Author Archives: luke

The New Normal – designing with living materials

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Photo by Amritanshu Sikdar on Unsplash   Thank you to everyone who came along to the Bristol Specifi landscape event – it was great to meet so many people from the Landscape Architect sector, and to catch up with people I hadn’t seen since college. My keynote speech prompted some really interesting discussions, including areas […]


Cities as an Eco System?

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A comment and question after the talk in Liverpool led to an interesting pre-dinner networking discussion. Are cities an ecosystem? For a short response the answer is yes, but, as in all eco systems, its complex, but makes for a great theme for future Specifi talks! The question was prompted by my showing of the […]


Demonstrating the New Normal

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Martin Brown My Specifi keynotes highlight the young building standards that focus on regenerative and health, for example the Living Building Challenge and the Well Build Standard. Following the Birmingham Service keynote and engaging conversations over dinner, we had an invite and opportunity to visit the Cundall Birmingham newly renovated office. Cundall’s London office was […]


Your Project Is Not The Project

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If we agree that sustainability is the point at which we give back as much as we take, then only reducing our impacts is not sustainable. Increasingly we, our clients and our customers, are looking for added benefits and value, giving back more than we take when we design, build or manufacture. Indeed, social value […]


The New Normal – Nature as the Technology of the Future

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“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better”, said Albert Einstein. Well, this is what we are going to do. Biomimicry is (or any other related terms) about how we can look to the natural world to find solutions to overcome our technical challenges. It’s also a design philosophy, rooted in science, […]