{"id":734135,"date":"2024-04-09T08:30:30","date_gmt":"2024-04-09T07:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/?p=734135"},"modified":"2024-05-01T09:44:09","modified_gmt":"2024-05-01T08:44:09","slug":"in-practice-how-orms-is-pushing-for-materials-reuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/specification\/in-practice-how-orms-is-pushing-for-materials-reuse","title":{"rendered":"In practice: How Orms is pushing for materials reuse"},"content":{"rendered":"

What, broadly, is the aim of the policy paper?
\n<\/b><\/span>We\u2019ve been working on the concept of materials passports for a couple of years and my goal was to create a process that\u2019s clear enough to understand, simple enough to use and cost-effective enough to implement.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The purpose of the paper is to enable this and advocate for the widespread adoption of materials passports \u2013 by supporting local authorities, asking for this to happen and creating a clear pathway for design teams who are already trying to be exemplary to showcase the work they\u2019ve been doing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

The Standard, Euston Road, London<\/p>\n\t

Source:Tim Soar<\/p><\/div>\n

How did it and the collaboration with Lancaster University come about?
\n<\/b><\/span>It started about four years ago with a research paper we had developed with property group Grosvenor on material passporting. That was launched at the start of 2021 and it looked at how we could use the concept of materials passports to accelerate material reuse on existing buildings. <\/span><\/p>\n

After we published it, we invited the contributors to share their thoughts on it with us because we knew there was a lot more to be done and that what we had put out wasn\u2019t a perfect methodology. We also had a lot of people interested in helping us to grow and develop it. We set up a working group in 2022. It\u2019s open to anybody. Our only request is that you have genuine interest in developing it into a real methodology for projects. We meet quarterly and the work has been ticking along in the background.<\/span><\/p>\n

The collaboration with Lancaster started because Ana Rute Costa, who is the co-author and a senior lecturer in architecture at Lancaster, approached us and suggested that a policy paper might be a useful next step.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ana applied for research funding and was successful. Thanks to that, she was able to come on secondment to Orms for most of last year, enabling her to settle into practice life and understand the challenges. She was able to use our established networks to grow connections and knowledge and then take the learnings of the working group over the past few years to push things forward.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Scaling up material passports diagram<\/p>\n\t

Source:orms\/lancaster university<\/p><\/div>\n

How did you get the input of others across the built environment sector and elsewhere?
\n<\/b><\/span>Primarily through the working group. At our sessions we would have brief presentations from different practitioners to share what they\u2019d been up to, outlining challenges and opportunities. Ana started to take the lead in those sessions, sharing what she had been thinking of developing and getting live feedback. <\/span><\/p>\n

She also undertook a number of interviews with individuals and also got involved in networking and research groups that I\u2019m involved with, particularly the UK Green Building Council Circular Economy working group. Through that network she was able to meet a lot of interesting people. Through her academic networks she was meeting people working on projects with similar themes or looking at material passports in a different way. Really, we were trying to speak to anyone and everyone to make this paper as applicable as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

Obviously it is written through the lens of Orms, because that is my personal experience and the experience we could share with Ana, but we have really tried to make it as applicable for the whole of the UK as possible and tried to make it scalable. I know there\u2019s been a lot of progress in this field already in the past year alone.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another framework was launched by the Waterman Group. Two platforms have now launched in the UK \u2013 Upcyclea and Madaster. There has been a huge amount of progress, but we recognise it can still be daunting, so we\u2019re trying to encourage teams to start small, do something meaningful and grow from there. Hopefully then more detailed databases will start to become the norm.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Materials \u2018treasure hunt\u2019 concept sketch<\/p>\n\t

Source:orms\/lancaster university<\/p><\/div>\n

What are the main recommendations that have come out of the paper?
\n<\/b><\/span>The main recommendation is we should be implementing materials passports on all projects from 2025. There are eight recommendations in total. The first few build upon the type of practice that is becoming more common in London: looking at existing buildings, auditing them and then using that to inform the design process. <\/span><\/p>\n

