Climate Change and Sustainability Demands
Climate change is arguably the defining challenge for architecture in the coming decades. As the planet warms and extreme weather events become more frequent, architects are being called upon to design resilient, low-carbon, and sustainable environments. In fact, the architectural profession is undergoing a “radical transformation, positioning architects as key agents in fostering environmental stewardship, sustainability and community resilience”.
Architects must now consider future climate conditions as fundamental design parameters. A building’s resilience is now a core design objective alongside aesthetics and function. Architects must always design buildings that are adaptable for later differing uses, thereby extending the building’s life cycle. For example, we need to consider how a hotel can be easily adapted to an apartment building. This impacts all aspects of design, including MEP / Sustainability and structural strategies
Architects will be expected to be familiar with a full range of alternate Industrialised design and construction technologies and design agnostically for multiple construction methodologies.
Architects must design ultra-efficient envelopes and systems, maximising natural light and ventilation, and integrating renewable energy. It’s no longer acceptable to produce “iconic, energy-guzzling megastructures” without regard for environmental performance. Designing a building without rigorous energy analysis is as rare as designing without structural calculations.
Architects must have substantive knowledge of alternate materials to cement and steel production, which are major CO₂ emitters. Already, we are seeing mass timber, basalt, and novel eco-friendly materials from “potato chipboard” to “mushroom insulation”. Increasingly, architects will design for deconstruction and reuse so building components can be recycled at the end of life.
Architects must embrace rigorous sustainability criteria in every design decision. We collaborate with scientists, ecologists, and soon I expect to add psychologists and physiologists to the list.
There has been a shift in society’s expectation of architects: from creators of singular buildings to problem-solvers for global challenges through the medium of design. Because of this, architects must and are taking on advocacy roles in the face of climate change, becoming vocal with clients and policymakers alike.
In short, climate change has elevated the architect’s mission. The next 20 years will likely see architects firmly established as central figures in achieving sustainability goals. They will need to marry design innovation with environmental science, creating buildings that generate more energy than they consume, and design communities for both beauty and resilience.
At HKR, we see this as a radical transformation, positioning architects as key agents in fostering environmental stewardship, sustainability, and community resilience.
