I had the rare privilege on Friday of listening to UK and US architects talking together about school design with sustainability in mind – not that the US folk talk about sustainability or carbon reduction all that much, not when TEA-party types are likely to leap out of the darkness and jump up and down to remind everyone that there is no such thing as climate change. They have to talk about energy, and one of the British speakers noted that it would be good if we were to as well, given that energy reduction is clear-cut whereas carbon reduction isn't: you can cut carbon, but increase energy use, for example – well, if you're perverse enough.
In between Academy visits, a 50 strong delegation form the AIA – the American Institute of Architects – spend a couple of hours in Frome, at the wonderfully ancient [ c. 1707 ] Rook Lane chapel where there were presentations from US and UK architects – and from me, but I was only talking about the UK school systems, and their links to sustainability. We each had a liberating 5 minutes and one slide, though some interpreted this creatively. But, if I were an architect, I'd want to show my pictures as well.
It was a rich meeting, and it is always good to hear professionals trading experiences, problems and solutions with a generosity of spirit.
My top take-away bit of info was 58 million. This, it seems, is the number of uninsulated cavity walls in the UK. You really do have to ask how can this be given all the noise about energy efficiency over 20+ years. How desperate!
Responses
Bill
Did any of the architects suggest how their creative, sustainable designs could contribute to ESD in schools? Did any of them feel that if they had a better understanding of education and ESD in particular, they could make a significantly improved contribution to the overall educational experience of students?
The following is from a different, but not unrelated august body of architects.
Statement by the Union of International Architects’ World Congress of Architects, Chicago, 1993.
We commit ourselves, as members of the world’s architectural and building-design professionals, individually and through our professional organisation to:
• Place environmental and social sustainability at the core of our practice and professional responsibilities;
• Develop and continually improve practice, procedures, products, curricula, services and standards that will enable the implementation of sustainable design;
• Educate our fellow professionals, the building industry, clients, students and the general public about the critical importance and substantial opportunities of sustainable design;
• Establish policies, regulations and practices in government and business that ensure sustainable design becomes normal practice;
• Bring all existing and future elements of the built environment – in their design, production, use and eventual re-use – up to sustainable standards.
(UIA 1993, in Williamson et al, 2001, Understanding Sustainable Architecture, Spon Press, London)
I particularly like the third point. Unfortunately its not only cavity walls that have been waiting to be filled for almost twenty years!