We know a lot of local authorities outside London have also been making changes in how they approach construction and procurement. We wanted to support that by putting these requirements or recommendations for audits in one place. Then, by implementing the material passporting process, we\u2019re asking teams to build a database of the materials that they have in their existing building and the materials that they\u2019re proposing to put in.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wherever possible, we have tried to weave this story together with our own experience of reuse, how we have tried to target reuse from a project that\u2019s coming down or being worked on, but also how we try to enable future material reuse.<\/span><\/p>\n

There has always been a lot of thought about future material reuse. But, frankly, we\u2019re working with so much existing material already, we can\u2019t afford to let all that go, and recycling is still resource-intensive. That\u2019s why we\u2019re mainly pushing for reuse.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sharing that knowledge outside London will, we hope, encourage others to identify the opportunities and start to explore them in their own practice. It\u2019s very interesting that, when you start speaking to people, particularly design teams who might work on smaller projects, material reuse is much more common. So, we seem to trip ourselves up when we get into the larger, more commercial entities by requiring everything to have all the bits of paper, all the warranties, all the certificates. That is necessary for some things, but sometimes you also just need to take a pragmatic view of it.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s about tying those two ends of the spectrum together, trying to find a common meeting ground of where reuse is actually viable and then putting in place the necessary testing or whatever it might be to get design teams comfortable with material reuse.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u2018Few manufacturers are interested in developing a reuse stream as part of their business\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Why is it important to accelerate material reuse in construction now?
\n<\/b><\/span>Because we\u2019re faced with a climate emergency. And, if you take a step back, we also need to start building. An architect could be forgiven for saying: \u2018I should down tools because this is irresponsible\u2019, as we need to drastically reduce the impacts of construction: the carbon emissions, the pollution, the excavation of virgin materials. But, equally, that\u2019s not a pragmatic view because we don\u2019t have enough high-quality spaces. <\/span><\/p>\n

We don\u2019t have enough homes. We have workplaces that need to be revitalised. We have buildings that need to be renovated and upgraded. We need more schools. It\u2019s naive to think that we can stop building altogether. But we do need to be more thoughtful about how we do it.<\/span><\/p>\n

And for me material reuse is one of these approaches and as a practice, we are very comfortable working with existing buildings. That\u2019s why we\u2019re trying to push our levels of comfort further so that we can try and make some of this the norm.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

16 Old Bailey, London<\/p>\n\t

Source:Tim Soar<\/p><\/div>\n

Is Orms applying the principles that you outline in the paper on its projects?
\n<\/b><\/span>The practice turns 40 this year and for most of its life has worked with existing buildings, mainly in London. I would say all our projects have an element of reuse in some way.<\/span><\/p>\n

Traditionally, this would have been reuse of existing structures. The Standard [Orms\u2019 refit of a former Camden Town Hall annexe on London\u2019s Euston Road into a hotel], one of our best-known projects, is an example of keeping and celebrating special aspects then creating new spaces in a thoughtful way.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our recently completed project The Burlian at 80 New Bond Street is another example, where an existing structure was retained but with a new fa\u00e7ade and insides. We\u2019re very comfortable with that kind of retrofit but we\u2019ve been trying to push beyond it.<\/span><\/p>\n

At 16 Old Bailey, which completed a couple of years ago, we retained and retested almost 80 per cent of the original curtain walling, which was no mean feat. The \u2018sensible\u2019 thing to do would have been to take it all down and put in new cladding. Actually, that curtain walling was in great condition and had been well maintained. It was overshadowed, so its seals, for example, had not degraded.<\/p>\n

We were able to get the necessary retesting and inspections done to a point where the client was happy to keep it. The only bits we replaced were where there had been an original atrium with single glazing. It was an example of trying to keep something that\u2019s traditionally disposed of, but asking ourselves: why can\u2019t we just keep it and leave it alone? Why can\u2019t we do that as a typical approach?<\/p>\n

