tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/built-environment-1537/articlesBuilt environment – The Conversation2024-02-07T12:03:04Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2227822024-02-07T12:03:04Z2024-02-07T12:03:04ZWhat a new plan to save the UK’s churches says about their purpose in society<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573784/original/file-20240206-16-ne8gjq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The 19th-century starry ceiling of Carlisle Cathedral, last painted in 1970.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/carlisle-uk-august-22-2019-chancel-1961140774">Nina Alizada|Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The National Churches Trust has <a href="https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2024/26-january/news/uk/national-churches-trust-draws-up-blueprint-to-show-how-to-save-churches-from-closure">launched</a> a <a href="https://www.nationalchurchestrust.org/everychurchcounts">campaign</a> to save the UK’s historic churches. Backed by the actor Michael Palin, it highlights the need for a national approach to address what the trust has called the “single biggest heritage challenge” in Britain. </p>
<p>Entitled Every Church Counts, the plan covers six crucial points, including comprehensive professional support for the volunteers who keep places of worship open, dedicated public funding and more promotion for tourism to churches and chapels.</p>
<p>Church communities and other heritage organisations have <a href="https://religionmediacentre.org.uk/rmc-briefings/national-churches-trust-on-saving-church-buildings/">lauded</a> this push to highlight the significance of places of worship within British heritage. </p>
<p>From <a href="https://www.nationalchurchestrust.org/church/st-martin-canterbury">Saint Martin’s Canterbury</a>, probably built during the Roman occupation of Britain sometime before 597, all the way to Liverpool’s grade II-listed <a href="https://taking-stock.org.uk/building/liverpool-metropolitan-cathedral-of-christ-the-king/">Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King</a>, designed by Edwin Lutyens and Frederick Gibberd, and completed in the 1960s, the UK’s urban and rural landscapes are inscribed with 1,500 years of ecclesiastic history. Without a comprehensive national plan to support places of worship, including those of non-Christian religions, <a href="https://www.alannacant.com/ukcatholicheritage">my research shows</a> that these physical repositories of British history and identity could be lost.</p>
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<img alt="A rural church and a graveyard with trees." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573778/original/file-20240206-18-lv6v9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573778/original/file-20240206-18-lv6v9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573778/original/file-20240206-18-lv6v9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573778/original/file-20240206-18-lv6v9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573778/original/file-20240206-18-lv6v9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573778/original/file-20240206-18-lv6v9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573778/original/file-20240206-18-lv6v9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The UK landscape is inscribed with 1,500 years of church history.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/an-old-church-with-a-graveyard-in-front-of-it-hYQnaL4pzHE">Jakub Pabis|Unsplash</a></span>
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<h2>The state of the UK’s churches</h2>
<p>In November, Historic England published its 2023 <a href="https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/news/heritage-at-risk-2023/">Heritage at Risk register</a>. It lists 4,871 historic buildings and sites in England at risk from disrepair or inappropriate changes. Although this total represents an overall decrease from 2022, places of worship are noteworthy for being the only category with a net increase since the previous year. The register now counts 943 sites, an increase of 24 from 919 in 2022.</p>
<p>The situation in Wales and Scotland is similarly challenging. Cadw, the Welsh government’s historic environment service, <a href="https://cadw.gov.wales/advice-support/historic-assets/listed-buildings/historic-places-worship#section-strategic-action-plan-for-historic-places-of-worship-in-wales">reports</a> that 10% of listed places of worship in Wales are vulnerable. Historic Environment Scotland, meanwhile, lists 195 religious buildings on the Scottish <a href="https://www.historicenvironment.scot/advice-and-support/planning-and-guidance/buildings-at-risk-register/">Buildings at Risk register</a>. </p>
<p>Many churches are at risk of closure due to structural problems far beyond the capacity of local congregations to fix. Unlike some European countries, the UK government does not provide regular funding to churches for repairs. Even the national Christian denominations, such as the Church of England, the Methodist Church in Britain, and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, are not able to keep up with the costs. </p>
<p>There are pots of money available through the National Lottery Heritage Fund and other grant schemes. However, these are highly competitive and the amounts they can offer do not always cover what is needed. </p>
<p>In 2013, the Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark received over £900,000 to restore the <a href="https://www.augustine-pugin.org.uk/hlf-project/">Shrine of St Augustine</a> in Ramsgate, Kent. It was designed and built in the 1840s by architect <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-17218947">Augustus Pugin</a>, best known for designing the Elizabeth Tower in Westminster, home to Big Ben. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Neogothic church with two towers" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573564/original/file-20240205-29-lp0t9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C3%2C1198%2C824&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573564/original/file-20240205-29-lp0t9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573564/original/file-20240205-29-lp0t9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573564/original/file-20240205-29-lp0t9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573564/original/file-20240205-29-lp0t9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573564/original/file-20240205-29-lp0t9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573564/original/file-20240205-29-lp0t9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Catholic Shrine of St Augustine, Ramsgate, Kent.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ramsgate_-_St_Augustine%27s_RC_church.jpg">Whn64|Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p><a href="https://www.cbcew.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/04/Living-Stones-Patrimony-2023.pdf">A second phase</a> of repairs to the roof was undertaken in 2023 after a new public grant of £272,000, which also required St Augustine’s to <a href="https://www.augustine-pugin.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/2022Newsletter-14th-print-1.pdf">raise a further £68,000</a> from other funding sources and donations.</p>
<p>Between 1995 and 2017, the National Lottery Heritage Fund <a href="https://www.heritagefund.org.uk/our-work/places-worship">granted £970 million</a> to places of worship across the UK. It is currently distributing a <a href="https://www.heritagefund.org.uk/news/ps19million-increase-resilience-places-worship">further £1.9 million</a> through the National Churches Trust. But this is not nearly enough. The Church of England alone needs <a href="https://www.nationalchurchestrust.org/impact/our-campaigns/future-church-buildings">£1 billion</a>, over the next five years, just to cover essential repairs. </p>
