard Bennett responding to the former’s 1970 publication, The Uses Of Disorder, both texts and practitioners see static, planned and specific as negative public realm planning because they do not reflect human life, nor evolution. Truly worthwhile interventions must offer use cases that become apparent in the eye of the beholder ,or risk falling into neglect, effectively becoming another waste of space.
Architizer is thrilled to announce the winners of the 11th Annual A+Awards! Interested in participating next season? Sign up for key information about the 12th Annual A+Awards, set to launch this fall.
Over the past year, searches for sustainable fashion have grown in popularity on Pinterest. We round up 10 projects from our sustainable fashion board which feature items made from more environmentally friendly materials.
The fashion industry generates an estimated 92 million tonnes of textile waste every year. With the aim of reducing their textile footprint, many designers are now using eco-friendly biomaterials and processes.
Designers such as Valdís Steinarsdóttir and Phillip Lim have used gelatin and plant matter in their work, amongst other materials.
Scroll down to see 10 sustainable fashion designs and browse our popular sustainable fashion board to see more.
Shellmet by TBWA/Hakuhodo
Tokyo advertising agency TBWA/Hakuhodo and plastics manufacturer Koushi Chemical Industry CO collaborated to design the Shellmet.
The helmet, which was made from discarded scallop shells and recycled plastic, was developed to be used as protective headgear for fishermen in Japan. The Shellmet can also be used as a cycling helmet or a hard hat.
Find out more about the Shellmet ›
Bioplastic sequins dress by Phillip Lim and Charlotte McCurdy
Algae bioplastic fronds cover this petroleum-free dress created by fashion designer Phillip Lim and industrial designer Charlotte McCurdy.
The dress has a biodegradable base made of plant fibres, making it free of crude-oil by-products such as synthetic fibres, dyes and plastic sequins.
Find out more about the bioplastic sequin dress ›
Sonnet166 by Lobke Beckfeld and Johanna Hehemeyer-Cürten
Sonnet155 is a bag that was made from fruit skins left over from juice production and short cellulose fibres. The product dissolves in water and can be used to fertilise plants.
The bag has a lifespan similar to a disposable paper bag and was designed to break down naturally before it can be composted or recycled.
Find out more about Sonnet166 ›
The Soil Project by Yuhan Bai
The Soil Project is a clothing collection made with a soil-based leather alternative and vintage garments dyed with soil.
After conducting research into the fashion industry’s reliance on cotton, Royal College of Art fashion student Yuhan Bai devised the concept.
Find out more about The Soil Project ›
Jelly clothing by Valdís Steinarsdóttir
Designer Valdís Steinarsdóttir designed a collection of vest tops made from gelatin or agar. The tops are created by being cast in a mould and then left to solidify.
The garments require no seams or stitches and can be melted to create new clothes if they are damaged or no longer needed.
Find out more about Jelly clothing ›
Jumpsuit made with iridescent BioSequins by Stella McCartney
Earlier this year, fashion brand Stella McCartney revealed a sleeveless bodysuit, which was embellished with bi0plastic sequins that are made from tree cellulose.
Biomaterials firm Radiant Matter created the sequins called BioSequins as a substitute for the petroleum-based plastic options which are commonly used.
Find out more about iridescent BioSequins jumpsuit ›
Fluff Stuff by Aalto University students
Students at Aalto University created Fluff Stuff, a textile filling created from plants cultivated on re-wetted peatlands in Finland.
The students designed a collection of soft homeware and clothing, which include cushions, duvets, jackets, bags and a hooded hat which were filled with typha latifolia, a plant known as broadleaf cattail.
Find out more about Fluff Stuff ›
Fungal Integrated by Helena Elston
Fungal Integrated is an upcycled clothing collection made from mycelium and London-sourced textile waste.
Pieces, which include a seamless dress, a navy trouser suit, chunky heeled boots and a jacket, were all made by designer Helena Elston from a combination of local waste products such as discarded textiles, coffee sacks and fungi.
Find out more about Fungal Integrated ›
Shrimp and mushroom food waste garments by TômTex and Peter Do
Fashion designer Peter Do joined forces with biobased material developer TômTex to create garments for Do’s Spring Summer 2023 collection at New York Fashion Week.
The pair created glossy wide-leg trousers and rounded-neck tank tops in two colours, which were constructed from TômTex’s non-woven biofabric. The 100-per-cent biodegradable material was made from shrimp and mushroom food waste to have the look and feel of leather.
Find out more about the collection ›
Kajola by Olaniyi Studio
Kajola is a series of shoes made from biomaterials by architect Yussef Agbo-Ola of environmental design practice Olaniyi Studio.
Agbo-Ola created nine experimental shoes made out of natural materials including clay, volcanic dust and cocoa. The shoes were created as artwork and curl up like plants when they decay.
Find out more about Kajola ›
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Architizer is thrilled to announce the winners of the 11th Annual A+Awards! Interested in participating next season? Sign up for key information about the 12th Annual A+Awards, set to launch this fall.
Necessity is the mother of invention, and it has plenty to answer for in design and architecture. This is immediately evident at The Greenhouse, a zero-waste theatre complete with performance space, standalone screening room, bar and box office
Visiting three prime spots in London this summer, the first run, at Royal Docks, was part of Sea Change, a cultural program about climate. Next, the space holds a residency at Canary Wharf, from 19th June until 14th July, before finishing at Battersea Power Station between 7th August and 3rd September. A striking, if understated, approach to experimental venue design, the venue is hand-built from recycled and reused materials. After revealing his background in site-specific productions, Artistic Director Oli Savage tells Architizer how the idea came about.
