Circular Twin Research & Development

Circular Twin is a cross-discipline collaboration and landmark study with the aim to find a more sustainable way of building. Circular by design, and circular by nature, it is an R&D process innovation initiative with truly remarkable results.

Circular Twin began in response to the climate emergency, now declared by over 300 councils across the UK.

It proves how the ultra-early alliance of designers, clients, contractor, and the supply chain leads to significant reduction in Whole Life Carbon for modest capital cost uplift.

The landmark study, known as Circular Twin, involved digitally building a school that has already been completed, and reworking the scheme from start to finish so that each decision and design choice favoured a lower carbon outcome.

The project team was brought together by Morgan Sindall Construction as a tier one contractor with design and build responsibilities, along with procurement specialist SCAPE, architects HLM and our team at Lungfish Architects, as well as the multi-disciplinary engineering consultancy Cundall.

Through this process, the project radically experimented with new working methods, notably adapting who was involved in design work and when, to form an early alliance of experts, with a shared goal to reduce the building’s Whole Life Carbon.

Sector

Education

Services

Architecture

Status

In concept pre-planning

Client

SCAPE

Location

N/A

Initiative

Research & Development

Awards

AJ100 Sustainability Initiative of the Year 2020 - WINNER

Structural Engineering Awards (Sustainability Category) - WINNER

Industry Citations

LETI Design Guide

Circular Twin RIBA stages 1-3

Circular Twin has been created deliberately to dovetail with the existing RIBA plan of works. In fact, when we ran Circular Twin on our real life example, we found that an elongated RIBA stage 2 was most advantageous for helping design out carbon through input with the supply chain.

We advocate that each of these circles can spin as fast as the supply chain is empowered to input, and can revolve as many times as deemed necessary through the design process. The more the circles turn, the better the carbon performance and improved cost-minimisation-certainty.

Circular Twin RIBA Process Concept Illustration

WHAT WE ACHIEVED

Circular Twin is an industry first, producing hard data, accessible costs and a credible template for a new approach to the built environment.

In comparison to the original school – built in 2017 - its "digital twin" achieved the following:

67% reduction in Whole Life Carbon
72% reduction in upfront embodied carbon (EC) (48% reduction in lifecycle EC - this achieves the RIBA 2030 and LETI 2030 Embodied Carbon targets)
52% reduction in annual energy consumption
39% reduction in forest consumption (for products and 30-year UK offset)
CAPEX delivered within standard budgetary parameters with multiple paybacks over asset lifetime

Thoughts from the Circular Twin Team

The project has allowed Lungfish to work alongside a team of likeminded individuals from different disciplines, giving everyone a place to discuss, deliberate and challenge what low carbon truly means, and how to get to a result which meets the ambitious targets set out.

Yasmin Dunn-Nally

Associate | Lungfish Architects

Any part of a project team basing decisions on cost alone is inhibiting low carbon construction. We need to find a better way forward, and ensure carbon is considered an integral part of our decision making hierarchy.

At the outset of this study we asked ourselves: ‘What would happen if we re-thought the procurement and design process, putting carbon before CAPEX?’ What we discovered is that in re-thinking the end to end process we can balance both without notable compromise.

Chris Clarke

Director of Performance and Improvement | SCAPE

This initiative has uncovered a revelation - that low carbon construction is inhibited by our industry’s reliance on traditional design and procurement approaches. The outcomes show that achieving low carbon buildings IS possible today.

Our proposition is that by engaging with contractors at the design stage, we can work with customers to design significantly lower carbon buildings, whilst also working within their budget parameters. Of course, there will be trade-offs and the ultimate cost depends on how far the client wants to go in terms of reducing carbon.

Louise Townsend

Director of Social value and Sustainability | Morgan Sindall Construction

Circular Twin visual

As this visual of our Circular Twin shows, low carbon doesn’t have to mean - at one end of the spectrum - very expensive, high tech solutions that are "bolted on". Nor does it mean - at the other end - a move away from modern construction materials and a return to nature.

The Circular Twin looks familiar.

We believe we have re-defined a design and procurement methodology that could make achieving low carbon an affordable and everyday part of creating new infrastructure that anyone and everyone can use.

What is required is a change in mindset and methodology to achieve it.