<p>One of the proposals put forward by the new campaign is to encourage local authorities and public bodies such as the NHS to use places of worship for their activities and events. This could channel other sources of funding into repairing and upgrading church facilities, while also providing much needed community spaces in areas where many have closed due to funding cuts. </p>
<p>Anglican churches regularly open their doors to baby and toddler groups, food banks and even large exhibitions like Peterborough Cathedral’s display of <a href="https://www.peterborough-cathedral.org.uk/newsarticle.aspx/41/unofficial-galaxies">Star Wars memorabilia</a> or artist Luke Jerram’s Museum of the Moon <a href="https://www.winchester-cathedral.org.uk/event/festival-of-the-moon/">travelling show</a>, currently at Winchester Cathedral. Research has <a href="https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/331520257/Full_text_PDF_final_published_version_.pdf">shown</a> this can be a way to bring life back to under-used churches, particularly rural ones.</p>
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<img alt="A picture of a moon installed in a church." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573768/original/file-20240206-21-vsqz0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573768/original/file-20240206-21-vsqz0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573768/original/file-20240206-21-vsqz0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573768/original/file-20240206-21-vsqz0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573768/original/file-20240206-21-vsqz0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573768/original/file-20240206-21-vsqz0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573768/original/file-20240206-21-vsqz0p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An installation shot of the Festival of the Moon at Durham Cathedral.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/a-giant-moon-is-in-the-middle-of-a-cathedral-OruKlyzTbn8">K. Mitch Hodge|Unsplash</a></span>
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<h2>What is a church for?</h2>
<p>However, expanding the use of a church <a href="https://eprints.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/id/eprint/8783/12/AnExplorationOfTheTheologicalTensionsPV-DOWSON.pdf">can also be incompatible</a> with the religious beliefs of the faith community to which it belongs. For such groups, the sacred nature of their places of worship must be maintained. </p>
<p>This raises the question of what roles churches play in today’s society, a question I have researched in collaboration with the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of England and Wales. Under Roman Catholic Canon Law, the entire church building is <a href="https://www.vatican.va/archive/cod-iuris-canonici/eng/documents/cic_lib4-cann1205-1243_en.html">considered sacred</a> due to the presence of the Blessed Sacrament within it. Activities hosted within churches (but not in auxiliary buildings, like halls) must be consistent with their holy nature. </p>
<p>Catholic churches sometimes struggle when applying for heritage support to meet expectations that their projects should be of value to wider society, which is usually assumed to have more non-religious priorities and needs. </p>
<p>However, everyone can benefit from such reserved places. They can <a href="https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/research/back-issues/wellbeing-and-the-historic-environment/">support</a> community mental health and wellbeing by providing quiet public spaces for reflection and tranquillity. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A person sits in a cloister with reflections on the wall." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573763/original/file-20240206-24-b7212k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573763/original/file-20240206-24-b7212k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573763/original/file-20240206-24-b7212k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573763/original/file-20240206-24-b7212k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573763/original/file-20240206-24-b7212k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=651&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573763/original/file-20240206-24-b7212k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=651&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573763/original/file-20240206-24-b7212k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=651&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sacred spaces provide moments of quiet.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/man-sitting-on-brown-wooden-bench-TMEhe5Mrif0">Isaac Sloman|Unsplash</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Catholic churches, in particular, are typically kept open throughout week days, for all visitors, religious and non-religious alike. In urban areas with high levels of deprivation, they can sometimes be the only such spaces. </p>
<p>Further, historic churches would not exist today without the continuing faith and practice of worshipping communities. Other countries recognise people’s rituals, beliefs and traditions as part of what Unesco <a href="https://ich.unesco.org/en/what-is-intangible-heritage-00003">defines</a> as “intangible cultural heritage”. This refers to the practices, representations, knowledge and skills that provide people with a sense of continuity and cultural identity. </p>
<p>Social anthropologists rightfully <a href="https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2018/11/folklife-at-the-international-level-the-roots-of-intangible-cultural-heritage-part-iii/">question</a> how the idea of intangible cultural heritage can actually oversimplify the complex realities of people’s experiences. It can also be used to promote commercialising and exploiting culture at the expense of local people. </p>
<p>However, research also <a href="https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/308452-should-beliefs-or-history-decide-if-a-building-is-a-church-or-a-museum">shows</a> that the tangible and intangible qualities of heritage are inherently inseparable. Recognising the value that practices like bellringing and choral singing, say, <a href="https://openarchive.icomos.org/id/eprint/468/1/2_-_Allocution_Bouchenaki.pdf">contribute</a> to the belltowers and abbeys that host these aural traditions, will surely benefit their preservation.</p>
<p>The intangible cultural and religious elements of a place enhance the meaning and value of its built environment and material. Church buildings should be prized – and protected – for the vibrant living traditions of Britain’s diverse religious communities, as well as what they tell us about our past.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222782/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research for this article is funded by the British Academy through the Innovation Fellowship scheme. It is a formal research partnership with the Catholic Bishop's Conference of England and Wales. The project maintains research integrity and standards via University of Reading research processes.</span></em></p>Religious heritage in the UK faces a funding crisis. Both the buildings and those who worship in them need to be considered.Alanna Cant, Lecturer in Social Anthropology, University of ReadingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2166922023-11-08T16:41:53Z2023-11-08T16:41:53Z‘Beauty’ in architecture can’t be enforced – but design competitions could help architects strive for it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557737/original/file-20231106-24-trvg0j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New Islington Marina in Manchester.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/an-aerial-view-of-a-city-with-a-river-running-through-it-CowORvlVTOQ">Matt Newton|Unsplash</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2021, the UK government made beauty an explicit objective of the English planning system. The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-laws-to-speed-up-planning-build-homes-and-level-up">Levelling Up and Regeneration Act</a>, which <a href="https://www.housing.org.uk/news-and-blogs/news/levelling-up-and-regeneration-bill-receives-royal-assent/">received royal assent</a> on October 26 2023, now <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-homes-fact-sheet-6-the-role-of-design-and-placemaking/fact-sheet-6-the-role-of-design-and-placemaking-in-new-homes-and-communities">requires local authorities to use design codes</a> to deliver beauty in new developments.</p>
