Timber structures Spotlight on: Sustainability
Architects Declare: one year on
Kat Scott provides an update on the progress so far.
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n 2019, 17 Stirling prizewinning architecture practices acted as founding signatories to UK Architects Declare Climate and Biodiversity Emergency. There are now more than 1,000 signatories and the list continues to grow. Each of these companies has committed to enact change in line with the initiative’s 11 declaration points.1 The underlying problem the architecture profession faces is that, while knowledge and skills already exist to make the change necessary to mitigate these crises, there has not been a collective urgency to incite that change. Accelerating this recognition can be achieved by sharing knowledge in a non-competitive manner across the profession, by changing mindsets in the public and industry alike, and by recalibrating the goals of the system.
Architects Declare Conference at Battersea Arts Centre, November 2019. Photo: Jacqueline Wheeler
A year of Architects Declare
Inaugural event
In the 18 months since Architects Declare was founded, this landmark initiative has inspired other disciplines and countries to establish sister campaigns under a wider banner of Construction Declares Climate and Biodiversity Emergency. Under the UK Construction Declares umbrella there are now declarations for structural engineers, building service engineers, civil engineers, contractors, landscape architects and project managers.
In November 2019, before anyone had heard of Covid-19 and when it was still possible to meet in large numbers, Architects Declare held an inaugural event at the Battersea Arts Centre with more than 350 attendees. Here, exemplary speakers such as Kate Raworth, author of Doughnut Economics, and Jeremy Lent, author of the Patterning Instinct, shared their knowledge with attendees, after which group discussions were facilitated with the support of Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN) volunteers. A live ‘slido’ was held to gauge opinions on a range of topics, from supporting a Green New Deal, to working with clients who may not operate in line with the declaration commitments. All of the day’s events were video recorded and are now part of a range of resources on the Architects Declare website.2 >>
Globally, other countries have set up their own iterations of these initiatives, with a total of 5,800+ companies worldwide now part of this movement. This includes declarations in Australia, Canada, the US, Ireland, Singapore, South Africa and Germany, to name just a few. www.trada.co.uk
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