“Cities were mostly designed by people who didn’t use them.”

The nature of our business puts us in touch with some fascinating individuals. The quote I led with is from a chat I was having with Catherine Barratt, Managing Director of Furnitubes, a company based in England that produces urban outdoor furniture. Working with Furnitubes, and speaking with Catherine in particular, confirms that we don’t need to be engaged in the same business activity to share a set of values.

One of our shared obsessions is to do all we can in a way that has lasting impact because this makes the most sustainable use of resources. It preserves time, materials, and financial resources.

Another shared value is that all we do should benefit as wide an audience as possible. And in the case of Furnitubes, this is taken to mean absolutely everyone.

Consider the supply chain of outdoor urban furniture. The bench you sit on when you’re in a public space like a city square has been manufactured by a company like Furnitubes, directly paid for by the city council, chosen by an urban planner or designer, and finally you get to take a moment’s pause by sitting on it. It is you, this last person in the chain, who has indirectly paid for it all because it’s ultimately our taxes that build cities.

Despite this, for the longest time, cities have been designed by people who were designing for themselves. They didn’t consider other demographics, nor did they take the wellbeing of a large group of people into account. Cities were largely designed for the efficiency of trade and this meant that transportation was central to this design. We built cities around cars and us humans had to make the adjustments necessary to give traffic the highest priority.

In the past, we designed with humans in mind. Barcelona, for instance, was designed to take into account that a high population density will need more open spaces if they are to feel like they can breathe in the city. Cities like Rome and Athens were designed to leave a legacy of beauty behind.

The discourse surrounding the transformation of urban spaces is both timely and essential, as the delineation between indoor refuge and our time spent outdoors becomes ever more pronounced. As we spend more time indoors, the time we spend out of our homes becomes even more precious. And this serves as an imperative for our urban environments to provide us with a healthy dose of wellbeing.

Catherine is fully immersed in this sentiment. When speaking about the way they regard their role in society, she states that, “if you make an area welcoming and functional, it has ripple effects across the whole community. People look after spaces they value, crime goes down, and health indicators improve. We strive to build long-lasting products that benefit the public,” she says. “Our decisions are made with a better future in mind.”

How can the manufacturing industry participate in this movement?

Catherine believes the private sector has an important role to play. “The private sector has a moral imperative to lead this charge,” she contends.  “Businesses must demonstrate the potential and the value of sustainable, human-centric urban design. Every park bench, every planter, every element we introduce into the urban fabric should be a testament to our belief in a more beautiful, more connected future.” And this is the way she leads Furnitubes, to set an example through sustainable practices and innovative design that puts people first.

Peering into the future, Catherine adopts an optimistic stance regarding the trajectory of urban planning. 

She sees cities that embrace human-centric design, nurturing environments that are not only livable but also enriching and inclusive. This forward-looking perspective shows that well-conceived urban spaces can act as catalysts for community, creativity, and well-being

And this reflects a broader commitment to building cities that not only function efficiently but also resonate on a deeper, more personal level: “We have a responsibility to leave a legacy of functional beauty. Beautiful outdoor spaces add value to the lived experience of all those who make use of them. This is what great cities do.”

These are great platforms for us to build a better future on. Innovative design and manufacture around the world gives us a glimpse at what’s possible when manufacturing leads, rather than follows. A new generation of savvy customers are demanding better. The time for inspiring, responsible, and lasting manufacture is here. If we keep this vision in mind, we stand a chance at building the world that we and future generations deserve.

The post Manufacturing a better future appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

One of the principles that defines the work we do at Switch is a long-term view – we strongly believe that all resources are put to better use when viewed over time frames that span more than quarterly results. This is a consideration we emphasise when onboarding a new client, and one that took on a life of its own when we started to work with Mattermake.