<p>Driving this emphasis on beauty (which is likely to be strengthened through <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/levelling-up-and-regeneration-bill-reforms-to-national-planning-policy/levelling-up-and-regeneration-bill-reforms-to-national-planning-policy#chapter-6--asking-for-beauty">further planned revisions</a> to national planning policy) is a particularly knotty problem in England’s approach to housing. Everyone agrees that more housing is needed, but no one wants it to be built near them. The government’s hope – as the secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities, Michael Gove, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/long-term-plan-for-housing-secretary-of-states-speech">has put it</a> – is that “communities will welcome development when it is beautiful”.</p>
<p>English towns and cities do desperately need attention. A 2019 national audit by advocacy group <a href="https://placealliance.org.uk/">Place Alliance</a> found that, in terms of design quality, new housing developments <a href="https://placealliance.org.uk/research/national-housing-audit/">are overwhelmingly mediocre or poor</a>. <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-converting-office-space-into-flats-wont-solve-the-housing-crisis-215557">Office buildings</a> converted under permitted development rights into <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0042098020936966">housing</a> have been characterised by the campaign group Town and Country Planning Association as creating “<a href="https://www.tcpa.org.uk/collection/campaign-for-healthy-homes/">slums of the future</a>”. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, outstanding heritage assets are being <a href="https://theconversation.com/ive-been-chronicling-liverpools-renaissance-for-40-years-heres-why-the-citys-unesco-status-should-not-have-been-removed-164719">harmed</a> by insensitive new development. And under-resourced local authorities are in no position to help because they have so little <a href="https://placealliance.org.uk/research/design-skills/">design expertise</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Buildings on the Liverpool waterfront." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557730/original/file-20231106-19-cq6i0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557730/original/file-20231106-19-cq6i0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=292&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557730/original/file-20231106-19-cq6i0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=292&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557730/original/file-20231106-19-cq6i0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=292&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557730/original/file-20231106-19-cq6i0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557730/original/file-20231106-19-cq6i0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557730/original/file-20231106-19-cq6i0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Unesco revoked Liverpool’s world heritage status over concerns its cultural value has been compromised by new buildings.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/low-angle-photography-o-buildings-RsIsVDqSiF0">Atanas Paskalev|Unsplash</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is mounting evidence that <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781315768373/architects-matter-flora-samuel">buildings</a> and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13574809.2018.1472523">places</a> have a profound influence on <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674057487">public health and wellbeing</a>. The British designer Thomas Heatherwick has gone so far as to claim that boring architecture has brought us <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/oct/25/thomas-heatherwick-war-on-boring-buildings-ive-never-gone-against-the-whole-industry-before">“misery, alienation, sickness and violence”</a>.</p>
<p>The government is right to expect more of development. However, it is debatable whether beauty should or realistically can be a planning objective. My research looks at how planning rules influence the design of the built environment. The best way “<a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/long-term-plan-for-housing-secretary-of-states-speech">to build beautiful</a>” – to reprise Gove’s leitmotif – might be to regulate design processes, rather than outcomes. </p>
<h2>The problem with beauty</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/creating-a-design-code">Design codes</a> establish detailed requirements and rules for how sites or areas are developed. They exist to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305900623000363">improve design standards</a>. It is questionable, however, whether they can ensure a new development is beautiful. </p>
<p>This is because beauty is mutable, multifaceted, emotive and subjective. It defies definition, let alone physical prescription. </p>
<p>This is evident in the way <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-design-guide">national design guidance</a> sidesteps the issue of how beauty should actually be achieved. Nowhere is “beauty” – or “beautiful development” – even defined. </p>
<p>This lack of clarity could result in “beauty” ending up being whatever certain planners or politicians <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14649357.2022.2113613">say it is</a>.
Further, it risks sidelining more pressing matters, including sustainability and affordability. </p>
<p>There is evidence that even planning inspectors are <a href="https://placealliance.org.uk/research/appealing-design/">opting not to use beauty</a> in their <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/618cf8dbe90e07043f2b95a7/21-11-11_DL+IR_20_Bury_Street_3244984.pdf">decisions</a> on planning applications. The question, then, is whether expecting local authorities to codify it in planning rules is realistic.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A housing development in England." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557429/original/file-20231103-19-2sq5e0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557429/original/file-20231103-19-2sq5e0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=270&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557429/original/file-20231103-19-2sq5e0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=270&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557429/original/file-20231103-19-2sq5e0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=270&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557429/original/file-20231103-19-2sq5e0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557429/original/file-20231103-19-2sq5e0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557429/original/file-20231103-19-2sq5e0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The UK government’s aim is to encourage more development by regulating its aesthetic qualities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gethin Davison</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Regulating processes rather than outcomes</h2>
<p>My colleagues and I have looked at how design is regulated internationally. In Sydney, Australia, rather than prescribing design outcomes, the approach is to regulate the design process. In other words, planning rules do not specify the exact types of buildings and spaces that must be developed on a site. Instead, they specify that a particular process must be used to find the right design. </p>
