Strategies for Sustainable Living
The conceptual award category is for students only and focuses on a sustainable approach to living, providing strong imagery and provoking practical thinking. The issues of post pandemic living, well-being and health should be addressed through the regeneration of inner cities, towns or rural areas, with the adaptive reuse of existing buildings being mirrored by new designs and the sustainable lifestyles they can create. The approach taken should be applicable for use in Aberdeenshire.
2023 award winners
Category winner, distinction
A Renewal is Looming
The project addresses a variety of threats such as fast fashion and ocean waste plastic and encompasses the circular economy into the design to provide a new sustainable 100% recycled plastic textile mill. The concept also tackles the issue of decline in industry and promote the traditional weaving craft by creating new jobs. The textile mill can also house exhibition and educational functions to inform visitors on the industrial and recycling process. The embodied carbon of the new building is offset by the benefits the building function bring by clearing the ocean of waste plastic and the operational carbon harnessed from renewable energy resources.
Makerstreet
Located in Torry, Makerstreet aims to recover its community based industrial history through closely integrating the needs for living, community, making and recycling to create a strong place for the community. The concept focuses on local making and the micro-manufacturing process, where materials can find a second purpose and where people can come together to take part in the making of items and the well-being benefits which come with it. The medieval organic arrangement of Makerstreet encourages exploration and discovery as well as providing sensory gardens, treescape and allotments.
Data Powered Affordable Housing
This project addresses the planet’s growing need for data storage and its unsustainable energy use. Designed with sustainability in mind by reducing embodied energy in construction, promoting circular economy and enhancing biodiversity, this mass timber and cross laminated timber kit placed on a cement-free concrete pontoon provides affordable housing which can be heated by the heat recovery in the pontoon and septic tanks. The data silos are cooled by the seawater, providing free cooling costs and energy savings, with the heat from the data silos being exchanged with the sea. A sedum roof will create a microenvironment above ground while a new microenvironment is provided below the water.