KAST has become a premium partner with Plant One Cornwall, helping to restore the county's woodland habitats.
Most of us at KAST were born in Cornwall or were brought up here. It is home and is part of who we are. It has moulded us as human beings and we owe it so much.
Cornwall has heavily influenced our work as Architects and we believe it is incredibly important to design in response to the wider context, striving to ensure our buildings respect the surrounding landscape. The coastline, hills, valleys, rivers and woodland will be here long after our houses are gone so we have to remember that we are temporarily borrowing the sites that we build on.
We work a great deal with timber as it saves CO2 emissions both through the carbon captured and stored in the wood product and by the avoidance of alternative CO2 intensive materials such as steel and concrete. We are constantly analysing our designs to see if there are ways in which we can reduce our reliance on steel and concrete and use more natural alternatives.
There are also a wide range of academic studies on how the use of timber in buildings can be good for our health and well being. There is evidence that it positively influences creativity, helps us stay focused, enhances our mood, lowers stress, increases productivity, improves air quality and stabilises humidity. But putting the science to one side for a moment, it is a beautiful material to work with. The variety of species, textures, grain, colours all combine to provide us as architects with an exciting and diverse palette to work with.
We therefore feel that we need to give something back to the planet that we inhabit and the county that we live in and at the same time do our bit to help tackle the climate emergency that we find ourselves in. By working with Plant One we can help to improve Cornwall’s environment for the long term by restoring woodland habitats across the county and establish something that will grow and develop over hundreds of years.
We can’t wait to get our hands dirty!
