Uploaded on 2020-08-26 by Olivia Mihale

The image represents a collage of 2 photos I took in a span of 1.5 years of the same development. On the left, the complex is portrayed in an early construction stage (during the raise of the cores), whereas in the photo on the right, one can see a finished building. The first obvious concern is the rapid pace of construction in Manchester, which leads to higher rates of carbon emissions and a decrease in air/life quality. By going deeper, we observe that the superstructure (more obvious on the left) and the façade (on the right) of the building consist of the 3 most used construction materials throughout the world: cement(concrete), steel and glass. While the UK is a highly developed country, it is not a great producer of these. According to 2019 statistics, China comes in the top 3 producers for cement, steel and glass. We can infer from this that, at least in part, the materials used for the buildings were imported, thus testifying for a globalized economy. Moreover, the sandwich panels were probably assembled in the UK, however, the main raw material (aluminum) was most probably imported (China is yet again the biggest manufacturer of aluminum worldwide).