Designing sustainably

When

Book published 2002

Who

William McDonough, American architect (pictured), and Michael Braungart, German chemist

Key works

Cradle to Cradle, Remaking the Way We Make Things

McDonough and Braungart argued that being "less bad" is not enough. In nature there is no waste, because a fallen leaf feeds the soil. So every material should be designed to go somewhere useful after its first life. They split materials into two loops. Biological nutrients, such as cotton or wood, can safely go back to the soil. Technical nutrients, such as metals and some plastics, should go round and round in factories without losing quality. To make the point, the book itself was printed on waterproof "paper" made of plastic that can be recycled, not on paper from trees.

When

Foundation set up in 2010

Who

Ellen MacArthur, British sailor (pictured), and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation

Today's economy is mostly a straight line: take, make, throw away. A circular economy keeps products and materials in use for as long as possible. In 2005 Ellen MacArthur set a world record for sailing alone around the world. On a boat she had to make every bit of food and fuel last, and she saw that the world's resources are limited in the same way. In 2010 she started a foundation to spread the circular economy. Its three principles are to design out waste and pollution, to keep products and materials in use at their highest value, and to regenerate nature.

Where

Abhaneri village, near Jaipur, Rajasthan

When

About the 8th to 9th century CE; upper parts added later

Who

Traditionally linked to Raja Chanda of the Nikumbh dynasty

Made with

Stone blocks

In dry western India, rain falls in a few months and the land is thirsty for the rest of the year. A stepwell (baori or bawdi in Hindi, vav in Gujarati) is a deep well with flights of steps going down to the water, so people could reach it however low it fell. Chand Baori has about 3,500 steps on 13 levels, arranged like an upside-down pyramid. The deep stone walls also stay cool, so stepwells were shady places to rest in the summer heat.

Where

Sidi Saiyyed Mosque, Ahmedabad, Gujarat (pictured)

When

The mosque was completed about 1573

Made with

Carved stone; also wood and brick elsewhere

A jaali is a screen of stone, wood or brick cut with many small holes. It lets in light and breeze but keeps out the harsh sun and rain, and people inside can see out without being seen. The moving air helps to cool the room. The Sidi Saiyyed Mosque's most famous jaali (pictured) is carved as a tree with curling branches, and it inspired the logo of IIM Ahmedabad. Modern architects are using jaalis again to cut the need for air conditioning.

Where

Havelis of Rajasthan and Gujarat; this one is in Jaipur

Old Indian houses, from the havelis of Rajasthan to the nalukettu houses of Keralam (Kerala until 2026), are often built around an open courtyard. The rooms open onto it for light and air. The courtyard is shaded for much of the day, and as warm air rises out of it, cooler air is drawn in through the rooms. In Iran and the Gulf, builders added wind catchers (badgirs), tall towers that catch the breeze above the rooftops and send it down into the house. Both cool a building with no machines at all.

Where

Auroville Earth Institute, Auroville, near Puducherry, Tamil Nadu (pictured)

Made with

Damp soil with a little cement or lime, pressed into blocks

Mud houses have been built in India for thousands of years. The soil is dug on the spot, so nothing travels far, and thick earth walls keep rooms cool by day and warm at night. The Auroville Earth Institute, led by Satprem Maïni, has spent decades improving the idea. Its main method is the compressed stabilised earth block: damp soil mixed with a little cement or lime and squeezed hard in a press. The blocks are dried in the sun instead of being fired in a kiln, so they use much less energy than burnt bricks. The institute builds vaults and domes with them and trains builders from many countries.

Where

North India and Bengal

Made with

Unglazed fired clay

A kulhad is a small, plain clay cup with no handle and no glaze, used once for tea, lassi or milk and then thrown away. Because it is only baked clay, it breaks back into soil instead of lasting for centuries like plastic. In 2004 Indian Railways tried to bring kulhads back at stations in place of plastic cups. By 2008 the plan had largely failed, because kulhads were heavier and cost more, and critics pointed out that firing billions of cups in kilns burns a lot of fuel and uses up topsoil. So even a natural material has a cost, and designers must look at the whole life cycle.

Where

All over India; areca plates especially from Karnataka

Made with

Sal leaves stitched with thin bamboo pins; or areca palm sheaths, pressed with heat

For centuries Indians have eaten festival meals off plates made of leaves. A pattal is made by stitching sal leaves together with thin slivers of bamboo, and it is still a cottage craft. Newer areca plates (pictured) are pressed from the tough sheath that falls naturally from the areca palm, so no tree is cut. Both are used once and then rot away, unlike plastic or foam plates.

When

First made at Gandhi's Sabarmati Ashram in 1917 to 1918

Who

Promoted by Mahatma Gandhi (pictured)

Made with

Cotton, silk or wool, spun by hand on a charkha and woven by hand

Khadi is cloth that is both spun and woven by hand. Gandhi made it a symbol of the freedom struggle: by spinning their own thread, Indians could stop buying cloth from British mills. It also needs no factory power, gives work to spinners and weavers in villages, and uses natural fibres. Today it is promoted by the government's Khadi and Village Industries Commission.

Where

Kolkata (pictured); grown across India, especially the northeast

Made with

Hollow, jointed stems called culms

Bamboo is not a tree but a giant grass, and some kinds grow almost a metre in a single day. A clump can be cut again and again for years without being replanted. Its hollow stems are light but very strong, which is why Indian builders trust bamboo scaffolding on tall buildings. It is also used for houses, furniture, mats, baskets and even bicycles.

Where

Around the Mediterranean; Portugal produces about half the world's cork

Made with

The bark of the cork oak (Quercus suber)

Cork is the thick outer bark of the cork oak. Workers peel it off by hand about every nine years, and the tree keeps living and growing a new layer, so no tree is cut down. Cork is light, floats, keeps out water and holds heat in, so it is used for bottle stoppers, floors, notice boards, shoe soles and even "vegan leather" bags. After use it can be ground up and made into new cork products.

Who

Ecovative Design, United States (pictured); The Living, architects

Made with

Mushroom mycelium grown on chopped farm waste

Mycelium is the network of fine white threads that a fungus grows underground; a mushroom is only its fruit. If farm waste such as corn stalks is packed into a mould with mycelium, the threads grow through it and bind it into a solid, light shape. The American company Ecovative makes packaging this way (pictured) to replace polystyrene foam. In 2014 the architects The Living built Hy-Fi, a tower of mycelium bricks, in the courtyard of the MoMA PS1 gallery in New York; when the summer ended, the bricks were composted.

Where

Amsterdam, Netherlands

When

Company founded in January 2013

Who

Bas van Abel and others

Most phones are glued shut, so a broken screen or a tired battery often means a new phone. Fairphone, a Dutch company, builds phones from a few modules held in by screws and clips: the battery, the screen, the cameras and so on (pictured, the Fairphone 3 in 2019). Owners can replace a part themselves with a small screwdriver and order spare parts. The repair website iFixit has given its phones top marks for repairability, and the company also tries to use recycled and fairly mined materials.

Where

Ras Abu Aboud, Doha, Qatar

When

Opened in 2021; used for the 2022 FIFA World Cup

Who

Fenwick Iribarren Architects, Spain

Made with

Recycled shipping containers and a steel frame

Big tournaments often leave behind huge stadiums that are hardly used again. Stadium 974 was planned as the first temporary stadium in World Cup history, built so that it could be taken apart and put up again somewhere else. Its walls are made of old shipping containers, some holding toilets, stairs and food stalls, bolted into a steel frame. The number 974 is both Qatar's telephone code and the number of containers used. CEED 2023 showed it and asked what it was made from.