ecopolis now

A while ago, Year 12 student James Telford sent some questions for his Visual Arts Studies Topic

Q1. What is your opinion regarding the statement “Architecture has changed throughout history to meet the requirements of society?

That’s a no-brainer. Architecture is a result of society – the form it takes is necessarily a response to the demands of society, whether those demands are aesthetic (eg. classic architecture), functional (eg. factory architecture), or to express power (eg. castles, government buildings). Even the most basic of shelter, or the simplest of houses, can be considered ‘architecture’ and are responses to social and cultural conditions.

Q2. During the time you have been working in the industry have you seen any dramatic changes in the way our buildings are being built and the materials which they have been built from?

There has been a steady increase in reliance on industrial production processes and buildings have moved a long way from the craft based construction that was still dominant (particularly in domestic construction) up to the 1980s or thereabouts.

Q3. If so, why do you think this is?

Increasing population and accelerating technological progress has both demanded and enabled mass industrial society to use more and more machine production. Curiously, in a way, because as there are more people and potentially more of a labour force then there could be an increase in craft production – but fossil-fueled machinery makes it easier to do less physical work and I guess that’s the way people tend to go…

Q4. During recent years have you seen an increase in the demand for environmentally friendly housing?

Yes. Although the definition of what ‘environmentally friendly’ means has shifted too – much of what is called environmentally friendly now does not fit my definition at all!

Q5. If so, why do you think this might be?

Increasing awareness of environmental issues, especially climate change; but energy is costing more all the time and even mainstream housing cannot afford to be too wasteful of something that costs ordinary people real money.

Q6. Would you say that modern day architecture is becoming more environmentally friendly to meet society’s needs?

Yes. Sort of. In Europe there is real progress, in America there is some progress, in Australia there is less. We are in a period of transition when the ideas are out there and everyone wants to be green, but the reality is that there is not much on-the-ground delivery of seriously environmental architecture. For instance, the ‘Greenstar’ rated new office buildings in Adelaide use more energy than the old ones, but claim to be more environmentally friendly… The spin is getting in the way of the truth because most of the supposed progress in Australia is due to corporate interests muscling in before the government gets to make regulations that they’ll have to comply with. We really need much stronger building code requirements for genuine environmental performance in energy, water, material use, and ecosystem protection before we can hope to see architecture that performs well enough to really make a difference. The climate is changing faster than the regulatory environment!

Q7. How do you see architecture changing in the future?

I think there will be desperate attempts to do environmental ‘catch up’ when the brutal reality of climate change really hits hard, and that will be quite soon. The problem is that most of the buildings that will be around in 2050 already exist, most of the new buildings being designed and constructed now will be around in 2050 and none of them will be good enough to deal with the climate extremes and attendant energy and water constraints of 2050.

We should be building now as if it already were 2050, but we’re not, so there will inevitably be a kind of panic as we try to retrofit all the buildings your generation will inherit in the middle of this century. So retrofitting in environmental desperation will be what shapes just about everything and I suspect that architecture will become very pragmatic – maybe kind of Mad Max rather than sweetness-and-light beautiful. And I haven’t really begun to talk about the need for architecture and cities to sustain the ecosystems we all rely on – when we finally get the idea that everything we build is part of a living system and that we manage and control that system, then we’ll start getting an architecture appropriate to a future where the climate will be getting continually worse. If I were you I’d be getting really angsty about this and start demanding that the generation currently in power started to act serious about your future.

:-)

Good luck with your project!