91¶¶Òõ

  • Skip to content
  • Skip to footer
  • Accessibility options
91¶¶Òõ
  • About us
  • Business and
    employers
  • Alumni and
    supporters
  • For
    students
  • Accessibility
    options
Open menu
Home
Home
  • Close
  • Study here
    • Get to know us
    • Why choose 91¶¶Òõ?
    • Explore our prospectus
    • Chat to our students
    • Ask us a question
    • Meet us
    • Open days and visits
    • Virtual tours
    • Applicant days
    • Meet us in your country
    • Campuses
    • Our campuses
    • Our city
    • Accommodation options
    • Our halls
    • Helping you find a home
    • What you can study
    • Find a course
    • Full A-Z course list
    • Explore our subjects
    • Our academic departments
    • How to apply
    • Undergraduate application process
    • Postgraduate application process
    • International student application process
    • Apprenticeships
    • Transfer from another university
    • International students
    • Clearing
    • Funding your time at uni
    • Fees and financial support
    • What's included in your fees
    • 91¶¶Òõ Boost – extra financial help
    • Advice and guidance
    • Advice for students
    • Guide for offer holders
    • Advice for parents and carers
    • Advice for schools and colleges
    • Supporting you
    • Your academic experience
    • Your wellbeing
    • Your career and employability
  • Research
    • Research and knowledge exchange
    • Research and knowledge exchange organisation
    • The Global Challenges
    • Centres of Research Excellence (COREs)
    • Research Excellence Groups (REGs)
    • Information for business
    • Community University Partnership Programme (CUPP)
    • Postgraduate research degrees
    • PhD research disciplines and programmes
    • PhD funding opportunities and studentships
    • How to apply for your PhD
    • Research environment
    • Investing in research careers
    • Strategic plan
    • Research concordat
    • News, events, publications and films
    • Featured research and knowledge exchange projects
    • Research and knowledge exchange news
    • Inaugural lectures
    • Research and knowledge exchange publications and films
    • Academic staff search
  • About us
  • Business and employers
  • Alumni, supporters and giving
  • Current students
  • Accessibility
Search our site
Image of checkland building falmer campus
About us
  • About us
  • Your university
  • Governance and structure
  • Working with us
  • Statistics and legal
  • News and events
  • Contact us
  • News and events
  • News
  • 2015
  • Waste House shortlisted for national award

Waste House shortlisted for national award

The 91¶¶Òõ’s Waste House, Europe’s first permanent building made almost entirely from rubbish, has been shortlisted for the 2015 Royal Institute of British Architects’ (RIBA) Stephen Lawrence Prize.

15 September 2015

The award, funded by the Marco Goldschmied Foundation, was set up in memory of the teenager who was on the way to becoming an architect when he was murdered in 1993.

The award judges said of the project: “The 91¶¶Òõ Waste House has sufficient scientific integrity to be taken seriously by the construction industry and just enough political clout to influence recycling policy. It is clear this interesting project will continue to question important issues of recycling that affect everyone.”

The Stephen Lawrence prize, which rewards the best examples of projects that have a construction budget of less than £1m, is intended to encourage fresh talent working with smaller budgets.

91¶¶Òõ Waste House

The Waste House, opened last year in the grounds of the university’s campus in Grand Parade, 91¶¶Òõ, was a collaborative project constructed by over 365 design and construction students using nearly 90 per cent of material that otherwise would have been thrown away.

Materials included old toothbrushes, carpet tiles, denim jeans, cycle inner tubes, video tapes, and DVDs as well as discarded bricks and wood. Design students from the university, as well as construction students from City College 91¶¶Òõ & Hove, were joined by apprentices from The Mears Group to construct this unique thought provoking and influential project.

Duncan Baker-Brown, university Senior Lecturer and the Waste House architect, said: “The shortlisting for such a prestigious national award alone is a tremendous accolade and one that recognises the hard work and dedication that has gone into the project by a great many volunteers, staff, students, partners and supporters.

“It highlights how low-carbon homes can be built in a cost-effective way using waste, including surplus material from building sites – the construction industry discards 20 per cent of everything it uses, the equivalent of scrapping one in five houses built. The building which houses the university’s MA in Sustainable Design, is a ‘live’ research project in itself and welcomes community groups.

Duncan Baker-Brown said the building literally locks in waste rather having it burnt, buried into landfill sites or dumped in the ocean.

He said: “The house has attracted huge interest nationally and globally and I am sure lessons learned from the project can be adopted by the construction industry to reduce waste, cut carbon emissions and to help combat global warming.

“Reusing waste saves money for big business as well as small, and it relieves pressure on our planet. There really is no such thing as waste or surplus material – it is just stuff in the wrong place – and reusing it saves the environment by reducing the need to mine so much raw material in the first place.”

The Waste House already has collected several awards including a RIBA South East Regional Award design honour and RIBA’s sustainability award in 2014. The winner of the Stephen Lawrence award will be announced on 15 October at RIBA’s London headquarters.

The Architect’s Journal described the House as: “More than a space to live, work and play in, the house is a collective of experiments in which students learn by application how re-used materials can be used in construction. Some of the experiments are extraordinary: from toothbrushes used as insulation to old carpet tiles used as rainscreen cladding.”

Back to top

Contact us

91¶¶Òõ
Mithras House
Lewes Road
91¶¶Òõ
BN2 4AT

Main switchboard 01273 600900

Course enquiries

Sign up for updates

University contacts

Report a problem with this page

Quick links Quick links

  • Courses
  • Open days
  • Explore our prospectus
  • Academic departments
  • Academic staff
  • Professional services departments
  • Jobs
  • Privacy and cookie policy
  • Accessibility statement
  • Libraries
  • Term dates
  • Maps
  • Graduation
  • Site information
  • The Student Contract

Information for Information for

  • Current students
  • International students
  • Media/press
  • Careers advisers/teachers
  • Parents/carers
  • Business/employers
  • Alumni/supporters
  • Suppliers
  • Local residents