 Everyone's different here at the Canopy Workspace, different organisations, projects and specialisms. But here inside the Entopia building, there's also a common goal that brings us together. There's a collective desire to accelerate change, and sustainability is at the heart of it. The Canopy is all about collaboration, a community sharing and learning from each other's experiences. And this is Canopy Connect, a podcast where you can get to know your fellow members at the Canopy. This time on the podcast. Hi, my name is Patrick Usborne and I'm the co-founder of Perpendicular Architecture and established the Positive Collective. So, let's connect. So the reason why we formed Perpendicular Architecture was on the back of three main issues, which were, and still are, happening. And that was firstly to do with how do we actually really tackle sustainability with an evidence-based approach, which was being talked about an awful lot, but not really understood fully. Secondly, also innovation in construction. So there was a lot of designs being put to the front which claim they were sustainable, but actually the way in which they were built were very traditional and actually inherently use a lot of carbon to build them. So we felt actually there was an opportunity there to really think about how we could build innovatively with that sustainability mindset. And then lastly, social value. Social value was always put one side by many architectural firms, which we found not the right approach and actually by integrating social value from the outset alongside sustainability and innovative design. Those three married up really well and that's what we wanted to focus on and that's why we started Perpendicular Architecture. So the work we do day by day is almost two-fold. So it's actually in a traditional architectural sense that we design and deliver buildings along with our clients. We're working in particular on a lot of housing schemes, so for private professional individuals who are going to be needing to build 100 homes, for example, on a site. So we'll be working alongside them. The other part is very much an educational part. So all of the clients we work with, they know they need to do more. They know they need to think about sustainability in a completely different way in which they were dealing with sustainability before, but they don't know how. So they come to us to have a better understanding on the process to be able to achieve a sustainable development, a building, and we'll help them through that. So we'll engage with them and we'll advise them from a very early stage in a consultancy piece who they should be working with. And then once that team is established, then we'll work with them to deliver those buildings. Sustainability, we always are wary of that word because it's so overused. So the way in which we're approaching sustainability now is moving beyond our net carbon zero goals for 2050 and how can we start to regenerate the environment around us? And we're finding actually a lot of architectural firms have signed up to the ROBA 2030 Challenge. They understand exactly what needs to be done and that's really positive. That's a huge benefit. However, not all of them will be integrating how to build innovatively and also how to integrate social value into their designs. Even though you'll have architectural firms who are very good at one or two of those, there's fewer which are good at all of those and it's a big ask. It's very complex trying to integrate all of these different ways of thinking and design. It's very difficult to do, but that's certainly something that we're hoping to strive to be able to do and grow from there. We've been working with and collaborating with others in particular to try and find ways to integrate social value without necessarily fully quantifying it. So the issue with social value is that it's very qualitative approach to design. It's very much based on the needs of the local stakeholders, the local community, depending on the building that you're building. So trying to really understand how can you fully design alongside the local community, the local stakeholders, is the first step to be able to do that and really put placemaking at the forefront. Because if you're looking at the quality of life that we have at the moment, there is huge, vast improvements that can be made to where we are at the moment and that's evident in so many places. Not least, for example, the NHS and the amount of money the NHS is spending in particular on improving people's health through living in poor conditions. We've all seen stories of mould infestations in particular housing. So it's very clear housing is not fit for purpose at the moment. There's an enormous amount we can do to help with that. But also in terms of placemaking and ensuring that we've got happy communities who are encouraged to speak to one another, to rob shoulders with each other outside of their own homes and there's a lot that can be done in terms of placemaking as well. The future vision that I see is a fully integrated society and what I mean by that is that we are reconnecting ourselves to the local environment around us. So that's the local biodiversity, nature in particular, but also each other. And that's where the social value comes in. So I very much see the future where we can fully realign ourselves and understand each other's needs and actually support each other in a way where value overrides this idea about cost or this idea about that to be able to succeed in life we need to earn a certain amount of money. These are just such basic principles which are no longer the right way to go. For us to be responding to the needs of our planet but also each other in society we need to do so much more to actually create value and think about the benefits to the environment and each other. So yeah, my vision for the future is definitely one where people can work collectively together to support one another and in doing so supporting the environment around them as well. I really was interested in the canopy, mainly from when I joined the Accelerator program about a year ago. So there was the Accelerator program in the built environment two years ago now. In fact, time flies by and that was a brilliant six-week program to really understand how we can grow our business and collaborate with others. And when I heard that Antopia will be opening and part of that building will be for the Canopy members it just made complete sense. The big huge benefit of being within a community is to be able to share knowledge seamlessly and the industry, the construction industry historically has been very blinked in the way in which they approach a problem and they look within the industry first to be able to find a solution. When actually a solution might come from any direction and often or not it will do. So to be able to sit alongside other, those who are looking into agricultural issues, into textile issues, into a whole raft of different sectors and bringing that knowledge within will inevitably help the problems that we're trying to solve. And I think hopefully vice versa as well for us, especially on the back of being a member on the Accelerator program, is that we found as architects we're almost in hopefully a strong position to be able to bring people together and to actually find a home for some of the solutions people are coming to the fore with. So especially in terms of the material and innovation is actually we're very well placed to be able to specify the materials that others are innovating with and actually seeing those being built with. If you want to know a little bit more about what Peppenticler does, the best way of doing it is coming down to the ground floor in Entopia and I'll pretty much always be there apart from the odd trip away from Cambridge to be able to have a conversation and we always feel conversations are far more powerful than reading a website. However, we do have a website and our website is always being updated alongside a dedicated website for the positive collective which if you enter that into Google, you'll get the website. Thanks for checking out this episode of Canopy Connect. Log in to your Office R&D profile to connect with your Canopy neighbors. Just head to the members page and find them. This is a Canopy podcast made by Newell-Ottman. The Canopy is part of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership supported by the European Regional Development Fund. Thank you for listening.