Imagine a Rubik's cube: The Future of Construction and Raw Materials, with Burak Kaplanoglu

Burak Kaplanoglu was doing sustainability work long before the word was fashionable, beginning with a concern for the people on site. Born in Istanbul and in the UK since 1995, he has built his career on some of the world’s largest capital projects, from the London 2012 Olympics to the FIFA World Cup in Qatar and Expo 2020. Two years ago he left a global consultancy to set up on his own as director of SBKaplan, and guest lectures at the LSE.At the heart of the conversation is a Rubik’s Cube: turn one face and every other shifts. That is exactly what happens when construction tries to decarbonise, automate or swap one material for another. We can no longer treat carbon, raw materials, human rights and economics as separate problems, Burak argues – they are faces of the same cube. Alongside embodied carbon, he asks us to weigh embodied human rights.The conversation also moves through a sector facing fewer people and more machines, why small contractors stay trapped in out of sight, out of mind, the trade-offs behind timber, concrete and diesel alternatives, and why honesty about what we don’t yet know may be the most responsible position of all.Produced by Critical Productions. Sponsored by Satarla.