Early on in the relationship, it was evident that we had the same quarrel with the word ‘sustainability’ and the way it has become such a throwaway term. It’s right there at the top of every business agenda, and yet we see slow and incremental progress that’s mostly incited by regulatory frameworks. Rather than sticking to our internal views, we reached out to Mattermake because we know they are thinking in radically different ways about almost everything. It’s been a privilege to work with architect, designer, manufacturer, thinker, and innovator Steve De Micoli and a conversation with him is always stimulating and thought-provoking.

Are ESG frameworks too restrictive?

Steve is the founder of Mattermake, a fabrication-oriented architecture and design studio and, in his quiet and humble way, a rare visionary. When speaking about the word sustainability itself, particularly in the context of the ways in which we construct our built environment, Steve was quick to lament the issues with frameworks such as ESG because they lay out a prescribed set of policies that one must adhere to if they want to consider their efforts to be sustainable. These frameworks, he points out, allow the industry to simply tick the boxes without the need to innovate or even collaborate with other industries for a multi-skilled approach to the issues that surround us.

The construction industry has long focused on reducing its environmental impact through the use of recycled materials and energy-efficient designs. However, a simple “reduce and reuse” approach may no longer be enough to create truly sustainable and regenerative built environments. Steve believes that the key to meaningful change is not reduction, but regeneration.

This echoes the sentiment of another of our forward-thinking clients – Furnitubes – and we’ve been working with them to garner support from some radical new approaches to material choice that goes into the manufacture of urban outdoor furniture.

Cultivating abundance via positive impact

Their definition of sustainability is strikingly similar to Steve’s in that it breaks the mould of “doing more with less” – rather than merely lessening the negative impacts, the goal should be cultivating abundance through designs that actively enhance the ecosystems they inhabit. “Push for abundance, not frugality”, Steve insists. This shifts our mindset from one where we attempt to limit the impact of our activities to one where we think of maximising the positive impact we could have.

In the UK, new policies now mandate all construction to increase local biodiversity by at least 10%. We should consider this a baseline – the ambition is to vastly exceed these targets through designs that give back more to their environments than they consume.

The future may lie in unusual collaborations

Another issue is the compartmentalised view that most industries take to sustainability, patching up existing practices rather than looking outwards and seeking to make unusual connections. Collaborative thinking is a staple of thinking in our industry – we work with an incredibly diverse set of thinkers as a matter of course – but it is very unusual in the construction industry. Luckily, it is not completely unheard of.

One remarkable example of this approach is the use of waste fabric to reinforce concrete. This unlikely collaboration between the fashion and construction industries demonstrates that unusual allies are everywhere to be found. As Steve notes, “Once you start to see the infinite possibility of connections we haven’t yet made, you realise how much innovation is still untapped.”

Mattermake’s innovative projects embody this spirit of interconnectedness. One such project involves 3D printing organic-looking structures that can be stacked to create artificial “coral reefs”, which is a collaboration between Mattermake, Zibel & University of Malta. This pioneering work is intended to adhere to the submerged walls of concrete jetties, typically barren wastelands, transforming what was once a lifeless structure into a concentrated node of biodiversity by providing a habitat for a multitude of marine species.

By leveraging cutting-edge techniques and sustainable materials, Mattermake is redefining the boundaries of what is possible in construction. His studio is a playground for a vividly imaginative team that applies their minds to unusual solutions for sustainable dwellings, workspaces, and, apparently, the bits no one ever thinks about such as the invisible part of our constructed coastline.

Rather than focusing on individual dwellings or buildings, we can design entire cities that thrive in harmony with their surroundings

Steve De Micoli

We’re suddenly talking about permaculture. Steve draws inspiration from principles of permaculture and biomimicry – models that have existed for decades yet struggled to permeate mainstream construction. Just as regenerative agricultural practices enrich rather than deplete, Steve believes the built environment must transition to a symbiotic, interconnected approach. Combining this with a regenerative mindset, we can move beyond mere sustainability and strive for abundance, rather than compromise.

This paradigm shift has far-reaching implications. “Rather than focusing on individual dwellings or buildings, we can design entire cities that thrive in harmony with their surroundings”, is Steve’s take on this.

