Sustainability & Building Physics

Factory made buildings can be easily reverse engineered at the end of their life. This enables them to be disassembled and recycled in a circular approach. The steel structure of the Valentine can be reused for another building or melted down and re-cast into new steel components that serve a different purpose. Volumetric construction significantly reduces waste to landfill. It also increases accuracy in construction to better ensure the target thermal performance of the building is met and often exceeded. This has enabled the Valentine to achieve a 35% improvement over Building Regulations.

Our research has demonstrated that the CO2 emissions produced during construction of the Valentine are approximately 40% less than for an in-situ reinforced concrete building. The volumetric system is very robust and has a minimum 60-year design life, but there is no reason to think it could not last much longer with appropriate maintenance. To extend the life of the building, external cladding materials are traditional brick and stone. London has many fine examples of very old buildings clad in this manner, which continue to be serviceable after hundreds of years with appropriate maintenance.