Catherine Ramsden, the Studio’s Founding Director, joined the discussion with Circular., diving into the era where sustainability is no longer optional but imperative.  

In March, the United Nations warned that material extraction is expected to rise by 60% in 2060 – and this could ‘derail’ efforts to achieve global climate, biodiversity, and pollution targets as well as prosperity and human wellbeing.  

The Circular Economy Foundation’s latest Circularity Gap Report found that the global circularity rate is falling, and we are consuming more virgin materials than ever – so our efforts to design better products and systems are currently dwarfed by global consumption. 

Reflecting that the buildings and construction sector is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases at 37% of global emissions, Catherine commented:

“[we] now seem to have a better understanding of what embodied carbon associated with materials means, that there is a finite supply of resource, and that we have got to stop extracting it – and try to behave better. I think there is a big focus on measuring carbon and perhaps not enough about simply reducing it, and what we call lean design.” 

In simple terms, Useful Studio, with colleagues in the wider Useful Simple Trust, create architectural and engineering solutions that use less stuff. To which Catherine added, “And that takes a rigour in design thinking, and sometimes more time.”  

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