The 'greening' of temporary structures: The great parliamentary opportunity
Yikes, a £4bn repair bill is enough to make any estate manager weep. So you have to feel a bit sorry for the team managing the logistical headache of repairing and preserving the Houses of Parliament while finding a temporary home for our MPs. Business continuity has never looked so challenging!
You might have seen the news that one of many, many options considered by the Restoration and Renewal Programme, could be a glass structure in Horseguards Parade designed by the visionary Lord Foster. Seen by many as a bit ‘out there’ and by the programmes own admission, not a front runner. But, it got me thinking. Temporary structures have come a long way. Gone are the days when the landfill designated porta cabin was your only option.
The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games gave us so much more than a magical summer. It also showed that a huge event could embed sustainability in the heart of its operations: including the 25 temporary structures that facilitated events across the capital. The Games’ organisers gave great consideration not only to what the structures would be built out of, but how mixing permanent and temporary structures could create greater sustainability – and delving deeper into how the buildings would be used by games visitors, athletes and their teams. The report “Making a Difference” from the Independent Commission for a Sustainable London 2012 highlights the legacy – with event organisations looking to see how London did it, noting Glasgow’s Commonwealth Game’s specification of BREEAM as a particular triumph.
Sustainable building is going from strength to strength worldwide – in America in 2015 the green building sector grew faster than the overall construction sector, so it’s no surprise to see the temporary structure segment cottoning on given their importance in the industry. After all, if you are minded to ‘build green’ on a development, the first structure up on your site shouldn’t be tomorrow’s landfill.
We’d love to see more suppliers enter this space. In recent years we’ve seen companies like Spaciotempo commit to going over and above statutory requirements to bring sustainable building into the core of their temporary structure offerings; and companies like Herchenbach take the time to educate their customers of the values of greening the temporary space.
Of course, a lot of temporary structures are not the wonderfully eye catching examples of Great British Design that will springboard the notion of green short term builds into the imagination of both industry and the great British public – but perhaps the parliamentary decamp could promote such thinking.
Development in this arena could have wide reaching impact. The military have long adopted temporary structures and led technological advances in this space. The metamorphosis of my former base, Camp Bastion, from barren desert to pop-up city for 30,000 troops complete with airport, water bottling plant and fire station has only been made possible by temporary builds. One day the walls will be dismantled and the area returned to former use. If we can, as a country, spearhead sustainable building skills for both permanent and temporary structures, we could see outposts like this in the future achieve the highest green credentials.
This topic also brings up some interesting thoughts around both temporary and permanent modular building … but we’ll leave that for another day!
Whatever the Restoration and Renewal Programme chooses, if temporary structures are on the cards we hope Parliament see this once-in-a-lifetime repair to showcase the best of British sustainable building.