OUR ZERO CARBON FUTURE
image /Joel Prett
Gavin Elliott, architect and chair of Manchester studio shares his insight as he steps down as Chair of the Manchester Climate Change Partnership after six years
As a teenager I used to love thumbing through my father’s copy of the Whole Earth Catalog that he’d brought back from the USA on one of his visits to scientific conferences. At university I was in thrall to the thinking of Buckminster Fuller. As a novice architect during my early years at BDP, working under the guidance of former Chair Tony McGuirk who was steeped in the work of Scandinavian architects, and Ralph Erskine in particular, it was clear to me that while architects have incredible power to shape the man-made environment, they also have a duty of care towards the natural world, in all its facets. I have never been a campaigner, activist, or even a designer who prioritised sustainability above business pragmatism. So no one was more surprised than me when, back in 2013, following the death of my father, I was elected Chair of Manchester: A Certain Future, the city’s stakeholder forum for action on climate change. I write this piece as the outgoing Chair of the newly rebranded Manchester Climate Change Partnership; infinitely better informed and keen to share what I have learned in the previous six years.