What is the Circular Twin?
The Circular Twin is an innovative Research and Development (R&D) process which proves how the early alliance of designers, clients, contractors and the supply chain leads to a significant reduction in Whole Life Carbon. Asking the question… "What can be achieved when carbon is the prime driver of decision making, ahead of CAPEX?"
As part of an industry-wide collaborative initiative, teams from Morgan Sindall Construction, SCAPE, HLM Architects, Cundall and Lungfish Architects worked together to innovate a new process for designing and delivering construction projects, where reducing whole life carbon is the primary objective. By applying lessons learned from past projects, challenging existing assumptions and utilising vertical collaboration with the whole supply chain, there are some exciting learnings to share.
The project was an 18-month journey, which began in an unexpected way in March 2020, on the cusp of the first UK lockdown. Not only did the team find new ways to approach carbon reduction in the construction design and delivery processes, but also new ways of working collaboratively as a group. Online brainstorming and research sessions became the norm, which further contributed to the success of the project for the team – finding new ways of working in more ways than one!
Highlight how procurement affects the design decision making process;
Showcase the value that could be captured through vertical collaboration with the value chain;
Understand the impact that capital cost decisions have on operational costs and the environment.
With the UK declaring a climate emergency in May 2019, and two-thirds of the UK’s council’s following with their own declarations, the team wanted to do something to change the course of construction and look at how new or alternative methods could be used as part of a building's design, construction, and lifespan.
The Circular Twin responds positively to the climate emergency and demonstrated that almost cost-neutral, low carbon construction was hidden in plain sight, by the industry's reliance on traditional design and procurement approaches. The research intends to show others how early engagement and planning can allow simple changes to be made to create long-term carbon savings.
Design proposal for the Circular Twin project
The ultimate strategic objective of Circular Twin was to create a new process which integrates the latest standards and thought leadership on sustainability such that Whole Life Carbon is placed at the heart of design development.
We anticipate the outcomes of this research to be far reaching, giving prospective school clients, LCAs, Government Frameworks and other sector specific or private or public sector clients clients, the power to achieve their sustainability goals.
For our industry, the outcomes will form alternative practices and procedures to the way they work. Many in the industry share our commitment to helping the UK achieve its net zero ambitions, and we hope this offers a new way of integrating that into the delivery process.
For our stakeholders, councils and partners, the research shows the potential of what can be done. When approaching low carbon construction projects, there is a lot of misconception in the industry and in some areas the support to achieving low carbon construction is incomplete, and the Circular Twin project team wanted to challenge that.
For our end users, pupils walking into their brand-new school, a university learner using state of the art facilities or a local resident taking a jump into their brand new swimming pool. The aim for our industry is to find a better way for them, creating clean, green and exciting places for people to live, learn, work and play!