What are the main challenges of the approach outlined in the paper?
\n<\/b><\/span>The big problem that we\u2019re trying to tackle is: what do you do when you take the material out? What do you do with it? If we had taken that cladding off<\/span> 16 Old Bailey and tried to use it on another building, it would have been a whole different conversation.<\/span><\/p>\n

A lot of our work more recently has focused on fit-out elements. It seems silly as it\u2019s such a small piece of the picture, but when you study the whole-life carbon of different typologies, fit-outs start to emerge as one of the biggest contributors, because they have such high turnover and it\u2019s an area of high waste. Fit-outs almost always get disposed of after 10 years if you\u2019re lucky and often the materials involved have very high embodied carbon \u2013 metal ceiling tiles, for example. But they also have high reuse potential, because they were designed to be long-life products.<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been testing removal of elements such as these and started to build connections in the industry that will enable us to either reuse these materials ourselves or send them for onward use.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a slow process. It has taken us years to get to where we are today \u2013 where we have a few manufacturers that are interested in developing a reuse stream as part of their business. It\u2019s a huge challenge for them and we need to be cognisant of this, because most businesses are built on sales of 100 per cent new material. We need to be supporting the manufacturers that are trying to do the right thing by providing the material in the first instance, but then also specifying it. I don\u2019t want to see a world where we continue to just donate materials, like charities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most of our clients are commercial and I think they also have a responsibility to be specifying these reused materials. 20 Air Street is another example of where we use materials passports to support the reuse of metal ceiling tiles. We kept all the services in situ, but when rejigging them we had to take down the ceilings. Here we kept the tiles but, unfortunately, the frames got recycled. We focused on keeping all the tiles that were in excellent condition \u2013 but only ones with no perforations (often they have holes for sprinklers) so we lost many to recycling. And then we had to re-punch holes in the tiles kept to get servicing through. <\/span><\/p>\n

That was a lesson learnt that we\u2019re carrying forward. Now, if there\u2019s a tile with a perfectly centred perforated hole, we\u2019ll keep it. On this project, we also sent the glass from internal partitions for onward reuse. It was reused on another fit-out project with some success. The company who did it had a lot of challenges and we\u2019re speaking with them about that so we can learn from it and be sending them the best quality material. We\u2019ve simultaneously been developing approaches for higher-grade recycling as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

