PREFACE

When we were children, most of us dreamed that we as adults would be rich and famous and that we somehow would change the world. With age, reality set in and most of us now realize we will never be rich or famous. We do, however, still have the potential to change the world!

As our societies go from crisis to crisis – be it a financial crisis, a pandemic, a war, or an energy crisis – we become so embroiled in addressing the immediate effects of the crisis in focus that we fail to recognize that all of these crises are connected, and that they all spring from our own habits and behavior. These habits and behaviors are changeable!

We have had photos of the Earth from space for a half century now – beautiful and spellbinding photos. The most striking feature of those photos, however, is that they clearly show that the Earth has no umbilical cord. The missing umbilical cord tells us that the Earth’s resources are finite. Once we have used what is here, there is no more. We depend on these resources for our welfare and societal development. Thus, they are the ultimate currency with which we build our societies.

Despite our knowing from these photos that the resources upon which we depend are limited, it was not until the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015 that society got an international political agreement acknowledging the finite nature of the Earth’s resources. The SDGs, then, are a vision for how we want to share these limited resources not only among people, but also in relation to non-human life on Earth.

Considerable progress has been and is being made in relation to achieving many of the goals that pertain to the human condition. For the goals that relate to preserving and protecting the Earth’s resources, however, the trend is negative. In other words, we are every day getting further and further away from achieving these goals.

We all know that you can party even as the balance on your bank account is falling, but also that the party cannot continue indefinitely. This is the situation humanity has brought upon itself. The balance on the account that registers our natural capital, i.e., the Earth’s finite resources, is falling. The “party” of societal development can, therefore, not continue into the future unless we stop the negative trend in the SDGs that pertain to the Earth’s resources, specifically SDG 13 (Climate), SDG 14 (Life under water), and SDG 15 (Life on land).

Architects have the potential to change the way in which we use the Earth’s limited resources in both built and natural infrastructure. Those who specialize in built infrastructure must focus on reducing the ecological footprint of the materials used and eliminating waste. Landscape architects must strive to create environments that not only meet the demands of human societies, but also support and restore biodiversity.

Sustainable development is not a place or a condition. It is a journey or a process, whereby we continually focus on maximizing the societal benefits of using the Earth’s resources, while simultaneously reducing the associated environmental and social costs. Reducing environmental costs includes more efficient use of land, reduction or elimination of waste and use of environmentally-friendly components. The social component of sustainable development relates to how we share the Earth’s limited resources. Architecture in all its forms can contribute to a more equitable distribution of resources.

Thus, architects have the power to change habits and behaviors when it comes to our built infrastructure and approach to the nature that surrounds us. Doing so can bring society on a more sustainable development trajectory. This volume charts where architects are on this journey. It is my hope that these contributions will inspire you to make an even greater change in the world!

Katherine Richardson Professor in Biological Oceanography, Globe Institute & Leader Sustainability Science Centre, University of Copenhagen March, 2023