What is happening to academic research during a global pandemic? When it is harder than ever to access information from first hand, it is worth to have a look at what there is to discover at your own home. For this reason, I am planning to present a series of articles based on three interviews I conducted with my family members. Each of them is professionally involved in a completely different industry, and my goal is to broach the subject of sustainability within those fields.
First comes the architecture. It’s worth highlighting that there is an enormous amount of innovation in construction industries and I recommend to watch a TED Talk by Bjarke Ingles to realise how much! A big part of new technologies is directed towards increasing the level of sustainability of the spaces we live, work and spend time in. Almost every UN Sustainable Development Goal can be supported through an appropriate architectural solution including one that is directed strictly towards “Sustainable Cities and Communities”. Increased awareness about ecological balance turned construction trends into “go back to nature” philosophy. The most modern solutions are the ones that use as many natural capabilities as possible and leave the industrial era behind.
Habitat Passive House (Source: Albert, Righter, Tittmann Architects, 2020)
Living in a perfectly sustainable space seems like a dream and “cities of the future” spark a big interest. However, there are questions if this is even achievable. For example, to create a 100% sustainable house, we need to either demolish or rebuilt the previous one. To create an urban plan that serves the society better, for example by widening the streets to allow pedestrians to enjoy the space, we need to remove some old constructions. It all requires works, transportation and the use of heavy equipment that is far from eco-friendly. And even though, this may pay off in 50 years (this is for how long modern buildings are constructed for), scientists agree that we need to act faster than that.
Carbon emission paradox (Source: Elmer, 2019)
The dispute about what is more sustainable in terms of construction solutions should probably be left for engineers to solve. But we cannot forget that they can only design as much as it is allowed within their given budgets. Therefore, changing urban landscapes is dependent on government and investors as much as it is on the architects. And in a current capitalistic society, where CEOs keep their positions for an average of 8 years and policymakers for 4, it seems unlikely for them to choose to make long term decisions that can negatively impact their own executive time.
What can create change is a movement lobbying their decisions on a global scale. In 2019 architects from 20 countries created a petition gathering construction professionals to actively work and collaborate towards better practices in their industry. The more this sort of initiatives get caught by the public eye, the more likely it is that global construction standards will become directed by social and environmental needs.
Sylwia Kirilenko
LUMS at WBCSD 
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