Vision London window into the future of the built environment

Howard Chapman, Buildingtalk Editor

Next week I’ll be visiting Vision London at Olympia London (7-8 June), one of the top events for innovation in architecture, design, housebuilding and construction.

Vision London will be a great opportunity to learn about the built environment’s most innovative projects, technologies and initiatives.

Here are just 10 of the many free learning experiences for Vision London visitors.

1. Find out what makes the smartest building in Europe so smart

2. Get an insight into carbon nanomaterials

3. Explore 3D BIM at Crossrail’s Tottenham Court Road Station

4. Gaze into the future of biodesigned buildings

5. Learn about ways of literally putting life into buildings

6. Hear about innovations in textiles

7. Get the lowdown on building higher with CLT modules in Finland

8. See how Cullinan Studio put the fab into prefab at Holy Cross School

9. Switch on to the Internet of Things

10. See the view from The Shard…virtually

Vision London will showcases today’s most exciting materials, technologies, products, projects and thinking.

Making homes fit for the future

Day 1 seminars will feature one of the UK’s most innovation-packed homes: SOLCER House in Bridgend, South Wales. This is a one-off demonstration house, designed and constructed as part of the Wales Low Carbon Research Institute’s SOLCER project, which is led by the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University, and supported by Swansea University’s SPECIFIC research project and other partners.

Day 2 seminars will explore the refurbishment of an office building in Kingston, south west London, which is one of a new breed of office-to-residential conversions providing housing in urban areas. The design by Stephen Davy Peter Smith Architects for Kingstreet Group cleverly maximizes the potential of the urban building with an innovative rooftop extension. This extension adds eight duplex homes to the 15 being created in the existing building, and architect Stephen Davy will outline the essentials of its design.

Innovation set to make buildings healthier

A number of innovations are emerging to help measure and enhance wellbeing in buildings, and they are starting to be rolled out in the UK. Saint-Gobain technical director Mark Allen and residential sector director Stacey Temprell will be outlining the Multi-Comfort concept and the story of the debut UK project

Future Materials and Systems

Nanoparticles: Adding to construction materials, such as cement, concrete and steel are promising to deliver significant improvements, including greater strength, and are bringing new properties like self-healing and self-cleaning. Dr Bojan Boskovic, managing director and principal consultant at Cambridge Nanomaterials Technology will consider how the use of carbon nanomaterials can open up new possibilities for sustainable design strategies, improve the nature of building structures and provide a new array of functions that can improve interaction between buildings and their occupants.

Innovating from nature: Melissa Sterry, creator and director of Bionic City which explores the potential of biomimetics, biotechnology and biology in the built environment, will talk about how biotechnology and biomaterials are already influencing architecture. Rachel Armstrong, professor of experimental architecture at the department of architecture, planning and landscape at Newcastle University, will review the research into the use of technologies such as synthetic biology – the rational engineering of living systems – and smart chemistry to ‘grow’ buildings.

Circular economy: This poses a key challenge for construction, where significant amounts of energy go into creating a building’s many components, and the end result may be expensively refitted, refurbished or perhaps even demolished within decades. A team from the Alliance for Sustainable Building Products’ (ASBP) Reusable Buildings Network will give an update on two innovative projects on steel reuse within construction.

Robotics: Manpower has been replaced by machine in many areas of construction, and the advance of technology looks set to continue. How robotic fabrication WILL change the way we build, including the robot bricklayer Hadrian being trialled by Fastbrick Robotics in Australia and the UK’s q-bot demonstrating the value of robotics in jobs like insulating the floors

Building better, greener, taller, faster

The Offsite and Modular Construction educational stream will showcases some of the top projects, technologies and initiatives aimed at delivering homes and other building types, including:

How cross laminated timber (CLT) has been growing in popularity for some time, along with the height of the buildings being designed with it. CLT’s potential is still being explored, with developers engaging in a global race to build ever taller buildings. The world’s tallest pure CLT building looks set to be Regal Homes’ apartment development in Dalston Lane, in Hackney, east London, designed by architect Waugh Thistleton and currently on site.

Tom Ground, chief executive of Legal & General Homes, will outline his company’s progress in setting up a factory to mass produce CLT modular units for housing. Legal & General Homes is establishing a 55,000sq ft factory in Sherburn-in-Elmet, near Leeds, which is expected to produce CLT modules for a range of home types, from apartments to houses.

Dr Robert Hairstans, head of the Centre for Offsite Construction and Innovative Structures at Edinburgh Napier University, will outline how offsite construction can deliver more sustainable communities, by using materials more efficiently from secure supply chains and manufacturing in a clean, safe factory working environment.

Link to find out more about the seminar programme at Vision London

Link to more information and to register for your conference place