Bring the outside in – An approach to accelerating climate action through design Adele Houghton, AIA

Bring the outside in

An approach to accelerating climate action through design

Imagine a crane with six arms. It continuously builds and unbuilds a tower. Rather than orchestrating a skyscraper’s construction, this crane regulates the flow of energy from a solar or wind farm into the electrical grid. It absorbs energy by lifting blocks from various locations around its base and stacking them into a single tower. Kinetic energy is released as the crane deconstructs the tower, returning the blocks to the ground. The higher the tower grows, the more potential energy is stored within it.

As the COVID pandemic drags on, it can sometimes feel like we are all building and unbuilding our own personal energy towers as our frustration at being trapped at home ebbs and flows. In a sense, the pandemic has built an enormous energy storage tower out of pent-up frustrations. 2020 was a year of costly records. In terms of social justice, the protests following George Floyd’s police killing were the broadest in U.S. history. In terms of climate change, 2020 tied with 2016 as the hottest year on record, and it whizzed past the previous record for the number of Atlantic hurricanes in one season. In terms of health disparities, African Americans and Hispanics/Latinx have been twice as likely as whites to die of COVID.

Now that we have entered a new year, a new presidency, and a new phase of the COVID pandemic, the question becomes: Can we shape the way we release the pent-up energy from 2020, so that 2021 becomes known as the year we came together to address the most significant challenges of our generation? Outward-Looking Design Architecture cannot solve these problems on its own. But it has a role to play. Architects have shown time and again how thoughtful placemaking can create conditions that support and promote environmental, social, and health benefits.

The key is to position the design as outward-looking — acknowledging and responding to community needs. Whether the design team plans for it or not, every building has a ripple effect on its surroundings. Building design and operations influence neighborhood air quality, urban heat island effect, flood risk, and access to active modes of transportation, among other factors. The key is to deliver building designs that reflect and amplify neighborhood-scale goals for promoting resilience, equity, and health.

Applying a broader lens to building design and renovation can seem a daunting task. After all, climate change, equity, and chronic disease are three massive and complex societal challenges. It may seem easier to work on one at a time. In reality, though, it is not sufficient to design a building to maximize ventilation and airflow to reduce the risk of infectious disease without considering the energy code. Likewise, projects seeking to reduce exposure to outdoor air pollution or enhance a property’s resilience to heat and flooding events will need to align their design with their neighbors’ approach to protect their own occupants.

Above: Photo credit - Alexey Derevtsov

Young Architects are Natural Leaders in this Space Young architects are the natural torchbearers for this shift in mindset for two reasons. First, they are more invested in environmental and social movements than older generations. Seventy percent of young adults worry about climate change, compared with 55 percent of adults 55 or older. They were three times more likely (13 percent vs. 4 percent) than adults 50 to 64 to contact a public official or attend a social justice protest or rally last summer. And they have shown the effectiveness of their organizing skills by launching successful social initiatives like the Sunrise Movement and Black Lives Matter.

Second, and perhaps more significantly, young adults’ strong interest in intersecting environmental and social challenges has taught them how to sit with complexity. We cannot achieve climate resilience, equity, and chronic disease reduction by tackling them one at a time. The only way to accelerate progress on one topic is to understand and address the confluence of forces at play for all of them in any given location.

Starting the Conversation Over the past year, the AIA has begun to support young architects who wish to bring their environmental and social values into the office. For example, the revised AIA climate action plan defines “the climate imperative” as “a zerocarbon, equitable, resilient, and healthy built environment.” The AIA also co-produced 10 case studies alongside partner organizations supporting the Healthy Communities Joint Call to Action. These briefs share examples of ways to start a conversation about aligning design decisions at the intersection of community environmental, social, and health needs.

Now is the time to start those conversations — before the tower of energy we built through the pandemic dissipates and we return to a place of stasis.

Adele Houghton, AIA, MPH, LEED AP BD+C, O+M, ND

is president of Biositu, LLC in Houston and a doctor of public health student at Harvard University. Houghton helps clients identify opportunities to use green and healthy buildings as a catalyst for accelerating local climate action and chronic disease reduction.