A chance visit to the Diespeker & Co factory by Scott Maddux of Maddux Creative resulted in a new purpose for waste material from processes used in the creation of marble flooring, cladding and worktops. Scott saw the potential of the leftover marble as a material for an unusual design
Ambitious vision to create West Midlands National Park unveiled
An ambitious vision to create a National Park in the West Midlands which would span more than seven cities and create hundreds of miles of green space, conservation areas and new cycle routes has been unveiled. The bold proposals have been drawn up by Kathryn Moore, Professor of Landscape Architecture at Birmingham City University, and would make the region home to the UK’s 16th official National Park. Read more
If it could be delivered, a West Midlands National Park could also help create new jobs across the West Midlands region and boost the economy by transforming the image of the area. Landscape Architects working on the vision suggest once detailed case studies have been carried out, a West Midland National Park could see the area categorised as ‘a region of a thousand cycle and footpaths, a thousand parks and a thousand lakes.
Near Zero Energy renovation
A new multimillion euro research project which will demonstrate how buildings can be renovated to use ‘near zero energy’ has launched at Brunel University London. Featuring 17 partners from nine European countries and funded by Horizon 2020, the €8.4m project brings together academia and industry to develop a ‘Retrofit Kit’ that can be used to reduce energy consumption by 60-95% in renovated buildings.Read more
The Retrofit Kit will bring together a number of advanced, cost efficient, and energy-saving technologies – including smart windows with pre-heating and cooling technology, ventilation heat recovery, photovoltaic panels, and nature-based technologies – which can be fitted 30% quicker than typical renovations. It’s hoped that implementation of the technologies would have a payback period of under 15 years. Four demonstration sites will be created as part of the project, including one at Brunel, which will offer practical, real-world examples of ‘Near Zero Energy Buildings’ or ‘nZEBs’ retrofit.