Brighton’s waste house has proved it is far from being rubbish by scooping two national awards.
The University of Brighton project – the building of a house made almost entirely from waste – won both the Building or Property Project award and the Waste & Resource Management award in the 2degrees annual Champions Award at Wembley Stadium.
In being crowned “Building of the Year”, 2degrees said Waste House was “built almost entirely of waste and surplus materials, including recycled bricks, timber off-cuts destined for skips, ply sheets and even old toothbrushes, video cassettes and DVDs.
“The aim of the project is to prove that a low energy building can be constructed out of materials that are normally discarded and that ‘there is no such thing as waste just stuff in the wrong place’. It also looks to highlight the environmental and socio-economic problems associated with disposing of man-made plastics.”
2degrees said: “By collaborating with local construction companies, factories, the council and schools, the Waste House is an investment in educating the next generation of designers and builders to think and build sustainably.”
Attending the awards ceremony was Duncan Baker-Brown, House architect and Senior Lecturer in the university’s Faculty of Arts, Cat Fletcher from the reuse organisation FREEGLE UK and who was runner up in the Sustainability Champion of the Year award, David Pendegrass from Mears, the UKs leading provider of social housing repairs and maintenance, who project managed the Waste House, and James Cryer, Mears’ Partnering Manager.
Duncan Baker-Brown said: “We are delighted and thrilled to receive these awards. They are a reflection of the hard work, dedication and commitment by many including volunteers, apprentices, Brighton and Hove City College students, university architecture students, members of the public, school students, the University of Brighton, FREEGLE UK, Brighton and Hove City Council, a host of individual companies and organisations and, of course, the Mears Group.
“Everyone should take a bow.”
The House, constructed in the grounds of the university’s Grand Parade campus, will showcase new technologies and will continue to be retrofitted, allowing designers and students to test their windows, solar panels, insulation and construction materials.
2degrees is billed as the “world’s leading community for sustainable business, with 41,000 professionals working together to drive efficiency and growth through being more sustainable”. The awards are the only ones voted for by industry peers — 240 organisations entered for awards and almost 8,000 members voted.
For more information on the House, go to: http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/business-and-community/the-house-that-kevin-built/latest-news