<p>Through the local planning system, it is a legal requirement in the City of Sydney that all major developments, public and private, start with a design competition. Developers of residential blocks, office buildings and even electrical substations cannot simply produce a design in-house, or hire their tried-and-tested architect to do the work. </p>
<p>Rather, they must invite at least three different firms to come up with a proposal. The brief these firms work to sets out the design objectives for the competition, the commercial and construction considerations, and the criteria against which entries will be assessed (such as compliance with the design brief or buildability). A panel of judges then picks the winner. It is a form of competitive procurement, not unlike those used for UK public contracts.</p>
<p>The focus in the Sydney planning system is not on achieving beauty but “design excellence” – a similarly multifaceted and intangible quality that defies simple definition. But by regulating the design process through competitions, Sydney’s planners <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-13-2056-9">can require</a> that new developments achieve design excellence without needing to define or prescribe it. They simply establish some basic ground rules and challenge the competing architects to find the best way of delivering an excellent design. </p>
<p>Where other prescriptive approaches to planning often see developers doing the absolute minimum required to gain planning approval – resulting in poor-quality designs – this lack of prescription gives architects the freedom to think outside the box. The sheer fact that a competition generates multiple designs for a site ensures against <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/levelling-up-and-regeneration-bill-reforms-to-national-planning-policy/levelling-up-and-regeneration-bill-reforms-to-national-planning-policy#chapter-2---policy-objectives">ugliness</a>. It makes it more likely that the best possible design will be found. </p>
<p>Design competitions have a reputation for being costly and unpredictable, but <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13602365.2023.2257713?src=">they don’t need to be</a>. The UK government wants to better enable communities to take <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/long-term-plan-for-housing-secretary-of-states-speech">control of their housing future</a>. Competitions are a proven way of engaging members of the public in debate about the relative merits of different designs for a site or area. There’s no reason why those members of the public couldn’t also be part of the judging process. </p>
<p>When it comes to our towns and cities, it’s hard to argue against beauty in the abstract. Who wouldn’t want to live in a beautiful home or neighbourhood? </p>
<p>But new development doesn’t happen in the abstract, it happens in real places. Beauty in the built environment matters, but enforcing it through design codes risks creating confusion and disillusionment. Mostly, it serves as a distraction away from more pressing priorities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216692/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gethin Davison has received funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>The UK government aims to enforce beauty through the planning system’s design codes. But intangible qualities like beauty are best achieved by challenging architects – not constraining them.Gethin Davison, Associate Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2061882023-06-06T02:21:12Z2023-06-06T02:21:12ZBuilding activity produces 18% of emissions and a shocking 40% of our landfill waste. We must move to a circular economy – here’s how<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529530/original/file-20230601-25-k0dgno.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4475%2C2974&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Architecture, engineering and construction employ <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/SASBE-10-2020-0154">1.2 million people</a> in Australia and account for <a href="https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2983477707">9% of GDP</a>. But our biggest services sector also produces roughly <a href="https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2983477707">40% of landfill waste</a> and accounts for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2017.04.180">18.1% of Australia’s carbon footprint</a>. The sector must change its practices fast for Australia to meet its commitments to cut emissions under the Paris Agreement. </p>
<p>A circular economic model can help solve the environmental challenges created by our built environment – water, waste and power systems, transport infrastructure and the buildings we live and work in. A <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-a-circular-economy-29666">circular economy</a> involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling materials and products for as long as possible. </p>
<p>Circular economy principles have gained recognition from all levels of government in Australia. But there’s a big gap between acknowledgement and action. Progress towards systemic change has been very limited.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/253896506?keyword=circular%20economy%20deakin">new report</a> by university and industry experts lays out a roadmap to a circular economy. Those working in the sector reported the top three barriers as: a lack of incentives, a lack of specific regulations, and a lack of knowledge. The top three enablers were: research and development of enabling technologies, education of stakeholders, and evidence of the circular economy’s added value. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-needs-construction-waste-recycling-plants-but-locals-first-need-to-be-won-over-161888">Australia needs construction waste recycling plants — but locals first need to be won over</a>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/igiE6dwE8QI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The huge amount of waste created by building construction and demolition makes the industry unsustainable.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>So what are the world leaders doing?</h2>
<p>Extensive research for the report drew on real-world experiences, including a survey and interviews with stakeholders. The report offers practical recommendations to drive the transformation to a circular economy, with examples from global front-runners.</p>
<p>The first recommendation is to learn from these nations. Most are in Europe.</p>
<p>A leading example is the Netherlands’ “<a href="https://circulareconomy.europa.eu/platform/en/dialogue/existing-eu-platforms/cirkelstad">Cirkelstad</a>”. This national platform connects key players in the transition to a circular economy in major cities. It provides a database of exemplary projects, research and policies, as well as training and advice.</p>
<p>Cirkelstad highlights the importance of broad collaboration, including research organisations. One outcome is the <a href="https://www.cirkelstad.nl/project/city-deal-circulair-conceptueel-bouwen/">City Deal</a> initiative. It has brought together more than 100 stakeholders with the shared goal of making circular construction the norm. They include government bodies, contractors, housing associations, clients, networks, interest groups and knowledge institutions. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/buildings-used-iron-from-sunken-ships-centuries-ago-the-use-of-recycled-materials-should-be-business-as-usual-by-now-200351">Buildings used iron from sunken ships centuries ago. The use of recycled materials should be business as usual by now</a>
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<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1002976732960436224"}"></div></p>
<p>We rarely see such collaboration in Australia. Connections between government, research and industry practices have been weak. Our universities compete fiercely. </p>
