Why we need collaborative models to tackle climate change

23 JUNE 2020 BY ROBIN NICHOLSON

As the London temperature rose to 38°C last July and February 2020 was the wettest month ever recorded in England, the impact of climate change couldn’t be clearer yet how many of us really understand the scale of the problem, the economic revolution we need and the speed with which we all need to change our behaviour? As architects we are responsible for some of the 38% of carbon emissions that buildings generate and need to change our ways – BIG CHANGE for us too.

For years we had no option but to design for lower energy by subterfuge, doing the best we could as part of our people and place-focused approach. When our founder, Ted Cullinan designed and built his own house with family and students in 1965, he designed a passive solar house as an instinctive response to the site and his family’s needs. Now Grade II* listed we can see it alongside other pioneering solar architecture such as the Cambridge Autarkic House (1974) and Stewart Brand’s Whole Earth Catalogue (1968-).

Lower energy communities like Findhorn (1962) were continuations of a long tradition of utopian settlements and then Peabody built the most radical of all mixed use and social housing schemes at BedZed (designed by Bill Dunster and completed in 2002). Now, designed by Mikhail Riches, Annalie Riches being a former Cullinan partner, the Goldsmith Street passivhaus housing scheme was built for the Local Authority in Norwich City Council and won the 2019 Stirling Prize.

When I joined our practice in 1979, we shared the office in Camden with Max Fordham’s radical engineering practice, where complete design was practiced by all. Together we developed a series of innovative projects such as RMC’s International Headquarters office outside Staines (1990), the Charles Cryer Theatre retrofit of a church hall in Carshalton (1991), the no-heat Archaeolink Visitor Centre in Aberdeenshire (1997) and many more lower energy schemes. These were exciting times but it was rare for a client or a planner to ask, let alone demand, a lower energy building and of course we lost some brilliant ones along the way, such as the first Conference Centre scheme we designed as zero-heat for the Nationwide Building Society (1980).

In parallel with the work in the office, I found myself attracted into cross-disciplinary industry affairs that led to the formation of the multi-disciplinary think-tank, the Edge in 1996. Originally conceived in response to a challenge by the late Sir Jack Zunz of Arup, RIBA President Frank Duffy devised the Edge in discussion with civil engineer Peter Guthrie and me. Twenty-four years later we have held over 100 events and still meet monthly; in 2015 we published the findings of the Edge Commission on the future of professionalism, Collaboration for Change by Paul Morrell [1] .Having started with just ICE and RIBA, four years after the UN Treaty on Sustainable Development - the Rio Treaty - we now enjoy the support of twelve Professional Institutions and a number of other organisations in the built and natural environment. The spreading of our network was largely driven by the realization that dealing with Climate Change had to be cross-industry and trans-professional.

In October 2018, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change pronounced that we had 12 years to limit climate change to 1.5°C [2]. In 2019 the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), which sets and monitors five year UK carbon budgets pronounced that ‘England is still not prepared for a 2°C rise in global temperature, let alone more extreme levels of warming’ [3]. Then construction professionals began to make declarations about the Climate Emergency with Architects Declare closely followed by Engineers Declare and Building Services Engineers Declare using the same graphic and very similar wording; other bodies have since made declarations.

But what does this activity mean? How big is the change required? Can we afford to do it, or can we afford not do it? Do you remember when as Chancellor Gordon Brown commissioned (Sir) Nicholas Stern to review the costs? In 2006 Stern declared that it was indeed affordable and the sooner we engaged the less expensive it would be but only now has guidance come. UK Green Building Council published their Net Zero Report: A Framework Definition in April 2019 [4] and the CCC published their Net Zero Technical Report in May 2019 [5]. But most usefully the informal young engineers’ network LETI (the London Energy Transformation Initiative) published their how-to Climate Emergency Guide in January 2020 [6].

Constructive change is much more difficult than new market-led fashions like the questionable electric scooter or e-cigarettes. While the scale of change we need is exciting, it is total. Not only do we have to be ready in 5 years to design every new building as Net Zero Carbon/Energy-positive, but we have to know how to transform every existing building too, which is much more of a challenge. Fortunately, while the regulatory scheme is under review following the Hackitt Review into the 2017 Grenfell tragedy, the market has to change from one of regulatory compliance to one of guaranteed performance – BIG CHANGE for the industry.

Hackitt’s ‘golden thread’ should be accompanied by civil engineer/QS Ann Bentley’s Procuring for value [4] which could lead us towards Net Zero Carbon and a total rethink of risk management – BIG CHANGE for investors and their advisers. And then VAT will need to be equalised at say 5% for new buildings and work to existing buildings – BIG CHANGE for housebuilders and the Treasury.

As the temperature rises year on year, how clever are the tenants of the Shard feeling behind their white blinds or the proud new home owners many of whose homes are overglazed and overheating. While it is easy to blame Mies van der Rohe for inventing the glass tower in his Berlin Friedrichstrasse competition entry (1921-2) and hi-tech architects for developing the fully glazed habit, it is of course the agents and their offer to maximise rental area that has driven this full height glass madness; it has to stop! BIG CHANGE for most developers, their agents and valuers. Meanwhile understanding the impact of orientation on performance helps us optimize the delight and productivity to be found in a well-lit, naturally ventilated building for whatever usage.

The 16-year-old Greta Thunberg captured the world’s attention when she first spoke at Davos in January 2019 since when events have spiraled. Even Prime Minister May was encouraged in June to declare that all buildings would be required to be Net Zero Carbon by 2050. That’s not fast enough for anyone on the inside, while the popular Extinction Rebellion has called for all buildings to be Zero Carbon by 2025; most engineers think this is not possible although 2035 is, so maybe we should aim for 2030. What does that mean for us and for the industry? Who is going to teach the students, when so many of the existing staff don’t know how to and are focused on other (conflicting) outcomes? How do we become a net zero carbon practice? BIG CHANGE for Cullinan Studio.

In June 2019, the Edge wondered how it should respond to the renewed focus on an area of long-standing interest to us? It seemed clear that we should bring some of the key Institutions together to ask them how they would work together to meet the targets of the CCC. The RIBA, buoyed with its new Code of Conduct and the inspiring work of the Ethics and Sustainable Development Commission, offered to host a round table and invited five Institutions and four other bodies. In a short space of time this Edge event grew and on the day 25 organisations gathered on the top floor of the RIBA and worked collaboratively for three hours. Committee on Climate Change Chair Lord Deben told the Round Table “…It is URGENT. We only have time to do things (not talk about them) … We have a serious responsibility – remember Adam and Eve? When she bit into the apple, she understood and became responsible! YOU are responsible!” Ten days later we were able to circulate the agreement that they had accepted the invitation of the CCC to cooperate on meeting the UK net zero carbon objectives – BIG CHANGE for our Professional Institutions.

Now we have to transform these BIG CHANGEs into BIG CHANCES for a better world for us all.

Footnotes:

[1] A second edition was relaunched on March 3rd at Futurebuild 2020, with the Support of ACO – DOWNLOAD

[2] Special Report ‘Global Warming of 1.5°C – VIEW

[3] The CCC progress in preparing for climate change report to parliament – VIEW

[4] Net zero carbon buildings framework definition – DOWNLOAD

[5] The CCC net zero technical report – VIEW

[6] Climate emergency design guide – VIEW

MORE PERSPECTIVES >