Where you can\u2019t reuse, what\u2019s the best next thing you can do?
\n<\/b><\/span>On all our projects, we try to do one thing differently, but it sometimes takes multiple projects to get to a point of success.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For Orms, it\u2019s about thinking who we want to be as a practice, what we want to be changing and how can we use our experience and expertise around these things to make sensible judgments and to support our clients, listen to their concerns and help alleviate them. And to understand what the process of due diligence is that we should be going through and then how we can articulate and share that with the wider industry so that others can learn from our experiences.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What, broadly, is the aim of the policy paper? We\u2019ve been working on the concept of materials passports for a couple of years and my goal was to create a process that\u2019s clear enough to understand, simple enough to use and cost-effective enough to implement.\u00a0 The purpose of the paper is to enable this and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59337,"featured_media":734142,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"ep_exclude_from_search":false},"categories":[721],"tags":[6024,5869,2598,2266],"yoast_head":"\nIn practice: How Orms is pushing for materials reuse<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Orms associate and sustainability co-ordinator Rachel Hoolahan tells Fran Williams about the practice\u2019s recent research paper, Materials Passports: Accelerating Material Reuse in Construction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/specification\/in-practice-how-orms-is-pushing-for-materials-reuse\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In practice: How Orms is pushing for materials reuse\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Orms associate and sustainability co-ordinator Rachel Hoolahan tells Fran Williams about the practice\u2019s recent research paper, Materials Passports: Accelerating Material Reuse in Construction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/specification\/in-practice-how-orms-is-pushing-for-materials-reuse\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Architects\u2019 Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-04-09T07:30:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-05-01T08:44:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.rt.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/03\/13150427\/Figure-14-1024x682.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"682\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fran Williams\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fran Williams\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"11 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/specification\/in-practice-how-orms-is-pushing-for-materials-reuse\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/specification\/in-practice-how-orms-is-pushing-for-materials-reuse\",\"name\":\"In practice: How Orms is pushing for materials reuse\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-04-09T07:30:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-05-01T08:44:09+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/1570dce5388724b11951af0e49b4a9b6\"},\"description\":\"Orms associate and sustainability co-ordinator Rachel Hoolahan tells Fran Williams about the practice\u2019s recent research paper, Materials Passports: Accelerating Material Reuse in Construction\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/specification\/in-practice-how-orms-is-pushing-for-materials-reuse#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/specification\/in-practice-how-orms-is-pushing-for-materials-reuse\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/specification\/in-practice-how-orms-is-pushing-for-materials-reuse#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"In practice: How Orms is pushing for materials reuse\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/\",\"name\":\"The Architects\u2019 Journal\",\"description\":\"Architecture News & Buildings\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/1570dce5388724b11951af0e49b4a9b6\",\"name\":\"Fran Williams\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/72d9b8e837c55e40de346af219f43183\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5f902cd311bbf22a57f61aed9c899209?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5f902cd311bbf22a57f61aed9c899209?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Fran Williams\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/author\/fran-williams-3\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"In practice: How Orms is pushing for materials reuse","description":"Orms associate and sustainability co-ordinator Rachel Hoolahan tells Fran Williams about the practice\u2019s recent research paper, Materials Passports: Accelerating Material Reuse in Construction","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/specification\/in-practice-how-orms-is-pushing-for-materials-reuse","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"In practice: How Orms is pushing for materials reuse","og_description":"Orms associate and sustainability co-ordinator Rachel Hoolahan tells Fran Williams about the practice\u2019s recent research paper, Materials Passports: Accelerating Material Reuse in Construction","og_url":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/specification\/in-practice-how-orms-is-pushing-for-materials-reuse","og_site_name":"The Architects\u2019 Journal","article_published_time":"2024-04-09T07:30:30+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-05-01T08:44:09+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":682,"url":"https:\/\/cdn.rt.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2024\/03\/13150427\/Figure-14-1024x682.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Fran Williams","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Fran Williams","Estimated reading time":"11 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/specification\/in-practice-how-orms-is-pushing-for-materials-reuse","url":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/specification\/in-practice-how-orms-is-pushing-for-materials-reuse","name":"In practice: How Orms is pushing for materials reuse","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-04-09T07:30:30+00:00","dateModified":"2024-05-01T08:44:09+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/1570dce5388724b11951af0e49b4a9b6"},"description":"Orms associate and sustainability co-ordinator Rachel Hoolahan tells Fran Williams about the practice\u2019s recent research paper, Materials Passports: Accelerating Material Reuse in Construction","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/specification\/in-practice-how-orms-is-pushing-for-materials-reuse#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/specification\/in-practice-how-orms-is-pushing-for-materials-reuse"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/specification\/in-practice-how-orms-is-pushing-for-materials-reuse#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"In practice: How Orms is pushing for materials reuse"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/","name":"The Architects\u2019 Journal","description":"Architecture News & Buildings","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/1570dce5388724b11951af0e49b4a9b6","name":"Fran Williams","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/72d9b8e837c55e40de346af219f43183","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5f902cd311bbf22a57f61aed9c899209?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5f902cd311bbf22a57f61aed9c899209?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Fran Williams"},"url":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/author\/fran-williams-3"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734135"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59337"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=734135"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":734145,"href":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734135\/revisions\/734145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.architectsjournal.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}