with small modular reactors in collaboration with Terra Praxis, Bryden Wood addresses some of the world’s most urgent societal challenges.
There is growing industry consensus that the way we design, build, operate and dispose of our buildings and associated facilities need a major overhaul.Our aim must be to obviate waste, increase efficiency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote construction methodologies that support both people and the environment..
In 2018 the UK generated 222.2 million tonnes of waste, with the construction industry responsible for around 30%.. 1.The good news is that 92.3% of non-hazardous waste generated in the construction industry is recovered, but this has remained static for the past 10 years with no meaningful improvement.To reduce the quantity of waste and minimise the need for recycling even further, we must move towards sustainable construction practices and a circular economy where buildings, components and materials are used more than once.. Why is the circular economy important?.
Pollution has a negative effect on people, our water systems and the ecosystems around us.Waste leads to pollution, whether it be from littering, incineration or landfill.
So if we want to live in a less polluted environment, we have to reduce the amount of waste we create..
It is generally accepted that we should be using less of the world’s natural resources.Maswiken also talks about the benefits of the lighting flexibility, with the ability to dim the lights or increase lumination, which he says provides options depending on the type of surgery being conducted.
‘Particularly if you’re doing laparoscopic work,’ he says, ‘you might need to dim the light a bit to give the surgeon a better view of the images, so in that way it works very well.’ He also speaks about how lucky he feels to have windows in some of the theatres.It’s quite an advantage,’ he says, ‘Because, just imagine, I’ve been in theatres all day and it helps at times, just to be able to reconnect a bit with the outside.’.
This theme of bringing a sense of the outside into the internal hospital space is another picked up by multiple staff members.‘I think for the patients on the ward the nice thing is that all of our bedrooms have their own windows that look out to an internal courtyard,’ says Highton.