<p>In Denmark and Sweden, rigorous regulations have been effective in promoting circular practices. Denmark has incentives for the use of <a href="https://www2.mst.dk/Udgiv/publications/2019/03/978-87-7038-052-2.pdf">secondary materials</a> such as recycled brick. It also promotes designs that make buildings easy to disassemble. </p>
<p>In Sweden, contractors must give priority to using secondary materials in public projects. Suppliers are <a href="http://doi.org/10.51414/sei2022.026">evaluated based on their environmental impacts</a> </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-third-of-our-waste-comes-from-buildings-this-ones-designed-for-reuse-and-cuts-emissions-by-88-147455">A third of our waste comes from buildings. This one's designed for reuse and cuts emissions by 88%</a>
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</em>
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<p>In Canada, Toronto is notable for its proactive approach. Measures include a cap on upfront carbon emissions for <a href="https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2023.PH3.19">all new city-owned buildings</a>.</p>
<p>Test beds and pilot projects have proven effective, too. A good example is the UK’s <a href="https://www.brighton.ac.uk/research/research-news/feature/brighton-waste-house.aspx">Waste House</a>. </p>
<p>Waste House was built using more than 85% waste material from households and construction sites. Yet it’s a top-rated low-energy building. The project is an inspiration for architects and builders to challenge conventional construction methods and embrace circular practices. </p>
<p>Much of the focus of Finland’s <a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/fi/Documents/risk/The%20circular%20city%20in%20Finland.pdf">circular economy initiatives</a> is on construction and urban planning. Various policy tools and incentives encourage the use of recycled or renewable materials in construction. The renovation of Laakso hospital in Helsinki is a notable example.</p>
<p>Strategic zoning of public spaces can also be used to bolster circular economy activities. An example is the repurposing of urban land for activities such as waste sorting.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-make-roads-with-recycled-waste-and-pave-the-way-to-a-circular-economy-164997">How to make roads with recycled waste, and pave the way to a circular economy</a>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The Brighton Waste House was made largely from recycled materials.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How can Australia create a circular economy?</h2>
<p>Australia has been slow to adopt such measures. There are voluntary schemes, such as <a href="https://new.gbca.org.au/green-star/exploring-green-star/">Green Star</a>, that include emission caps for buildings. However, Australia lacks specific, well-defined requirements to adopt circular economy practices across the built environment sector.</p>
<p>Our report’s recommendations include:</p>
<ul>
<li>develop metrics and targets to promote resource efficiency</li>
<li>adopt measurable circular procurement practices for public projects</li>
<li>provide incentives for circular practices</li>
<li>establish technical codes and standards that foster the use of secondary products.</li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/greenwashing-the-property-market-why-green-star-ratings-dont-guarantee-more-sustainable-buildings-91655">Greenwashing the property market: why 'green star' ratings don't guarantee more sustainable buildings</a>
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</p>
<hr>
<p>The report finds funding for collaborative projects is badly needed too. Regrettably, the Australian built environment is not seen as <a href="https://www.arc.gov.au/funding-research/apply-funding/grant-application/science-and-research-priorities">a research funding priority</a>. But more funding is essential to foster the innovation needed to make the transition to a circular economy. </p>
<p>Innovation can help us reconcile the public demand for spacious homes with sustainable construction practices. We can achieve this through a mix of strategies:</p>
<ul>
<li>moving towards modular construction techniques</li>
<li>creating incentives to adopt circular design principles</li>
<li>making adaptive reuse of existing structures a priority</li>
<li>designing multi-functional spaces that makes the most of resources.</li>
</ul>
<p>Integrating circular economy principles into education and training at universities and schools can embed a culture of innovation. Equipping students with this knowledge and skills will enable the next generation to drive change in our built environment. </p>
<p>Currently, there are few Australian-based training programs that focus on the circular economy. And available courses and programs overseas are costly.</p>
<p>There is also a need to promote inclusivity in the built environment sector. Circular solutions must incorporate cultural considerations.</p>
<p>By embracing the above strategies, Australia can foster a harmonious balance between cultural values, environmental sustainability and efficient resource use.</p>
<p>Collectively, these initiatives will lay the foundation for a circular economy in the built environment sector. The growing need for housing and infrastructure underscores the urgency of achieving this goal in Australia. Ultimately, consumers, industry and the environment will all benefit.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/with-the-right-tools-we-can-mine-cities-87672">With the right tools, we can mine cities</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206188/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tuba Kocaturk is affiliated with Geelong Manufacturing Council, as a Non-Executive Director.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>M. Reza Hosseini does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Our buildings and infrastructure can only become sustainable if the sector shares, leases, reuses, repairs, refurbishes and recycles materials and products. A new report maps out out how to get there.M. Reza Hosseini, Senior Lecturer in Construction, Deputy Director, Mediated Intelligence in Design (MInD) Research Lab, Deakin UniversityTuba Kocaturk, Deputy Head, School of Architecture & Built Environment, and Director, Mediated Intelligence in Design (MInD) Research Lab, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1981662023-03-14T09:14:11Z2023-03-14T09:14:11ZFarms in cities: new study offers planners and growers food for thought<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510577/original/file-20230216-20-5or3po.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5081%2C3410&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Workers in one of the poly-tunnels of an urban farm in South Africa. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/richard-msengi-and-gladys-mgakula-work-in-one-of-the-poly-news-photo/587483662?phrase=hydroponics%20south%20africa&adppopup=true">Gideon Mendel/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Urban agriculture as a global phenomenon is widely promoted as a sustainable land use practice. On small plots and in big projects, using sophisticated technology or simple solutions, city dwellers around the world are producing food. Growing food in a city can improve local food security and express local culture. </p>
<p>Little information is available, though, on what kinds of spaces and technologies urban agriculture requires. This sort of information would be useful to architects and built environment specialists when they design buildings and urban spaces that can accommodate urban agriculture. </p>
<p>As part of a larger research project on the climate change adaptation potential of urban agriculture, <a href="https://meridian.allenpress.com/jgb/article-abstract/17/3/161/487481/ZERO-ACREAGE-FARMING-DRIVING-SUSTAINABLE-URBAN">our study</a> explored the spatial, material and technological characteristics of selected urban agriculture farms. We looked at how it’s done in dense urban settings in four countries: Belgium, the Netherlands, Singapore and South Africa. </p>
