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NEWS BOOK REVIEW
Net Zero Carbon Standard author’s ‘hopeful’ book on construction’s potential to heal the planet
Will Arnold is a leading environmentalist and structural engineer, and a visiting professor at the University of Bath. He was also a key contributor to the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard, and initiated the endeavour to create a new Part Z Building Regulation for embodied carbon. At a pivotal moment when the industry is being called upon to be far more rigorous on construction, while also focusing on reducing whole life carbon and providing healthy buildings, Arnold has written a potentially game-changing book designed for a wide audience entitled Future Build: How Construction Can Heal Our Planet (published by Bloomsbury). It has been described by environmentalist Jonathan Porritt as “user-friendly, jargon-free, and solutions-rich.” However while the book brings regenerative design concepts together to “reframe sustainable construction,” (in the words of Dame Jo da Silva, Global Sustainable Development Director, Arup), Arnold doesn’t hold back on criticising the industry for the damage it has already infl icted on the environment, as a result of “dependence” on materials such as steel, concrete, and masonry.
The book leads with a somewhat downbeat focus on the impact of materials, and proposes realistic alternatives to the commonly used solutions. Although bleak in some respects, Arnold’s prose also aims to bring in end consumers as well as architects, contractors and others, and there are chapters called “The Allure of Big and Fat,” and “The Philosophy of Less,” as well as investigations into reuse and recycling. He also proposes the moves the industry has to make – to achieve what could be a seismic shift to regenerative approaches. This is hailed as a “bold vision for
change,” by the publishers, “revealing how every stage of construction – from design to demolition – can be transformed for the better.” Arnold explores international examples of buildings that “do more than
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just minimise harm: they actively heal the planet,” such as schools constructed from bamboo. He therefore aims to show that the future he is describing is achievable, and “already being built.”
This is certainly a call to action on construction to do ‘good’ and move away from the stigmas of environmental harm it has been associated with. Future Build could well start to build a wider audience than simply the ‘believers’ already out there in the industry and the wider public.
The book has been praised by a wide spectrum of industry voices such as architect, academic and ‘Waste House’ pioneer, Duncan Baker-Brown, who called it “thoughtful, hopeful, and deeply informed, and even “vital reading for anyone committed to a regenerative future.” Another luminary, Prof James Norman of the Universities of Bath and Bristol, said the book is “fun and accessible, and essential reading on why and how the way we design buildings needs to change.”
ADF OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2026
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