ARC4502HS
Instructor: Alex Luchako
Meeting Section: L0101
Thursdays 6:00 - 9:00 p.m.

The climate crisis has significant impacts for the practice of architecture.

Architects, and other designers of the built environment, must quickly act in two ways. First, we will need to accelerate our efforts to aggressively limit greenhouse gas emissions - acting directly to mitigate climate change. Second, we also need to adapt our built environment for a future climate that is expected to have increased “frequency and intensity of hot extremes, marine heatwaves, and heavy precipitation, agricultural and ecological droughts in some regions, and proportion of intense tropical cyclones, as well as reductions in Arctic sea ice, snow cover and permafrost” [1].

The focus on greenhouse gas emissions overshadows other aspects of sustainability, including the need to address social and climate justice issues. Architects need to take a more public-facing role, contributing new thinking to help imagine what a better future will look like, as well as illustrating and communicating these ideas, motivating others to act towards a sustainable and equitable future.

Organizations that guide and regulate the practice of architecture have taken steps to support changing practice. The Ontario Association of Architects is focused on the preparation of a “skilled architecture profession able to design the built environment, including dwellings and communities, that is resilient and sustainable is paramount for the public interest” [2]. The Royal Architecture Institute of Canada’s Climate Action Engagement and Enablement Plan advises that “Architects have a professional and ethical obligation to take action towards the climate crisis” [3] and details a climate crisis response plan that is based on the Canadian Architects Declare commitment [4,5]. In the US, the American Institute of Architects has a long-standing commitment to sustainability that is now integral to the AIA Design Excellence program [6], and for climate action specifically, the AIA has a set a goal of “net-zero emissions in the building sector by 2040” and is working on supporting the profession to meet that challenge [7].

But at the level of an individual architectural practice, response to the climate crisis presents significant obstacles that are closely intertwined with challenges of “conventional” practice.

In this course we will directly confront these obstacles and learn directly about contemporary challenges for practice. The course will be based around visits to architecture firms in the Toronto area. At each visit, we will hear about each firm’s perspective on sustainability and have a chance to identify and discuss key issues for practice both now and in the future.

(In the 2023-2024 academic year, students from Daniels visited eight local architecture firms - SvN Architects + Planners, ENFORM Architects, KPMB Architects, MJMA, BDP Quadrangle, LGA Architectural Partners, Diamond Schmitt Architects, and DIALOG - and in 2025 we may return to some of these firms.)

The course has several objectives. First, we are going to learn about how architecture practices are responding to the climate crisis: how they think about sustainability; how they talk to their clients about the climate crisis; and how their design practice is changing. Second, we are going to help shape your future practice: you will be asked to reflect on critical issues that affect practice now, and consider how these issues will need to be addressed by your practice in the future. And finally - in parallel to the objectives above - as part of this engagement with architecture firms you will gain experience being local agents of change in response to a critical global effort.

Notes:
[1] IPCC, 2021: Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Masson-Delmotte, V., P. Zhai, A. Pirani, S. L. Connors, C. Péan, S. Berger, N. Caud, Y. Chen, L. Goldfarb, M. I. Gomis, M. Huang, K. Leitzell, E. Lonnoy, J.B.R. Matthews, T. K. Maycock, T. Waterfield, O. Yelekçi, R. Yu and B. Zhou (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press. In Press.
[2] https://oaa.on.ca/knowledge-and-resources/climate-action
[3] https://raic.org/climate-action
[4] https://raic.org/designing-future
[5] Architects Declare (AD) is a global network of architects “organizing for transformative change in the building sector around intergenerational health equity (climate, social justice, biodiversity, etc.)” https://www.architectsdeclare.com/
[6] The AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) has fully integrated sustainability criteria and measurements into the AIA Design Excellence Framework, which underpins the major AIA design awards. https://www.aia.org/design-excellence/climate-action
[7] https://www.aia.org/about-aia/where-we-stand/climate-action