Circular economy, modular construction, and recycled materials

Overview

Synopsis of presentation: COP26 climate summit has accelerated the global market push toward reducing emissions from infrastructure projects and operations. Research and innovation are key drivers of a circular economy. Taking a circular economy approach offers the construction industry a major opportunity to deliver decarbonisation targets and whole-life efficiencies. This presentation will explore prefabricated modular construction and the use of recycled materials and how they could help to deliver some of those targets.

The presenter is a leader in introducing prefabricated modular construction solutions in Australia and will discuss innovations and challenges in those projects. The use of recycled materials and recovered resources will be included in specifications and therefore will be mandatory in projects in the future. How these materials can be used in construction projects will be discussed in the presentation.

Click here to watch part 2 of the presentation! 

Presentation summary

Biophilic City: Emerging Roles and Opportunities for Civil Engineers

Biophilic city is a new trend that combines the principles of sustainable and resilient city by emotionally affiliating human beings to other living organisms in positively affecting the psychological and sociological wellbeing. With more than half of the world's population lives in cities, biophilic city is seen as the possible panacea to the challenges in meeting the needs of the urban population and expansion. However, in comparison with the other sister terms of green city, sustainable city and resilient city, biophilic city is still alien to many.

Hence, in engineering the green environment via biophilic city concept in the construction industry as well as integrating the principles of biophilic city into engineering project management, civil engineers play critical roles in ensuring that this biophilic city development is materialised with the most cost effective strategies associated with well-placed value management and engineering contribution. Hence, this talk aims at exploring the roles and opportunities for civil engineers in engineering the green built environment via the adoption of biophilic city concepts.

It is expected that this talk will open the eyes on the principles and characteristics of biophilic city, by highlighting the growing roles of the civil engineers in green built environment and the opportunities to be grabbed so that the professions are still relevant and indispensable in the engineering landscape.