Signals Of The Future: From Wood That’s Stronger Than Steel To Tackling Noise In The City
This set of future insights looks at tackling harmful urban noise, 3-D printing buildings, working from anywhere, and re-using waste wood in construction.
Wood Stronger Than Steel
I saw this intriguing piece in New Scientist, about a treatment process that can turn waste wood into a new material stronger than steel.
We produce a lot of waste wood, which is generally dumped or burned. This chemical process — from the University of British Colombia — can use any waste wood, including sawdust and shavings, and turn it into a material five times stronger than natural wood.
Recycling and reusing materials is a really important part of circular economy principles.
Embodied carbon — the energy that goes into construction is an increasing focus for the building industry and for policy-makers. (MPs this week called for compulsory whole-life carbon assessment of developments) Concrete is very energy-hungry; and wood is — at last — being recognised as part of the answer.
However, as the demand for wood for construction increases, we don’t want to exacerbate existing problems — deforestation and loss of habitats — in order to tackle climate change.
Depending on the treatment process, re-constituting waste wood may be a novel solution.
Work From Anywhere?
Airbnb recently announced that it would let its workers work from anywhere. Now it’s re-designing its website for nomadic workers who want to book longer stays.
As arguments heat-up about working from home or working in the office, it’s clear that — for some workers at least — there is no putting the genie back in the bottle. Not going into the office saves time, saves money, and gives flexibility with care-duties. I think many people value the sense of control and self-direction that remote-working gives them — over where, when and how to do their tasks. The future is hybrid.
Of course not every job can be done remotely — with a definite class and income-bias as to who gets to work from home. And some people — mostly the young, don’t live with the luxury of space and quiet.
It will be interesting to see whether employers try to share the upsides of flexibility more widely and equitably. And also what steps they take to bring employees back-in. Workers will want to know what they are going into the office for, and to be certain that they will find their colleagues there too. They’ll want to know that the technology in the office has kept pace, and that the space is at least as pleasant as the local coffee shop.
I think there is real value in going back into the workplace at least part of the time. Physical presence is important for building a shared culture, for learning and mentoring, and for collaboration. A recent piece in the journal Nature reported that ‘in-person teams came up with more creative ideas than did remotely based teams’.
So, yes, let’s be free to work from anywhere, but let’s not forget to nurture culture, collaboration, and new ideas.
3-D Printing Buildings
A few years ago I saw this giant printer extruding concrete in Amsterdam. A while later, Dubai Future Foundation 3-D printed its new office buildings. This week I read (courtesy of futurism.com) that China is planning to 3-D print a 120 metre-high hydroelectric dam. This is set to be the tallest 3-D printed structure in the world.
This style of construction has huge potential for developers. It allows architects huge creativity to design very different types of structures. Proponents of the process promise vast reductions in time, budget and materials. And more affordable homes are now being printed in China, Kenya and Malawi.
All good; but I do worry about the social impact. There a so many jobs worldwide in construction. Yes, we do have a shortage of skilled trades in the UK. (And this has been exacerbated by Brexit) And we do need to build much more affordably and efficiently. But will we have a future where bricklayers, tilers, and plasterers go the way of coopers, farriers, and wheelwrights?
Turn Down The Volume
I saw, courtesy of City Lab, that Paris is beginning to take urban noise more seriously. About time! Noise is the hidden pollutant. According to the WHO, it is the second most important environmental health factor, after air pollution.
We now have much better technology to measure and track noise, to understand the causes and also the negative impacts. In cities, motor vehicles are a particular problem, so part of the answer will come from more electric vehicles and more walking and cycling.
We shouldn’t be looking for a silent city — sound is an vital part of urban life. But we do want to tame the cacophony. Individuals already wear noise-cancelling headphones and the technology is being applied to whole offices. In the future, we could see it used in entire neighbourhoods — AI-enabled systems analysing unwanted noises and transmitting the sound-waves to cancel them out.
We can also reduce noise through good building design, better urban planning, and more greening (which also has the benefit of bringing back sounds that we want — birdsong, the wind in the leaves — to cities).
And now that the evidence is ever more compelling on the problems city noise causes, I hope that the future will be one where enforcement is taken seriously.
