Articles by Marcus Fairs

Architects are failing to engage with the UN’s drive to reduce carbon emissions with none of the 50 largest firms signed up to its Race to Zero campaign, according to Nigel Topping, the UN’s champion for the upcoming COP26 climate conference. This is despite the fact that the built environment contributes around 40 per cent

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Mycelium could soon be used to insulate and fire-proof buildings while sequestering carbon, according to sustainability expert David Cheshire. The biomaterial, which forms the root systems of fungi, is “a fantastic thing,” Cheshire said. “It’s naturally fire retardant,” he said. “It’s actually got better insulation properties than most standard insulation and it’s actually sequestering carbon.”

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The construction of this year’s Serpentine Pavilion removed 31 tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere, according to a report by construction consultant AECOM. As a result, the structure can claim to be carbon negative up to the point it is dismantled, meaning that it will remove more CO2 equivalent from the atmosphere than it emits.

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