Ged Finch

Developing affordable circular economy solutions for the construction industry.

There is an urgent need for the building industry to address end-of-life material management in New Zealand. The most effective way to do this is to ensure that buildings are designed in a way that facilitates material recovery. The current widespread use of adhesive-based fixings and single-life materials are a consequence of economic drivers and has led to unprecedented levels of waste creation.

The research looks at how to design building systems to facilitate material reuse and/or high-value recycling in an economically successful manner at the end of the structures useful life. The study is ‘design-led’ in the sense that the research is about designing, through iterative tests (and based on a wide range of precedents), building systems that will enable circularity in mainstream construction.

Supervisors

Antony Pelosi, Morten Gjerde, and Guy Marriage.

Awards

Sustainable Business Network Awards 2020: Going Circular Winner

COINS Grand Challenge: Open Category Finalist

KiwiNet Emerging Innovator 2019

BEST Awards 2019: Gold Pin in the Student Category

NZ Wood Design Awards 2018: High Commended in the open Wood and Fibre Creativity category

RIBA President's Awards for Research 2018: Shortlisted in the Design and Technical Category

Press

Stuff: Young entrepreneur's sustainable wall system provides a house that keeps on giving

TedxWellington: Why we need to rethink how we build homes

Stuff: Completely recycling and re-using housing - one student's "blue-sky" design project gaining traction

RNZ: Designing waste-free buildings

KiwiNet: X-Frame for waste free buildings gets commercialisation boost

ArchDaily: Fastmount Standard Range Clips in X-Frame Project

Build Magazine: X-Frame and the circular economy