<p>The selection of countries aimed to present diversity of context, climatic conditions and forms of urban agriculture. Belgium, the Netherlands and Singapore are developed and high-income countries. South Africa is a developing context and therefore offers a contrasting perspective.</p>
<p>We interviewed farmers, architects and engineers. We asked about the choices they’d made about site, layout and management, what had influenced them, and whether they had experienced any problems. We also observed the materials and methods used, any adjustments to existing buildings or infrastructure, access to the site, and movement around it.</p>
<p>In this process we identified various ways of using space and technology under different conditions. We grouped them into eight farm types, ranging from low-tech to sophisticated solutions.</p>
<p>Our typology is useful because we found that urban agriculture is very diverse in its form and application. This diversity means architects and other specialists in the built environment risk getting their design proposals wrong. By defining the types and linking them with spatial, material and technology needs, we offer professionals information they can use when introducing food production into their projects. </p>
<p>Our overview of urban farming highlights the need to develop and use appropriate technologies in poorer and rapidly growing cities. These are the features of most sub-Saharan African cities.</p>
<h2>Eight types of urban farms</h2>
<p>The eight farm types emerged from the way they use space (planted in soil or on/in buildings), the level of control over growing conditions (like ambient temperature, light, nutrients, water and air flow), and the use of other resources. The latter may be waste sources (such as waste water, bio-matter or waste heat), internet and connectivity networks, and human labour (such as the immediate community).</p>
<p>The farm types we identified were as follows:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>community or allotment farms that are farmed for personal or community use</p></li>
<li><p>community or commercial soil-based farms that use growing tunnels</p></li>
<li><p>farms integrated with the built environment, and presenting aesthetic or cultural functions with less focus on produce output (for example demonstration kitchens, or restaurants that promote ethical, sustainable consumption)</p></li>
<li><p>productive commercial farms that are integrated within the built environment (for example hydroponic farms, greenhouses and rooftop greenhouses)</p></li>
<li><p>farms that are part of buildings, circulating resources within the building (like integrated rooftop greenhouses)</p></li>
<li><p>farms integrated into buildings or urban spaces which share resources with a wider neighbourhood</p></li>
<li><p>indoor farms with artificially controlled conditions (like indoor commercial hydroponic farms)</p></li>
<li><p>completely automated commercial farms that control the planting process, nutrient management and indoor growing environment.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>We observed certain strategies and trends. </p>
<p>Firstly, urban farmers often activate unused spaces. These may be empty lots, leftover spaces next to properties or infrastructure, empty buildings, or rooftops.</p>
<p>Secondly, urban farms ranged widely in size. We documented farms ranging from 3,220m² to 4m². Some of the soil-based organic farmers were particular about microclimate (sun, shading, soil quality and water availability). Some of the more technologically advanced farms were good at manipulating microclimates. They could grow food in seemingly unlikely places, like enclosed storerooms or cupboards. </p>
<p>Thirdly, we documented farms that benefited financially and otherwise from being part of multifunctional spaces. For example, they incorporated restaurants, education programmes, therapy spaces, sport facilities and social gathering spaces. </p>
<p>But we also came across urban farmers who actively discouraged a multifunctional approach. In South Africa, urban farms tended to be isolated – for example on rooftops – and the public were mostly excluded. The main reasons were food safety and the risk of theft or damage. The farmer’s main aim was to grow produce to secure an income.</p>
<p>Urban farms are often assumed to contribute to public spaces in cities. Some are part of large urban regeneration initiatives. But our findings prove this isn’t always the case. </p>
<p>Finally, we saw a range of technological applications and solutions. Many farms used highly sophisticated growing technologies. They include zero-acreage farms, which don’t use farmland or open space, but are part of buildings. Hydroponics (growing plants in nutrient-rich water) and vertical agriculture (growing plants on vertical structures) are zero-acreage methods. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman bends while tending to plants in plastic bags, while another woman waits to water them with a hose." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511147/original/file-20230220-22-aqqior.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511147/original/file-20230220-22-aqqior.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511147/original/file-20230220-22-aqqior.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511147/original/file-20230220-22-aqqior.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511147/original/file-20230220-22-aqqior.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511147/original/file-20230220-22-aqqior.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511147/original/file-20230220-22-aqqior.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A rooftop farm in South Africa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/workers-from-in-season-lethabo-madela-and-mbali-mthembu-news-photo/1058113276?phrase=hydroponics%20south%20africa&adppopup=true">Guillem Sartorio/AFP via Getty Images.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But other farms used technology like discarded objects, self-made solutions and organic or recycled materials. This reflects intentions to develop more sustainable farming solutions and save project costs. </p>
<p>We noted that low-tech farming technology was highly flexible. High-tech solutions were often inflexible once implemented. For example, one farmer had to completely replace the growing equipment because the technology didn’t suit local growing conditions. </p>
<p>Other farmers noted that the integrated nature of the farming systems forced them to grow only a small selection of crops.</p>
<h2>Critical findings</h2>
<p>Urban agriculture can offer cities several benefits. But certain types of urban farming, especially zero acreage farms, can potentially impede sustainable development. They may be more isolated from their surrounding context, less flexible and adaptable, and less multifunctional. Isolation, and only focusing on food production, reduces the economic potential and social impact of these farms. </p>