“Around 2016, a close friend, collaborator and colleague of mine put a script on my desk all about eco-terrorism, Swallows. It was a metaphor for violence towards each other and towards the planet by Henry Robert, a really talented writer. I’m interested in space and how a space can make the show work. And from a practice perspective, I’m interested in working holistically. To me, if you’re putting on a show, it’s important that everything around that show reflects the ideas of what that show is talking about. You’d feel a little hypocritical working on a climate piece and having lots of impact and waste,” says Savage.
The Greenhouse is the UK’s first zero waste theatre (C) The Greenhouse Theatre
“A couple of years later, we’re on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival, our show was A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Standing in the pissing rain, handing out flyers to promote the performance, I said to our head of marketing: ‘Surely this isn’t actually a very effective way of getting people through the door’. She said: ‘No, and it causes a lot of waste.’ I started digging into this, and it’s astounding how much waste is created, most of which isn’t recyclable,” he continues. “This is particularly evident in fringe arts.”
With the script for Swallows still in mind, Savage began brainstorming with collaborators, trying to figure out how the show could run at the Edinburgh Fringe and stay true to its climate message. Soon realizing there was no existing facility that could tick all necessary boxes, a decision was made to create a new space. Returning to the Scottish capital twelve months on, The Greenhouse debuted in 2019 with Swallows finally staged and, as Savage puts it, “has been on and off” since.
The Greenhouse Theatre under construction in London, 2021 (C) The Greenhouse Theatre
“I just say to people come and see the space,” Savage replies when we ask about the green credentials. “I’d say it’s obvious when you’re inside — this is not making claims that can’t be backed up. In terms of design principles, we were determined to show the materials being using, so the waste is showcased front line for people to see for themselves. And we’re a zero waste theatre, that’s the terminology. There are differences between this and, say, carbon neutral. So all the materials had a life before us, and will hopefully have another life once we’re finished.
“Broadly, the whole thing is built from three materials. Timber framing and wood pallet cladding, around a triangular lighting truss skeleton. The roof is made from corrugated PVC,” he explains. “As you’re designing, you’ve got to be thinking, if we want this to be zero waste, what materials do we have access to? How are we going to be able to deliver this in a zero waste way. Another interesting thing was our first situation for the venue didn’t have the possibility of any power. So we came to this conclusion it needed to be naturally lit with a clear plastic roof. That’s now one of my favorite aspects of the venue.”
The Greenhouse Theatre at Canary Wharf, London (C) The Greenhouse Theatre
For Savage, The Greenhouse Theatre design is all about dialogue between different demands. The requirements stipulated by the project itself — zero waste, low impact — and the need to develop a space suitable for creative practice. Form meeting function deep in the grass roots.
“It was also a necessity for me that it was in the round. That was a big thing. If I’m working in a theatrical space, it has to be either in the round or traverse. It creates this sense of community,” says Savage, pointing out all this is replicable. “Reclaimed timber is easy to come by. There are lots of facilities around the UK, recycling centres that take surplus timber from sites, clean it, then sell it on. Most are charities, awesome organizations. The trussing was from a lady who used it for trade shows, retired and sold it to us for a really good price. The plastic, I think it was a builder who bought it for a project that was cancelled or over-ordered.”
“The headline is that it’s not that hard. It seems like it’s challenging, but so much theatre, at university for example, relies on borrowing and reuse,” he adds. “We have a consultancy, working with filmmakers, other theatre makers, creatives, to help them towards zero waste. There’s a lack of provision for fringe artists in terms of this type of thing. It’s tricky, though. One of the hardest things is a lot of people expect work for free… Obviously, my goal as a person is to have the most impact and help. But the reality is some try to take advantage… If we can’t monetize, I’m not going to have a business, and we’re not gonna be able to run.”
Architizer is thrilled to announce the winners of the 11th Annual A+Awards! Interested in participating next season? Sign up for key information about the 12th Annual A+Awards, set to launch this fall.
Spotted: Advancing battery technology is a main pillar of the transition to clean energy. But batteries themselves are not that ‘clean’. In order to make the move to net zero, batteries will need to be more efficient. A major step in this direction is now being taken by French startup Otonohm.
While other innovators are focusing on making changes to battery hardware, Otonohm is concentrating on the software – battery management systems (BMS). Its switched BMS technology allows manufacturers to remove the charger, converter and/or inverter on a drivechain or powerchain.
By paring down the battery, Otonohm’s switched BMS system offers big improvements in efficiency, battery lifespan, and reliability, which also translates into big carbon savings. The system can also monitor the state of charge of each cell in the battery, providing more available energy and a longer battery life, and allowing damaged cells to be disconnected without preventing the operation of the others.
The company claims its system will work with almost any type of battery, and will provide 20 per cent more available energy over conventional batteries and cut carbon dioxide emissions by 20 per cent.
Battery technology is taking off – and given its importance in renewable energy and net zero – even more will need to be done. Springwise has recently spotted a material recovered from seaweed that could boost the lifespan of electric vehicle (EV) batteries and a more environmentally-friendly process for recycling EV batteries.