It’s clear that the construction industry is poised on the cusp of a revolution. The old paradigm of compartmentalisation and reduction is giving way to a new era of regeneration and abundance.

Steve, and the international community of like-minded innovators, are illuminating the path forward for a construction industry that is ripe for transformation. As we navigate the complexities of sustainability, it’s clear that the most profound innovations will arise from the intersections – between industries, disciplines, and ways of thinking.

Building the future of the construction industry

As we look to the future, it’s clear that the construction industry has a critical role to play in shaping a more sustainable, regenerative, and abundant world. And it has an obligation to do so. If we have the wisdom it takes to listen to the visionaries leading the charge, we can create a built environment that not only minimises its impact but actively enriches the world around us. 

Where does this leave us? We can all work on as much as is within our reach. At Switch, we can do what we do best, working with those who have technical brilliance and need the ability to communicate their mission with clarity and in a way that reaches the right audiences, no matter how unlikely they may be. When successful, it will be clear that the possibilities are endless. It’s up to us to create an environment that fosters unusual discourse with the intent of maximising our impact on the planet as long as it is a lasting and positive one.

If you think in terms of impact, people, and then profit, reach out. We’ve got a couple of slots open for collaboration with organisations that are driven by doing the right thing.

The post Beyond Sustainability: Constructing a Regenerative Future appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

“Cities were mostly designed by people who didn’t use them.”

Catherine Barratt, Managing Director of Furnitubes

The nature of our business puts us in touch with some fascinating individuals. The quote I led with is from a chat I was having with Catherine Barratt, Managing Director of Furnitubes, a company based in England that produces urban outdoor furniture. Working with Furnitubes, and speaking with Catherine in particular, confirms that we don’t need to be engaged in the same business activity to share a set of values.

Shared Values

One of our shared obsessions is to do all we can in a way that has lasting impact because this makes the most sustainable use of resources. It preserves time, materials, and financial resources.

Another shared value is that all we do should benefit as wide an audience as possible. And in the case of Furnitubes, this is taken to mean absolutely everyone.

Consider the supply chain of outdoor urban furniture. The bench you sit on when you’re in a public space like a city square has been manufactured by a company like Furnitubes, directly paid for by the city council, chosen by an urban planner or designer, and used by a member of the public (yourself, in this case). And it is you, this last person in the chain, who has indirectly paid for it all because it’s ultimately our taxes that build cities.

Despite this, for the longest time, cities have been designed by people who were designing for themselves. They didn’t consider other demographics, nor did they take the wellbeing of a large group of people into account. Cities were largely designed for the efficiency of trade and this meant that transportation was central to this design. We built cities around cars and us humans had to make the adjustments necessary to give traffic the highest priority.

This is not always the case. When planning Barcelona, Cerdà took into account the amount of air we need to breathe properly and recognised that high density urban areas weren’t conducive to wellbeing. Even when the horse-drawn carriage was the staple mode of transportation, Cerdà devised a grid based on wide avenues and octagonal blocks with chamfered corners to give more space and more visibility to the pedestrian, effectively founding the study of urbanisation.

Long-Term Vision

Then there are the aesthetics of a city. As a civilisation we are judged by what we leave behind – a notion we are entirely familiar with when judging our past but often seem to ignore when constructing our present. The same people who marvel at the remains of Greek and Roman cities are usually responsible for planning buildings on a spreadsheet, constructing a depressingly dystopian environment.

Roger Scruton, perhaps ambitious in his regard of beauty as a fundamental virtue, placed the responsibility on our shoulders to consider the wider-reaching impact of our actions, “We do not merely study the past: we inherit it, and inheritance brings with it not only the rights of ownership, but the duties of trusteeship.”

The discourse surrounding the transformation of urban spaces is both timely and essential, as the delineation between indoor refuge and our time spent outdoors becomes ever more pronounced. As we spend more time indoors, the time we spend out of our homes becomes even more precious. And this serves as an imperative for our urban environments to provide us with a healthy dose of wellbeing.

