Addressing the Climate Emergency: Julia Barfield

We ask landscape practitioners and commentators what the profession should do next to address the climate emergency

Julia Barfield

I woke up to the urgency of the situation last October when I read about the IPCC report – and became obsessed. When the world’s top scientists warn that we have 12 years to limit climate catastrophe we have to listen and act – professionally, politically and personally.

As professionals there is a lot we can do:

– We need to be fundamentally rethinking our approach and move towards more regenerative design principles based on a model of Doughnut economics and the circular economy

– We need to design low energy buildings, both embodied and in use and go further to be energy positive

– Buildings need to be loose fit, flexible and adaptable to changing needs and uses

– We need to design for long life, with durable, low embodied carbon, renewable materials with building services components that are easy to maintain and replace

– We should be designing with disassembly in mind and build out of reused and recycled materials so that we generate less waste, based on cradle to cradle principles

– We need to share knowledge and research on an open source basis and get much better at post occupancy

– We also need to crack the most difficult challenge of all – the decarbonisation and upgrading our of existing housing stock

I am on the steering group of the Architects Declares movement. Having morphed into Construction Declares to include all of the construction community, we now have 1500 practices around the world who have signed up and it’s growing daily. The movement sets out 11 commitments of positive action and in November we are gathering to discuss collectively – ‘what next’. It is a grassroots, decentralised network where every signatory has committed to push ahead with their clients, co-professionals and supply chains.

The Walter Segal method building at Coin Street Building has now been recycled for a new community use in South London as the Oasis Play Building in Stockwell.

© Ben Marks

This is where it gets political, because we need government commitment to higher building standards, a fabric first approach, phasing out fossil fuels completely. The government should remove VAT on refurbishment – VAT was even recently added to solar power while tripling subsidies on fossil fuels! The blocking of on-shore wind should end, fracking should cease and obviously airport expansion stopped. The IPCC report estimates achieving zero carbon by 2050 will cost 1.5/2% GDP – that seems to me to be a small price to pay for the future of life on earth. We need to embrace the thinking of Kate Raworth with her Doughnut economic model – she is rethinking economics and questioning the idea of constant growth on a finite planet. In short – we need to turbo charge our response to this existential threat. Act like our house is on fire.

This where it gets personal. I was on Lambeth bridge on 18th November last year for Extinction Rebellion (XR)’s first mass event – closing 5 bridges. It was three days after the birth of my first grandchild. Such momentous events focus the mind. She will be 32 in 2050. It seemed to me the most rational thing to do in the light of government inaction and apathy. We all need to see the world through a lens of the climate/ environmental crisis. It should guide all our choices: what we eat, how we travel, how we shop – whether we stand up and speak out….

It’s not about having less of what we want but rather having more of what we need.

Some interesting exemplars are:

– Powerhouse Kjorbo project in Sandvika by Snohetta, or innovative projects like the 2226 by Baumschlager Eberle

– OASIS Play building in Stockwell, by Benjamin Barfield Marks and Matt Atkins. A Walter Segal method building, disassembled from the South Bank and reconfigured in Stockwell for a children’s charity. Is this is the most sustainable building in London?

– Nest research building by Werner Sobek with Rotordc in Brussels

Julia Barfield is an architect and director of Marks Barfield Architects. Barfield created the London Eye together with partner David Marks. She is chair of this year’s Stirling Prize (see page 62) and is on the steering group of Construction Declares: http://www.constructiondeclares.com