Let’s Get Serious

The so-called building “lifecycle” is in no way a cycle at all. In fact, the construction industry alone, whilst taking a handy 3 billion tonnes of raw materials from the earth annually, is throwing it away at a rate good enough for creating a third of the entire planet’s annual waste.

That’s 700 million tonnes of waste, making the construction industry responsible for 39% of all global emissions.

If you’re not quite blown away by that as you should be, picture the Harbour Bridge falling into the Sydney Harbour, and the sheer steel weight of something like that. Now picture that happening again for another 18,000 times. How are you feeling now?

That’s why we’re trying to change the way the world builds.

When we started Spacecube 10 years ago, we were a small group of passionate people focussed on addressing the increased expectations clients had for a more premium offering. This resulted in the need for elaborate custom fit outs to meet those expectations. And that is where the waste is generated. Our system simply requires less custom fit-out to meet clients expectations.

We’ve grown up a whole lot since then, setting our minds on bigger, better, and more ambitious things, and yet, the industry around us hasn’t. The repetitive “take-make-dispose” approach which plagues construction, continues to rear its ugly head at every step we take.

Our modular solutions are designed with a couple of key waste-cutting solutions in mind, re-usability and longevity. All Spacecube’s have the same cold shell, customisable after construction, meaning the functional Monash Health COVID-19 facility used yesterday, could be morphed into a three-story hospitality structure at the Australian Open today, and then transformed into a bespoke wine tasting room in the Yarra Valley tomorrow. Unless you plan on using your Spacecube for the rest of your life, we’re going to be asking for it back.

We know that a sustainability commitment is only as good as your bottom line. Sustainability should be reflected in the entire production chain. Wherever a Spacecube is in the world, you can expect as much as 90% of it’s raw and fabricated materials will be sourced locally.

Ordinary doesn’t have a place at Spacecube, and neither does waste.

We’re also deeply committed to keeping our manufacturing clean. Our aluminium trims and plywood sheets are made to fit, with less than 3% wastage, which is then recycled for alternative use. The total amount of construction waste attributed to the fit-out of a complete Spacecube can fit in singular shopping bag! Yes, you read that right, it’s actually that little. (And yes, of course we’ll re-use the shopping bags too)

As pioneers in the field of modular architecture, and as individuals driven by our passion to fracture the status quo, we feel it is both our opportunity and our responsibility to lead by example. The construction industry relies on practices of which our planet simply cannot rely, and it’s time to learn how to build more-new from the old, and to properly clean up after ourselves. To finally close the building lifecycle.