Architects Declare: one year on

Kat Scott provides an update on the progress so far.

In 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

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.

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.

Inaugural event

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 >>

Feedback survey

In spring 2020, Architects Declare conducted a survey of signatory practices to gauge how they felt they were faring with enacting the level of change the declaration commitments imply. The survey also sought to receive feedback on what the signatories wanted the initiative to become in the future. Pleasingly, 80% had significantly or somewhat changed; although it was clear there were particular areas of the declaration for which practitioners felt they needed more support. From this, more resources were developed for signatories targeting these challenging areas. These resources are:

1. Running meetings across ten UK regions for practices to share ways of implementing the declaration and practical knowledge with each other. These ten regions are now meeting regularly. The frequency and agenda for those ongoing meetings are self-led.

2. A soon-to-be launched practice guide that has been developed by the Architects Declare working group of volunteers, with expert review and input.

3. A new website that has resources from all Architects

Declare events, including videos of the Battersea Arts

Centre conference and the embodied carbon event. As the Architects Declare signatory list has expanded, so too have the administrative efforts required to keep the communications between signatories flowing and to create the kinds of resources and support that the signatory practices highlighted they needed in the first survey. The Steering Group has tried to grow the organisation’s structure, establishing a working group of volunteers to help with the generation of resources (including a guide for practices who have declared a climate emergency to enact the declaration through their daily work), helping to write consultation responses and supporting the work of the initiative.

Increasing support

Architects Declare has relied on support from those working closely to it, but has now issued a plea for contributions from its signatories, asking for £20 per qualified architect working in any signatory practice as a suggested amount. There are plans for the initiative to become a charitable organisation to make this a more formal part of the structure in the future.

The Steering Group

The Architects Declare Steering Group meets on a fortnightly basis as a whole team, forming sub groups to progress work on priority tasks in between meetings. Much of the work involved in setting up sister initiatives both here in the UK for other professions, as well as internationally, has been undertaken by this group – in particular by Jacqueline Wheeler of Haworth Tompkins.

The original instigators of Architects Declare are endeavouring for the Steering Group to be as diverse as possible in terms of age, gender, background, race and profession, and continue to work to improve this. The Steering Group also tries to tie links across to other initiatives, such as the London Energy Transformation Initiative (LETI), the Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN), the Edge3 and a range of professional institutions.

LETI Embodied Carbon Study launched January 2020. Photo: dRMM

Regional meetings

In addition to the working group, there are now regular regional meetings, where signatory practices from across the Construction Declares family are invited to form groups based on where they live or work. The first of these events has commenced, with the North East and North West discussing engaging with clients and the Midlands discussing easy wins in sustainable design, with each regional group establishing its own agenda for the event. It is hoped that professionals will benefit from meeting likeminded individuals to galvanise local initiatives and to form support networks to help meet the declaration commitments.

Actions in 2021

For Architects Declare, the next major milestone will be the postponed UN Climate Change Conference (COP 26), where it is hoped that construction and the built environment will be integral to the discussions. This is particularly important given the large impact these aspects have on the industry meeting its climate targets, with 40% of carbon emissions arising from the built environment. n

About the author

Kat Scott Senior Architectural Assistant dRMM

Further reading

To find out more about timber and sustainability, visit www.trada.co.uk/sustainability.

References

1. See ‘Climate emergency: an industry response’, Timber 2020 Industry Yearbook, pp44–49, 2020 2. www.architectsdeclare.com 3. https://edgedebate.com – a multidisciplinary engineeringled think tank