Urban Planning Revolution

The narrative of urban planning is undergoing a profound evolution, transitioning from designs that prioritized vehicular movement to those that advocate for human scale and environmental sustainability. We can observe this shift as the more enlightened cities are driving gradual reclamation of spaces for pedestrian use, the proliferation of green infrastructure, and the heightened emphasis on accessible, welcoming public realms. Cities such as Rotterdam and Paris exemplify this shift, with their innovative approaches to urban redesign and commitment to enhancing the quality of life for their residents.

Catherine is fully immersed in this sentiment. When speaking about the way they regard their role in society, she states that, “if you make an area welcoming and functional, it has ripple effects across the whole community. People look after spaces they value, crime goes down, and health indicators improve. We strive to build long-lasting products that benefit the public,” she says. “Our decisions are made with a better future in mind.”

So how can cities accelerate this transition? Catherine believes the private sector has an important role to play. “The private sector has a moral imperative to lead this charge,” she contends.  “Businesses must demonstrate the potential and the value of sustainable, human-centric urban design. Every park bench, every planter, every element we introduce into the urban fabric should be a testament to our belief in a more beautiful, more connected future.” And this is the way she leads Furnitubes, to set an example through sustainable practices and innovative design that puts people first.

Looking Forward

Peering into the future, Catherine adopts an optimistic stance regarding the trajectory of urban planning. She envisions cities that wholeheartedly embrace human-centric design, fostering environments that are not only livable but also enriching and inclusive. This forward-looking perspective champions the idea that well-conceived urban spaces can act as catalysts for community, creativity, and well-being, reflecting a broader commitment to building cities that not only function efficiently but also resonate on a deeper, more personal level: “We have a responsibility to leave a legacy of functional beauty. Beautiful outdoor spaces add value to the lived experience of all those who make use of them. This is what great cities do.”

There are bright spots to build on. Innovative urban projects worldwide offer glimpses of what is possible. And a new generation of planners, designers and citizens is demanding better. “The time has come for urban spaces that welcome and uplift us all,” Catherine concluded. “If we keep this vision in mind, the cities we get are the cities we deserve.”

The post Value-based Brand: Planning the Urban Spaces We Deserve appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

Businesses will do that. They’ll go through periods of stasis, growing quietly in all directions, and then a moment or two will come where that period of stasis blooms into new growth. Like people, a brand goes through new challenges, and emerges differently: with new purpose, with new intent, with new guidelines to follow to reach the next stage of their role. 

Part of the next stage for us is this: we have a new general manager. She’s worked her way up through the company, going from blog writer and creative researcher to head of marketing, and a few other roles in between. She’s kind and emphatic and patient, with clients and with coworkers. 

Say hi to Mel, our new general manager. 

What inspired you to pursue a leadership role?

I didn’t actively pursue a leadership role! I just really wanted to contribute to a working environment that people took pride in working in, and so for the past few years that I’ve been at Switch, that’s what I’ve been working towards. The role was just what came next. 

I really believe that fostering positive relationships and supporting the well-being of all teams is crucial for long-term success and growth. Whether it’s ensuring client satisfaction, promoting a collaborative atmosphere among colleagues, or cultivating strong partnerships with suppliers, I am driven by a genuine care for the success and happiness of those around me.

What’s the biggest factor that has helped you advance into your new role?

The people that I have had the opportunity to work with, hands down. I’m curious by nature and I like asking questions, but the people I’ve worked with have supported me and encouraged me on a daily basis. 

I am one of the lucky ones that gets to work with people I genuinely love, and they each play a pivotal role in shaping the person I am today. Every day, I am fortunate to learn something new from my colleagues, and their collective knowledge and experiences have equipped me with the tools I now use even in my personal life.

How do you stay focused and productive in the face of distractions and competing priorities?

This is challenging, and these questions were sent to me when I was really distracted, but I try and keep what I learned from Ed in mind: there are urgent tasks, and important tasks, and splitting your work into those categories really helps me prioritise. 