<p>The choice of urban agriculture technology is an important consideration for urban planners, architects, developers and farmers working in developing cities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198166/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Urban farms can work in developing countries if farmers and architects are aware of conditions that favour food production in built spaces.Jan Hugo, Senior lecturer in Sustainable and Climate Responsive Architecture, University of PretoriaAndy van den Dobbelsteen, Professor of Climate Design & Sustainability, Delft University of TechnologyChrisna du Plessis, Professor and Head of Department, Architecture, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1956882023-02-27T17:15:22Z2023-02-27T17:15:22Z‘Uncomfortable heritage’: how cities are repurposing former slaughterhouses<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506893/original/file-20230127-11301-l1vl98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Smithfield meat market.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-june-13-west-smithfield-meat-202203772">Cedric Weber </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the second half of 2022, the Museum of London threw <a href="https://www.timeout.com/london/news/museum-of-london-is-having-a-big-leaving-do-071322">a five-month-long leaving do</a> in anticipation of departing from its home of nearly 50 years. The museum has been housed in London Wall, on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-dark-world-of-high-rise-is-not-so-far-from-reality-55186">Barbican</a> estate in central London, since 1976. It is now preparing to relocate to the Victorian buildings that, until recently, hosted Smithfield market, the city’s largest wholesale meat market. </p>
<p>This <a href="http://researchspace.bathspa.ac.uk/10191/">conversion</a> of <a href="https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/west-smithfield">West Smithfield</a> into an important cultural destination is part of the wider <a href="https://www.culturemile.london/about">Culture Mile</a> regeneration project. Moving a major cultural centre to an area in need of revitalisation, in this way, is of course exciting news. But for 800 years, this area has accommodated meat production including, at various times, livestock, cold storage, meat markets and an abattoir.</p>
<p>Since the 2000s, culture and creativity have been posited as a kind of magic formula by which to sanitise buildings that come with what we have termed “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13527258.2017.1362580">uncomfortable heritage</a>”. When buildings with histories that some might find difficult – decommissioned <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-build-better-prisons-55174">prisons</a>, psychiatric <a href="https://theconversation.com/prisons-and-asylums-prove-architecture-can-build-up-or-break-down-a-persons-mental-health-109989">asylums</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/photos-of-wartime-europe-still-shape-views-of-conflict-heres-how-were-trying-to-right-the-record-181880">war-time</a> structures – are put to other uses, the process often involves <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2013.729270">navigating</a> between selectively remembering their history and omitting it altogether.</p>
<p>This also applies to abattoirs and meat markets because they are being converted against a backdrop of debates on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/at-the-centre-of-controversies-why-do-we-love-to-hate-and-hate-to-love-meat-178745">ethics of eating meat</a> and the gory and sometimes <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-consumer-horror-undo-the-meat-industry-5323">cruel practices</a> associated with its production, particularly as vegetarianism and veganism grows in popularity.</p>
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<img alt="A black and white photograph of an interior meat market" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506887/original/file-20230127-12-dr15oh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506887/original/file-20230127-12-dr15oh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506887/original/file-20230127-12-dr15oh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506887/original/file-20230127-12-dr15oh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506887/original/file-20230127-12-dr15oh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506887/original/file-20230127-12-dr15oh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506887/original/file-20230127-12-dr15oh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The historic Smithfield meat market.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.alamy.com/smithfield-market-image6078972.html?imageid=CAFE19F5-2F21-4EB2-AA35-71E313AB5829&p=181734&pn=3&searchId=ce769077d5830e5ee8df000a133c3067&searchtype=0">Chronicle | Alamy</a></span>
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<h2>Urban meat production</h2>
<p>Since the dawn of the modern era, many societies have pushed the sources of their meat <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1016/j.soscij.2008.12.020?journalCode=ussj20">further</a> from the people that consume it. From the early <a href="https://doi.org/10.1484/J.FOOD.2.301752">19th-century</a> meat markets, private slaughterhouses and the like were primarily situated on the city outskirts to reduce the transport of living animals into the already overcrowded city. </p>
<p>At the turn of the <a href="https://archive.org/details/cu31924000936660">20th century</a>, amid concerns about hygiene and animal cruelty, many local authorities set up public slaughterhouses to regulate the meat industry. Although they varied widely in size – from a single building to a vast precinct – these were, again, situated on the periphery of urban areas, capitalising on the railway network for livestock transport and ease of access. </p>
<p>These <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/356543023_Modern_Slaughterhouses_Buildings_of_Control_and_Reform">modern slaughterhouses</a> were equipped with machinery to mechanise the slaughter process and speed up production. They were designed to function as machines for processing a large number of animals quickly.</p>
<p>With the growth of the agro-industry from <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24707515">the 1960s</a>, meat production largely ceased in urban centres. While many of these historic slaughterhouses were demolished, some people have sought for those that survived to acquire cultural heritage status – in <a href="https://www.museeurbaintonygarnier.com/les-abattoirs-de-la-mouche">France</a>, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.culher.2014.12.001">in Spain</a>, in the UK and beyond. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/supporting-businesses/business-support-and-advice/wholesale-markets/smithfield-market/information-about-smithfield-market">Smithfield market</a> comprises three grade-two listed buildings. Like many former city markets, these are large, architecturally interesting spaces in attractively central locations. Since the early 2000s, cities from Madrid to Shanghai have focused on how to reuse such buildings. </p>
<p>In 2006, the former municipal slaughterhouse and cattle market of Madrid, in Spain, was reopened as a contemporary art centre, the Matadero Madrid. In Copenhagen, with meat-industry related activities in the Kødbyen district shrinking, the council has similarly brought in creative industries. And in Portugal, the <a href="https://www.archdaily.com/895589/kengo-kuma-and-ooda-win-competition-to-redevelop-porto-slaughterhouse">city of Porto</a> is converting the 1910 Matadouro de Campanhã into an area for offices, art galleries, museums and auditoriums. </p>
<p>Common to these conversions is how they fail to tell the buildings’ stories. Avoiding mention of blood and guts is understandable, but that is nonetheless what these premises hosted.</p>
<h2>Selective remembrance</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S1359135516000294">Shanghai Municipal Abattoir</a>, now known as 1933 Shanghai, is a modernist concrete structure. The British built it in the 1930s to meet the demands of foreign settlers for beef and mutton. In 2006, like Matadero Madrid and Kødbyen, it was turned into a flagship project for the creative industries, featuring expensive shops and branding campaign events. </p>
<p>Paint, tiling, fixtures and fittings have all been stripped away. The former slaughterhouse has thus been transformed into a bare concrete sculpture. </p>
<p>This kind of transformation treats the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/d6812">human perspective</a> as the most important aspect of architectural development and cosmopolitan culture. </p>
