A person walks past a modular wooden wall with geometric cut-outs and a mounted sign containing text. The setting appears to be a modern gallery or exhibition space with clean lines and neutral colours.
A museum exhibition features a birch wooden wall displaying six framed architectural drawings and photographs, with an adjacent red and white informational panel on the right and a decorative cut-out wooden partition on the left.
A room with light birch plywood walls displays framed photographs and artwork. A square window reveals another space with architectural models and vertical white pipes. Text panels are mounted beside the window and on the walls.
Three people view exhibits in a modern, birch-panelled gallery with framed photos and architectural displays. The polished concrete floor and spotlit ceiling highlight the modular design and showcase innovative timber construction techniques.
A modern exhibition space with light wood plywood walls and a display table featuring circular cut-outs. Architectural models and framed images are showcased, highlighting sustainable design, with a green sign labelled “3” in the background.
A gallery display on ply walls highlights architectural photographs, a framed technical drawing, a model in a glass case, and descriptive text exploring the role of birch ply in innovative timber construction.
Isometric architectural drawing of a modular gallery space with multiple rooms, display shelves, artworks on the walls, storage boxes, and translucent human silhouettes interacting with timber construction elements.
Exploded view of a birch plywood structure with three layers, showing top, middle, and bottom components assembled onto a rectangular wall, revealing cut-outs and alignment details for sustainable construction.
Three-step illustration showing the assembly of a timber construction wall frame: first the frame, then attaching two rectangular birch plywood panels, and finally the completed frame with both panels secured in place.
Three isometric architectural diagrams show different modular room layouts, each with various furniture, walls, and partitions arranged in different configurations within the same rectangular space.
Four diagrams show the assembly process of cube-shaped birch wooden boxes with circular openings, culminating in a multi-level stacked structure of five connected cubes—a sustainable approach to timber construction.

RIBA Exhibition: “Long Life, Low Energy”

“In the UK, 63% of waste comes from construction sites: a total of 126 million tonnes and 50,000 buildings are demolished each year across the country, many of which could be retrofitted and repurposed.” RIBA 2022

The Royal Institute of British Architects’ latest exhibition ‘Long Life, Low Energy: Designing for a Circular Economy’ explores the problem of waste in detail, and features forward-thinking projects from major architecture practices from around the U.K.

U-Build were asked to design and build the exhibition by RIBA, with our modular, demountable system befitting of the ethos of the exhibition. When the show concludes the components will be reused in several domestic and exhibition projects. Frames and display boxes have also been sourced from previous RIBA exhibitions, ensuring that waste is kept to an absolute minimum.

When designing the exhibition we looked at different ways people might progress through the space, dividing it into three separate sections, each referencing one of the three exhibition themes: ‘demolition’, ‘retrofit’ and ‘circular economy. The final design was born out of the collaboration with the RIBA curators and graphic designers Studio.Build. Whilst this design determined how many components were cut, the system allows for variation and exploration during construction, and can be reconfigured to suit other spaces when the exhibition tours

For installation, most of the boxes arrived pre-assembled, which allowed our 3-4 person team to place them quickly. Aside from the benefits to speed, this approach also helped reduce mess, as components did not require machining on-site. Of the around 290 components used in the project, only 3 needed to be trimmed during the build.

The boxes were braced against the existing structure to maintain rigidity. We relied on compression to secure the boxes, which minimised the impact of directly fixing into the gallery walls. In total, we set only around a dozen screws into the walls to secure all of the U-Build boxes, and that could have been reduced to zero with a different design.

The modular approach also made for a much safer working environment, with less risk of injury from power tools, less dust, waste and noise. It allowed us to run a design and build workshop during the build period, with the RIBA Youth Forum, who were able to participate in the construction, and learn more about the circular economy.

Photos courtesy of Agnese Sanvito

Animations and drawings by U-Build

With thanks to the RIBA Youth Forum