Developed by BAM, Arup, The Built Environment Trust and Frener & Reifer, the Circular Building aims to show visitors how to adopt a more circular approach to living and working. Located in front of the Building Design Centre on Store Street, it will be open during London Design Festival from 19 September to 7 October 2016, 10am-5pm, Monday-Saturday.

"The temporary pavilion is constructed and furnished using products that demonstrate how users can reuse and repurpose items," says Nitesh Magdani, Director of Sustainability at BAM. "We hope to inspire companies and individuals to adopt a more flexible approach to spaces, which allows them to easily adapt areas to meet future requirements, and without generating waste.”

Sustainable and flexible interiors

BAM Design’s interiors team have driven the sustainable concepts to furnish the pavilion with. 


“Before we even chose the items to go in the pavilion, we researched the most sustainable products on the market, including fabrics, furniture and finishes. Every item we have chosen has exemplary sustainable credentials, will be reused and is manufactured in the UK.”

 

Laura Gilbert

Senior Interior Designer – BAM Design

BAM’s supply chain has been responsible for providing many of the items on show in the pavilion, some of which have been chosen to demonstrate the cradle-to-cradle ethos behind the Circular Building. For example, visitors will be able to see:

  • Autex – an acoustic fabric that also provides the wall structure and finish. Unlike traditional products, Autex is detachable, enabling people to easily change the look and feel of their space and quickly access services behind the fabric. Made from recycled bottles, it is also insulating and can be used as a pin board.
  • Desso – loose lay floor tiles, which have been designed and manufactured using the circular ethos.
  • Buzzi Space furniture – which features detachable upholstery and recyclable foam fillings and frames.
  • Orange Box’s first European accredited cradle-to-cradle task chair, which has components that can be easily replaced, repaired or upcycled.
  • A green wall made of demountable troughs that can be easily detached when plants need to be watered or replaced.
  • Sustainable timber joists/battens – widely used in the pavilion, Travis Perkins is evaluating how best to recover used materials and maintain value for future uses or resale.  

“Although the pavilion shows the best the market has to offer, there is still more we can do. We wanted to install a kitchen, but could not find a suitable one that was manufactured in the UK. However in Germany, kitchens are designed to be so flexible that they can be used not just in your first home but in up to five future ones.” 

Laura Gilbert

Senior Interior Designer – BAM Design

The interior also has a number of unique design features including a perforated straw board wall. Dowling has been inserted into the holes to provide a hangar for coats or utensils to demonstrate how spaces can easily be adapted to meet present and future requirements.

 

An integrated BAM approach

The project has brought together skills and expertise from across BAM (Construction, Design and Energy) including specialists from our architecture, interiors and sustainability teams. BAM Plant has also been involved in making things happen on site at short notice and keeping the building construction on track. BAM Energy have initiated a product offering whereby Photovoltaic (PV) panels on the pavilion’s roof provide a renewable source of energy and demonstrate how greener power can be linked to Lighting Performance contracts. This model is intended to provide clients with greater operational benefits and lower capital costs.

Contributions and thanks

BAM would like to thank its suppliers and partners who have collaborated to make this Circular Building possible, including: Arup, Frener & Reifer, 8Point3, Power One Group, Panasonic, Brogans, Guardior, Speedy Hire, David Watson, Desso, Naughtone, Buzzi Space, Orangebox, Autex, Travis Perkins, Plant Designs, The C2C Products Institute, Accoya.

For further information, please visit the Building Centre.