© Lenny Oosterwijk
Césare Peeren is a passionate architect, entrepreneur and idealist on a mission to transform current human culture into a more resourceful and sustainable one. He designed and built his projects with waste materials, finding innovative ways to use solar energy and nature.
Césare is a passionate architect, entrepreneur and idealist on a mission to transform current human culture into a more resourceful and sustainable one. In 1996 and starting with the observation that in nature the outputs of one system are not waste, but rather the inputs for another system, Césare architectural graduation project incorporated many themes and concepts now termed ‘sustainable’ and ‘circular design’.
Shortly thereafter, in 1997, he and Jan Jongert founded ‘2012Architecten’ (now ‘Superuse Studios’) with the vision to further develop and realise those themes. Superuse Studios are now recognised pioneers in waste architecture and circular design and remain frontrunners pushing the envelope. Their many realised designs are unique and have become icons of waste design/passive architecture.
From their beginnings investigating and experimenting with the creative re-use potentials of discarded materials for design and architectural purposes Cesare and Jan and their growing team went on to develop concepts and processes such as ‘superuse’, ‘harvest mapping’, ‘recyclicity’ and ‘cyclifying’. The aim being to smooth the pathway for optimal (re)use and repurposing in architecture of not only physical waste materials, but all discarded and under-utilised resource and energy outputs within a design system. They now work with 14 frequently wasted or underutilised resource flows including: materials, food, water, people, heat, sound, knowledge, money, and culture.
From the outset Césare has been integral in all aspects of the work, as idealist, visionary, designer, builder, teacher and managing-director. In 2016 Césare withdrew from management functions to allow more time to fully focus on designing integrated sustainable architecture; architecture in which Césare can apply and integrate the many themes he has been investigating and developing over the last 20 years: re-use/superuse, circular design, lightness, passive energy, passive ventilation, community living and urban agriculture. Although he has applied many of these in separate projects over his first 19 years at Superuse Studios, his intention now is to integrate as many as possible within each given project. Superuse Studio Cesare Peeren is the mobile laboratory of Superuse Studios that is developing the ideas in practice and generally works onsite. In project he is developing knowledge that he is readily sharing on a diversity of platforms.
Césare is co-founder of Superuse Studios, recognised pioneers in waste architecture and circular design, and that remain frontrunners pushing the envelope. Many of his realised designs are unique and have become icons of waste design/architecture.
Césare sincerely believes in what he talks about, he is real, inspiring, and has real life practical experience walking the talk. The audience can feel that. He is able to answer questions, is open to critique and does not mind admitting if things in the work did not turn out as ecological as hoped for. He considers his work to be under constant development, and a way to provide open-source learning opportunities to develop a sustainable society.
Delroy Cameron, Senior Project Manager:
"Dave Buntings presentation was excellent. He certainly held my attention. I believe that the pace, the structure and information that was shared was well thought through and delivered in such a way as to leave a lasting impact on the audience."
Chelsea Slater, Business Service Centre Manager:
"Dave's talk was really... remarkable — it was inspiring — made me want to join his climb team to the mountain. He was able to hold the crowd with his description and details of the expedition and the outcome of the story was moving. Although it was a venture that was far beyond what we do, there were parallels from his experience that I could relate to and hopefully will be able to use to make my projects more effective. The presentation itself was well executed – the media was appropriate and varied throughout the session."
Leigh Gardner, Senior Project Manager:
"The presentation by Dave Bunting was very good and was perhaps the most beneficial 'Leadership' lesson of the whole event."
John Owen, Senior Programme Manager:
"Dave's presentation and subsequent informal Q & A session was by far and away the best part of the whole 3 days.
It was highly relevant to the nature of our 'Event', Project Management in general and was expertly delivered."
Paul Anderson, Head of DDS Projects:
"Dave was an excellent speaker who delivered an interesting and relevant (to Leadership) presentation. It was well put together, described the leadership challenges (even on what turned out to be a failed attempt) and hit the mark with everyone in regards to the adversity we can all face. I thought Dave personally was very engaging and grabbed everyone's attention easily, was funny and thought provoking.
Fully recommend him to anyone. "
Steve Marshall, Transformation Manager:
"The slot he had to present in was at a time when everyone was tired. Not only did he manage to keep everyone’s attention he did it in such a way as to encourage questions to be asked."
Mike Waterman, Senior Project Manager:
"Dave was very good, delivery of key points was spot on, good use of material and a fab animation by PowerPoint showing the trek.
He was open to discussion and impressive with his answers."
Andrew Joyce, Senior Project Manager:
"One of the best presentations I've sat through and considering it was 8pm after a tiring day it was testament to Dave's presenting skills.
Engaging, entertaining and very relevant to why we were there. "
Roy Beckerson, Senior Consultant:
"An excellent presentation from Dave.
I think it is fair to say we were a tired bunch, but Dave's presentation really held everyone’s attention and provided a tremendous insight into both planning and leadership skills required for such a challenge.
I thought his presentation style was very effective, both informative and witty."
Fran McCabe, Senior Consultant:
"The presentation kept me entertained and interested, very important after the physically tiring couple of days (could have nodded off).
I thought that the fact that the expedition did not reach the top of Everest was particularly important; this made it possible to highlight the leadership issues. Initially I thought that Dave's presentation would have been better at the start of the event, but I now think that it was best delivered when he did i.e. on the last evening. This better enabled us to review how we went about our own project, our own failing were easily mathed to his successes.
Good to spend time with Dave after the presentation, more interesting rather than exploring specific leadership ideas."
Ken Paul, Senior Delivery Centre Manager:
"Very easy to listen to, he has a great mix between informative and humorous.
His subject matter was inspirational and crucially, is also relevant to a business context."
"Césare has been an inspiration to so many of us over the last 15 years or so. He has a great skill in describing complicated ideas and systems in an original and accessible way, which of course is exactly what we need to get an understanding of what needs to be done with the built environment."
“Césare Peeren has been lecturing worldwide about architecture and urbanism, with a strong focus on innovation, environmentalism and reuse. He is a very inspiring and convincing speaker driven by personal engagement and idealism. Césare’s vision on architecture, the urban environment and related human behaviour and interaction is very interesting for a professional audience as well as the general public.”
“Césare did a wonderful speech on our see-Conference in Germany. In front of 800 people he presented his projects and methods in an inspiring and exciting way. I recently recommended him as a consultant on re-use to one of my dearest clients, I absolutely trust his expertise in this field.”
“Vol passie neemt Césare je mee in de wereld van circulaire architectuur. Hij beheerst de materie als geen ander, vanuit helikopter niveau tot in de details van inspirerende voorbeelden. Na afloop zit je vol energie om zelf aan de slag te gaan én heb je de praktische tools in handen om dat te kunnen!”