Architects take Climate Action!

Archinect speaks to practitioners and educators taking on the challenge of adapting to the climate emergency

Illustration by Evgenia Barinova for Archinect

We take an ‘attack on all fronts’ approach. As soon as sustainability becomes a planning and building control requirement, we can say to clients that their design will not be accepted unless they consider these things.” Dido Milne, CSK Architects.

The Global Risks Landscape survey 2020 places climate action failure as the top risk to the global economy, WEF

Given that all new buildings in the UK must operate at net-zero by 2030, it was critical for us to expand upon what that target actually means, and how to measure it.” Clara Bagenal George, Building Services Engineer and LETI founding member

The Cork House © CSK Architects

Educational systems continued not preparing students for the future, and evermore resources and time were sunk into self-congratulatory awards and ceremonies, whilst the climate breaks down.” Scott McAulay, Anthropocene Architecture School

Information sheet on Net-Zero Operational Carbon © LETI

We really felt the McHarg centre was filling a niche by taking on climate policy and design, as no one else seemed to be working in that kind of intersection.” Billy Fleming, McHarg Center

Crisis Studio in Glasgow, Scotland, 2019 © Scott McAulay, AAS
Urban inventory map, from ‘Atlas for a Green New Deal’ © McHarg Center

The early days [of the GND movement] involved a lot of smart economists, science and technology people and organizers, but it didn’t include anyone with spatial or built environment expertise.” Billy Fleming, McHarg Center

‘Designing a New Green Deal’ conference, September 2019 © McHarg Center

Our aim is to create specialized, open-source climate impact information that is accessible to anyone with an internet connection.” Billy Fleming, McHarg Center

Visions of a Green New Deal © McHarg Center

Architects enjoy the design process and should be framing the ecological discussion in their own terms.” Dido Milne, CSK Architects

Detail from the Cork House project © Matthew Barnett Howland

It’s like changing the wheels while the car is moving.” Matthew Barnett Howland, CSK Architects

CSK studio team © CSK Architects

Letters to the Earth: Writing Letters to a Planet in Crisis, published by Culture Declares, explores the emotional, human response to the climate crisis in a beautiful and necessary way.” Scott McAulay, Anthropocene Architecture School

Letters to the Earth: Writing to a Planet in Crisis, published by Culture Declares, 2019

These approaches begin to redefine what design excellence means in the 21st century: to utilize architects’ creativity, tools and imagination to build a future which works with, rather than against, the world’s ecosystems.”

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Architect and researcher based in Tanzania, East Africa. Follow for discussions on how global developments are shaping the built environment👇

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Hannah Wood

Architect and researcher based in Tanzania, East Africa. Follow for discussions on how global developments are shaping the built environment👇