London Design Festival shows Accoya in the round with its Circular Economy building

A modified timber construction material has been used to create a flagship eco-building for this year’s London Design Festival.

Accoya is the principal material use in the construction of a ‘circular building’ prototype created by Arup and its partners. The company’s engineers teamed up with Frener & Reifer Construction and BAM Construction to create the building.

It is intended to demonstrates the principles of the so-called Circular Economy. All components within the building are designed to be recovered and re-used at the building’s end-of-life.

Best known for helping to shape ambitious buildings, Arup chose to construct The Circular Economy Building using 550m2 of Accoya for cladding with support from charity The Built Environment Trust.

Accoya was chosen due to its Cradle to Cradle Gold rating and its Platinum C2C Material Health certificate. Carbon negative over its full life cycle, Accoya is also fully reusable and recyclable, supporting the Circular Economy principles the building was designed to support.

Located within The Building Centre on Store Street in London, the Circular Economy Building will remain on show during the London Design Festival 2016 until 8 October and is accompanied by an exhibition exploring the impact of the Circular Economy in a range of industries, from fashion to product design.

"When it comes to the circular economy, a great deal of focus is given to high-tech industries and the techno-cycle materials which they produce,” said Pablo van der Lugt, head of sustainability at Accsys Technologies, which manufactures Accoya.

“This is perhaps surprising given the non-renewable nature and carbon intensive processes involved in creating these products, especially when high performance, fast growing bio-cycle alternatives such as Accoya now exist.

“As a sustainable bio-cycle alternative, Accoya fully realises the C2C vision and as a company we are committed to manufacturing products in a socially responsible and eco-friendly way. It was with great delight that Arup chose to use a fully bio-cycle compliant material like Accoya to craft the Circular Economy Building.”