Silo, which claims to be the world’s first ‘zero-waste restaurant’ and is based in Hackney Wick, proudly displays on its reception counter a set of marbled cubes, made from the only waste the restaurant could not compost, reuse or upcycle. In the words of founder Douglas McMaster, they serve as a reminder to “continue to make the greatest possible effort within the bandwidth of our own sustainability”.

Intrigued by an image of one of these cubes, I questioned whether such a waste cube could be the future of construction. Sadly, there are only two and a half of them in existence, so we cannot physically build with these blocks, but if we adopt the philosophy embodied within them, we may just transform our industry.

This begs the question, is it possible to replicate this thinking within the construction industry and for us to design and deliver zero-waste buildings?

Circularity is much discussed in architectural circles today. As Julia Barfield has pointed out, “the built environment is responsible for 42% of the UK’s carbon emissions, a staggering 62% of the UK’s waste and 50% of extracted material use, plus there has been 50% biodiversity loss in the last 50 years”. We cannot ignore the implications of this, and we have a duty to address the issue and effect change.

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