Striving for sustainability, from material choice to city construction

This course considers the challenges of achieving sustainable design, current problems of the linear economy model and whether moving to a circular economy might be better for both people and planet. Taught jointly by an engineer and a material scientist, it looks at sustainability across a range of length scales - from the motion of atoms to timber skyscrapers, and everything in between. How might we achieve sustainability in a variety of industries from fashion to urban development? How have modern materials got us into a bit of a mess, and how might taking a leaf out of Nature’s book help us recover? This is a 10-session course and must be taken with W110Pm04 in Week 1.