News
The Prince of Wales gives a speech at the Institute of Civil Engineers
1st February 2012
The Prince of Wales gave a speech to the country's leading civil engineers today about the important role they play in creating sustainable environments.
Speaking at an event hosted by the Institute of Civil Engineers (Ice) and planning firm Halcrow, The Prince said: "The process involved in developing all of our sophisticated technology has, it seems, persuaded us to think we are somehow a disconnected part of Nature when, in fact, if you think about it, we are Nature.
"The patterns and processes that govern Nature also govern us... This should, perhaps, have a profound effect on how we conceive our engineering projects."
The Prince of Wales has put his own architectural principles into practice in Poundbury, the urban extension of Dorchester, Dorset.
His Royal Highness also gave the example of a "natural house" that his Prince's Foundation for Building Community is helping to construct from a range of sustainable products, as an alternative to "energy-guzzling glass boxes" which quickly become unfashionable.
It has a "contemporary yet timeless feel", features insulating and cooling clay blocks and clay tiles, and wool is used to insulate the roof.
He also praised the way civil engineers had already begun to work more sustainably.
"Your thinking is creating better systems of supply chains that reduce the carbon impact of new buildings, and indeed, the retrofitting of existing structures," he said.
But he went on to say there was a challenge for the civil engineering industry - to be concerned "not only with how a project might work from a technical point of view, but also how such technology sits within the public realm and how it will affect the communities it touches".