It’s all too easy for me to get caught up in the trap of “urgent” tasks, and constantly telling myself, “just this one more email and then…”, however I am actively working on being more deliberate in breaking down tasks. Also, I have implemented a ‘Don’t be an ass’ to-do list, which automatically prioritises tasks as deadlines approach or are missed for work that others rely on me for.

Unfortunately, this particular task remained at the top of that list for a significant amount of time, and I am genuinely grateful to Camille (and the marketing team) for their understanding and patience despite my multiple missed deadlines.

How do you handle stress and pressure in your role?

I make a conscious effort to be mindful of where I invest my energy, but there are moments where no amount of mindfulness helps – and that’s where I tend to rely on the support of the people around me. I’ve built a network of strong relationships, and they’re always there to help me: both on a personal and a professional level. 

From a work point of view, it’s truly impressive to witness the collective response of everyone in the agency whenever someone even hints at feeling stressed. The team jumps to the rescue, offering help and assistance without hesitation.

I also check in with myself daily, and ask myself whether stressing about a situation will truly help me solve it faster or better. If something is beyond my direct control, I question the usefulness of stressing about it.

I am only human, though, so there are times when stress and pressure do get to me. In those moments, the understanding, guidance, and encouragement of others plays a crucial role in helping me navigate through challenging situations.

Overall, my approach to handling stress and pressure involves building strong relationships, maintaining a mindful perspective on where to direct my energy, and seeking support from my colleagues and friends when needed.

You are undoubtedly busy, how do you take care of yourself and maintain good mental health?

I like to keep myself grounded. I value open communication, which means admitting to others when I’m not okay, or when I’ve hit a wall in what I’m doing. I try and reconnect with things that bring me joy – playing with Matteo, or walking Simba are my current go-tos. It’s not easy, but I try and do my best to take care of myself so I can take care of others. 

That said, while I believe that taking care of oneself and maintaining good mental health should always be a priority (even in the midst of a busy schedule), I don’t quite listen to my own advice. I really believe that in order to effectively care for others, one must first ensure to be okay themselves. However, I must admit that at times, it can be challenging to prioritise self-care, and I tend to put myself last on the list of things ‘to do’.

How do you stay motivated and inspired?

I work with amazing, unique people who constantly make me think, “I want to be them when I grow up.” When you have these people in your life, lack of motivation or inspiration is never a problem. 

I know I’ll sound like a broken record, but the team at Switch are such a powerful driving force: when you work with amazing people who do amazing work, lack of motivation or inspiration is never a problem. Quite the opposite: I always have a drive to push through and do the best I possibly can to be sure that what we have at Switch gets better. Funnily enough, on the toughest and most challenging periods at the agency, instead of feeling demotivated and without hope, it’s when I find myself pushed through harder, simply because of who makes Switch, Switch.

Did you plan your career path?

The only thing I have ever planned in my life was being a working mother. I was just lucky enough to also develop a career that brings me joy and pride, and provides an extra challenge to balance my life around. 

Anything else to add, Mel?

As challenging as it is, it has also been pretty amazing to see how becoming a mother, and the skill sets that come with it, has truly helped me with my role within the agency.

It’s an ongoing process – as Teo grows and the agency evolves, I face daily challenges in both areas of my life. I’ve learned that the only way to succeed is to be agile and adapt as you go.

One of the reasons that I’m managing to cope (so far) is through organisation and time management. Everything is planned on both my personal and work Google Calendar, and I have a list of lists to keep track of everything instead of relying on memory: as soon as something comes to mind that needs actioning, or an idea, or a question I might have, it goes straight into its respective list.

Multitasking has also become one of my fortes: I feed Matteo while on internal work video calls or reply to emails during contact naps (case in point – I am writing this while Matteo is sleeping on me).

Truth is though – I wouldn’t be able to make it work so “smoothly” if it weren’t for the great support I get at home and at the agency. 

The post Mother, Manager, Multitasker: Mel’s Many Hats appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.