Nottingham Broadmarsh is a proposal to re-imagine Nottingham city centre, conserving and building on its history through the rewilding, reusing and repurposing of its materials, character and spaces. While drawing on deep public consultation conducted by Nottingham city council, Heatherwick Studio came to Drees & Sommer UK to explore how circular economy approaches could lay the foundations for strong social, cultural and environmental performance.
At the heart of the project’s vision is the repurposing of the city’s historic fabric. The challenge set to our team was how the project could move Nottingham towards its ambitious Carbon Neutral by 2028 commitment without restraining the development of a modern city centre.
Our Engineering & Sustainability team worked closely with Heatherwick Studio to understand where the value was locked within existing buildings, and how to capture it - both informing the architecture and developing a strategy to keep materials at their highest value through maximising retention, onsite reuse and upcycling.
We estimated that employing circular economy principles across Nottingham Broadmarsh has the potential to save between 40-65% of lifecycle carbon, while also reducing demolition costs and unlocking a range of other benefits. These include localising and upskilling labour, developing circular value chains in the construction sector, reducing dependence on imported and virgin materials and optimising the health of buildings.