‘It’s like Dunkirk in construction!’ A small group is rescuing London’s most valuable building materials | Art and design

Joel de Mowbray reached its peak with construction work in the UK in south London in 2020. They work on beautiful construction, which is part of the Lambeth council’s plan to improve the streets for pedestrians. De Mowbray was setting up a log cabin on a little-used road.

“The council was cutting down trees all the time we were building, and felling trees near us,” he says. But we had to go to Ashdown Forest to get our luggage.

Every construction worker has similar stories. The goal is to renovate existing buildings rather than demolish them and reuse as many materials as possible. In fact, the construction industry they produce around 62% of the UK’s waste. Much is recycled but much ends up in the landfill.

“There is what I call logic street – when you see a tree being cut and the wood is used – and then there is an organizational logic that is determined by insurance, safety standards and company responsibility.

De Mowbray is different, however. After the events in south London he started Yes Createthe design of an urban wood mill to provide local timber for construction. “We converted a 1980s electric milk float to a logging truck to chop and transport wood. We were recognized by the rescue and were invited Smithfield’s old meat market when the house was stripped. We took 12 tons of mahogany, teak and afromosia that just jumped.”

However, he says, he remembers looking at the scene and thinking: “We’re just looking at the sides.”

But now he has come to the heart of the matter. Yes Make has teamed up with Resolve Collective, which provides recycled materials for cultural institutions, as well as construction and research. Physical Conditions. Together they have opened a 20,000 sq meter industrial park in Newham that promotes circular architecture, where materials are reused instead of being thrown away. It is called Tipping Point East (TPE) and is the center of its kind in the UK.

“We are creating a revolutionary way to market the city we love,” says De Mowbray. “Turning things that would otherwise have been wasted into things that have character.”

Yes Create a strategy and guarantee used building materials from demolition and renovation to be donated to community homes or sold at very good prices – “sometimes 10% of the retail price”. The equipment yard is full of glass, sinks and pipes that would otherwise have been thrown away.

Resolve runs the Material Store, a collection of displays, wood and lumber reclaimed from museums and galleries for reuse or donation. Material Cultures focuses on building materials for life and research. All three offer study tours and courses to improve skills and reduce infrastructure. Just as community gardens can connect people with food and nature, the hope is that TPE will do the same with built and recycled spaces.

De Mowbray explained: “I was a lost boy. It was only when I got my qualifications that I realized I had the skills and the ability to help.”

On the morning of my visit, two saw millers at the National Saw Mills – which are actually called Tom and Jerry – showing a group of Central Saint Martins students how to carry a saw and cut a 105-year-old sequoia tree at the Linford Arboretum in the north-east of London in wooden boards.

As Tom carefully chops the tree down, Jerry explains how Britain’s forests depend on centralized, mill-based land which means that, even though trees like this sequoia produce excellent timber, The UK is the third largest importer of timber in the world behind the US and China.

TPE has a five-year lease on its Silvertown site, and we hope it will demonstrate how a facility like this can help reduce waste, increase efficiency and deliver a leaner and more sustainable future for the UK construction industry. It’s not easy. For example, TPE has blocked at least 10,000 fire doors since its opening. Not because the doors were damaged but because no one on the Yes Make team has the proper training to make them work. They are now rushing to cover this up. “To me,” says De Mowbray, “they are like the signs I used to see in the playgrounds when I was playing with my friends as a child.

There needs to be buy-in from the community and the industry for TPE to be successful. De Mowbray has a good Dunkirk analogy of how it might work. “It is like the small boats that helped save the soldiers during the war.