To accommodate the rapid growth in urban population, humankind will likely have to build as much new urban fabric in the next 40 years as already exists today. We will not have time to correct mistakes as we have been able to do historically. How then, can we to ensure that the buildings we put up are genuinely sustainable: appropriate for their cultural and climatic locations as well as minimising use of resources?

Doug King suggests that we need to learn from the evolved wisdom of historic builders. As a building physicist, everywhere Doug looks he finds evidence of underlying physical properties that have influenced the choices of generations of builders. From structure to roof tiles to paint, the properties of certain materials and methods have brought benefits to buildings, despite these rarely being overtly recognised.

In ‘Building on Evolution’ Doug discusses some of the hidden physics that may have influenced buildings across history and which could point us to new opportunities for creating high performance, low impact buildings, that have not yet even been imagined. The lecture, hosted by Lignacite, will take place at the Royal Society in London on 26th September. Drinks 6:30pm, lecture at 7:00pm. To reserve a place email beth@lignacite.co.uk.