Shifting Mindset to Materialising Collaborations at Matter (Part II)

25 May

Shifting the Mindset in the Industry

Sustainability is so much more than a collection of collective end goals’. First and foremost, it intends to shape and construct humane, environmentally regenerative, and cost-effective spaces and structures in our cities. One of the key steps in manifesting and practising sustainability is the “expression of intent” through designing and constructing a building and leading the dialogue across the stakeholders in the process. Stakeholders range from independent clients, real estate developers, or the local decision-making and governance bodies to Architects, building engineers, material vendors, general contractors, and construction workers. And like any other professional ecosystem that stretches across skills, capacities, expectations, and success metrics, the building design and construction ecosystem also are highly reliable on having a united front in order to work towards sustainability, in a sustainable manner.

Make it stand out

But now, what can we, as structural designers in particular do to unite the stakeholders and streamline their efforts towards sustainability?
Here are five steps we as structural designers can take in our professional capacity -
1: Aiming for Zero Waste:
Consider designing for deconstruction and if possible, reuse (e.g. using waste materials found on-site or obtained as donations) to improve and evolve practices around building waste management during the end of their life cycle. We have done this for our project Cody Docks.
2: Thinking Circularity in material use :
With evolving sensibilities around circularity, using locally sourced and produced/processed materials or, better yet, reclaimed or even recycled materials is a valuable consideration.

3: Connecting Culture and Community:

Social impact and community health should be key decision drivers and guide the design towards flexibility in use and inclusion in occupancy to open some of the spaces up for the local communities.

4: Caring for Nature:

Caring for the natural landscapes and protecting land, water, and sky by using materials that help reduce pollution is critical, too - this ranges from designing for the extended life of a structure and deterring its end in a landfill to giving thought to reducing transportation and fuel energy spent on processing of materials.

5: Practising healthy work culture:

While designing for sustainability involves regenerating nature and nurturing communities, its foundation lies in envisioning a strength-driven and value-based work culture fortified by regular practices to restore the team’s energy, attention, and motivation. This ensures higher alignment within the team and better work performance and encourages a sense of belonging and agency that can have wonderful ripple effects across the projects and the industry.

Next month, we will explore the systems change that the Institution of Structural Engineers advocates through thought leadership in the industry.

Materialising Collaborations at Matter towards Sustainability

At Matter, curiosity and creativity drive our structural design innovation, and we are motivated to care for nature and build healthy communities through ethical practices. Our collaboration on civil design service echoes these principles.

We are committed to co-creating a sustainable future with researchers, architects, engineers, and developers that share these values in executing built environment and construction projects. We invite you to connect with us and let’s embark on this journey together.