Earthbuild Europe 2021
What a great event we had on Friday at Earthbuild Europe 2021, where 448 people from 52 countries in all time zones came together to network after a long year of not being able to meet and share.
Eleven key speakers led conversations on three key current issues – nurturing the network, responding to the climate emergency and the developing culture of earth building, while 27 short films were screened sharing recent projects and activities by people from all over Europe.
This was the first event like this and was hosted by EBUKI, a charity that Arc supports, after several conferences were cancelled last year due to COVID. If being annoyed by losing LEHM2020 nudged us to organise a virtual conference, and being really annoyed at Brexit nudged us to foster greater European collaboration, then what will being really, really annoyed at the climate crisis nudge us to do?
Because sometimes we need to be inconvenienced and forced to stop established patterns of behaviour to take action and deliver life-saving change. Covid has shown us that.
Prof. Pete Walker, head of the BRE Centre in Innovation Construction Materials, highlighted how concrete alone is responsible for 8% of global CO2 emissions and is the second most consumed resource - after water, while the built environment is responsible for 40% of our energy use and waste production. But while the energy and transport sectors are making massive strategic changes to a low carbon future, construction lags way behind.
Use of clay binders in mass-produced products is one part of that transition, and Ulrich Rohlen, CEO of Claytec described how the market is developing, with strong potential to use earth with fibres to upgrade the existing building stock for thermal efficiency and occupant health. But to stimulate a scale shift towards bio-composite, low carbon materials will require international nudges to the market that we just don’t see currently. At best we are prototyping the solutions of the future, while we wait for the politicians to catch up. Greater alliances of interest across the eco-build network at a European level would help influence these agendas.
I hosted the final conversation on the changing culture of earth building and we covered everything from Italian futurism to connecting with the humanity of our Neolithic ancestors. Making things out of clay is such a long-established part of our culture as humans that we can re-invent our future through it, while still using its processes to re-connect with our inner humanity.
And then there was Iceland, perched on the edge of Europe, contemplating the end of a living tradition and wondering at a brave new future. For me, that presentation by Hildigunnur Sverrisdottir, Head of Architecture at Iceland University of the Arts, captured our moment in time. And next year we will all be somewhere else…..
You can view the two films Arc showed at EBE21 on our youtube channel.
