Inside Futurebuild 2025: A Day of Discovery and Debate

Author: Emma Taylor, Research Associate, University of Bath

It is that time of year again where colleagues in the building industry head to the ExCel for Futurebuild.   Futurebuild is a 3-day event running from 4th – 6th March, with over 200 exhibits alongside a number of arenas where visitors can hear from industry leaders and engage in debate.

I visited on the last day alongside Melissa Mean, Director of WeCanMake and Transforming Homes co-investigator.  It was a flying visit, but it provided a great opportunity to talk to suppliers, discover new innovative products and ideas, and connect with like-minded professionals in the industry.

I was given the opportunity to represent Transforming Homes on the Materials Impact Stage, sitting on a panel hosted by the Alliance for Sustainable Building Products (ASBP) and chaired by Richard Broad, discussing natural materials for new build and retrofit. Other panel members included:

Tom Robinson (Adaptavate Ltd) who has developed carbon-negative materials as a form of Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU), with circularity at the core. Tom explained the history behind their company, how their breathable plasters are made and the benefits of their use to the occupants, the buildings and the planet.

Peter Rollinson (Mike Wye Ltd) who spoke more widely about the lime plasters they offer and the building physics behind the application of lime plaster.

Michiel Brouns (Brouns & Co) gave a brief history into their company and his background as a historic building conservation expert, focussing on linseed oil paint and the benefits of using this paint for timber on buildings both indoors and outdoors. ‘Linseed paint is different because it doesn’t form a film on top of the timber. It allows water to escape again and even helps to preserve the wood. It’s also long-lasting: maintenance is just a wipe with some oil once every 10-15 years, so it is cheaper than many brands of conventional paint.’

It was interesting to hear about the different products, their environmental benefits and what each panellist deemed their products unique selling points. I am thankful to the ASBP, for inviting me to speak. It was particularly exciting to speak to a number of visitors after the presentation to provide more information on our project and how they continue to follow our progress.

While I was presenting, Melissa took part in a session on the National Retrofit Conference Stage, sitting alongside Jas Tippet, a resident of one of the demonstration homes. The session, chaired by Sara Edmonds (National Retrofit Hub), focused on Community-Led Retrofit – ‘Redefining Retrofit at Scale’. They were joined by Naomi Rubbra (Footwork), Rob Morrison (BE-ST) and Neil Turner (Ecological Building Systems UK).  It was a very insightful conversation and great to raise project awareness and the importance of community in solving the retrofit challenge.

During the rest of my time at Futurebuild, I had a very helpful discussion with representatives at the Trustmark stall, explaining a little more about our project’s aim to lodge bio-based retrofit solutions —particularly EWI—on the Trustmark database, and explaining some of the difficulties we are experiencing to date. I also sat in on the final session of the day titled Retrofit Systems – Navigating the complexity on the National Retrofit Conference Stage which included speakers Alastair Mumford (The MCS Foundation), Alastair Parvin (Open Systems Lab) and Polina Pencheva (UCL).  The main take away from this discussion was a need to redefine our operating systems to be able to retrofit at the scale needed: 29 million homes to be retrofitted in the next 25 years!

Credits: Dilek Arslan