<p>1933 Shanghai’s spaces, which were designed to house animals awaiting death, have been reimagined as stages for cultural events, fashion shows and wedding parties. In the chilling hall, the gruesome sight of animal carcasses hung from ceiling-mounted conveyor belts has been replaced by lavish crystal chandeliers. The slaughter hall, where millions of animals were stunned, killed, bled and skinned, now hosts role-playing games and luxury car showcases. </p>
<p>Architects talk about “<a href="https://theconversation.com/reinventing-heritage-buildings-isnt-new-at-all-the-ancients-did-it-too-70053">adaptive reuse</a>”, to refer to how buildings can be reused. But such transformation is not just about recycling physical structures. It requires careful deliberation and conscious decision-making. </p>
<p>Every decision on how to retain or change existing structures and what kind of new uses to introduce to them dictates how we remember their past – or whether we remember it all. In the wider approach to reusing historic buildings, there are notable examples of design interventions that succeed in effectively evoking collective memories of the site’s history. </p>
<p>In the 2009 book Building Tate Modern, architecture writer Rowan Moore <a href="https://www.waterstones.com/book/building-tate-modern/rowan-moore/raymund-ryan/9781854372925">shows</a> how Swiss architectural firm Herzog and De Meuron converted London’s disused Bankside Power Station into the Tate Modern, thereby retelling the city’s industrial past. A 20th-century industrial landmark <a href="https://www.archdaily.com/429700/ad-classics-the-tate-modern-herzog-and-de-meuron?ad_source=search&ad_medium=projects_tab">was transformed</a> into a 21st-century cultural icon, the former turbine hall and oil tanks reused as unique installation and performance spaces that capitalise on the outsized dimensions. </p>
<p>In Hamburg, Herzog and De Meuron similarly converted the 1960s Kaispeicher warehouse on the banks of the Elbe, into the <a href="https://www.archdaily.com/802093/elbphilharmonie-hamburg-herzog-and-de-meuron">Elbphilharmonie</a> concert hall. By placing a new glass structure atop the mid-century brick, they emphasised the historical significance of the original structure and its bell tower, that dominated the soundscape of the harbour.</p>
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<img alt="A glass and red brick building seen from the side." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506890/original/file-20230127-13140-vjwvhj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506890/original/file-20230127-13140-vjwvhj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506890/original/file-20230127-13140-vjwvhj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506890/original/file-20230127-13140-vjwvhj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506890/original/file-20230127-13140-vjwvhj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506890/original/file-20230127-13140-vjwvhj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506890/original/file-20230127-13140-vjwvhj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hamburg-germany-december-26-elbphilharmonie-on-562776508">carol.anne</a></span>
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<p>And in South Africa, British architect Thomas Heatherwick transformed a 1920s grain silo complex in Cape Town into the <a href="https://www.heatherwick.com/project/zeitz-mocaa/">Zeitz MOCAA</a>, a museum dedicated to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/16/mocaa-cape-town-grain-silo-reborn-as-africas-answer-to-tate-modern">contemporary art</a> from across the African continent. Heatherwick retained much of the original concrete shell, ensuring it would continue to dominate the skyline on the <a href="https://www.waterfront.co.za/the-va/the-company/our-history/">Victoria and Alfred</a> waterfront after a century. Inside, an ovoid atrium was carved out, recalling the organic structure and shape of a grain. </p>
<p>Reworking historical buildings inevitably engages with and alters our understanding of the past. But it can also engage with our present by making visitors consider the issues the building represents. Most meat-industry heritage sites, however, are converted in such a way that their history is all but obscured. </p>
<p>There are tools that could help here. Augmented reality technology could superpose images on to the physical environment of a slaughterhouse, to relay to visitors what workers and animals experienced in the building’s former life. Apps and audioguides could similarly give people the choice to engage – or not – with the history of where they stand. </p>
<p>Simply sanitising a former slaughterhouse, with culture and creativity, is a missed opportunity to engage more deeply with where our meat comes from. We should find ways to retell all aspects of these buildings’ stories.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195688/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When buildings with difficult pasts are repurposed, the process often involves navigating between omission and selective remembrance.Yiwen Wang, Associate Professor, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool UniversityJohn Pendlebury, Professor of Urban Conservation, Newcastle UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1992742023-02-23T13:42:14Z2023-02-23T13:42:14ZAfrica’s first heat officer is based in Freetown – 5 things that should be on her agenda<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511378/original/file-20230221-22-2abbei.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">GettyImages</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Eugenia Kargbo has an unusual job: she is the city of Freetown’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/06/world/africa/eugenia-kargbo-chief-heat-officer-africa.html">chief heat officer</a>. Her role in Sierra Leone’s capital is the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-01-21/how-africa-s-first-heat-officer-confronts-climate-change">first of its kind in Africa</a>. She has been tasked with raising public awareness about extreme heat, improving responses to heat waves, and collecting, analysing and visualising heat impact data for the city, which is home to <a href="https://populationstat.com/sierra-leone/freetown">1.2 million people</a>. </p>
<p>Freetown is increasingly threatened by dangerous temperatures. In 2017, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change <a href="https://chinadialogueocean.net/en/governance/19162-sea-level-rise-sierra-leone-sinking-islands/">ranked Sierra Leone third</a>, after Bangladesh and Guinea Bissau, on its list of countries most vulnerable to climate change. </p>
<p>The risks are concentrated in its capital and largest city, Freetown, where some <a href="https://www.mayorsmigrationcouncil.org/gcf-res/freetown-sierra-leone">35%</a> of the population live in 74 informal settlements like Kroo Bay, often in disaster-prone areas like the seafront or hillsides. Houses are densely built and typically temporary structures made of “heat traping” materials. Services that supports cooling, such as water and electricity, are usually inadequate. </p>
<p>As an <a href="https://www.acu.ac.uk/get-involved/commonwealth-climate-research-cohort/theme-cities/dr-olumuyiwa-adegun/">architect</a> whose work includes <a href="https://theconversation.com/growing-plants-on-buildings-can-reduce-heat-and-produce-healthy-food-in-african-cities-191190">researching ways to reduce heat in African cities</a>, I think the creation of an Heat Officer position is a good move. The world’s cities are almost all getting hotter – and, as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/">has warned</a>, temperatures will only keep rising. </p>
<p>But, while this is a global challenge, African cities are unique. The significant proportion of urban dwellers who are poor and those whose living conditions do not provide adequate shelter from the elements make the African context unique and deserving special attention. </p>
<p>With these realities in mind, here are five things I’d suggest should be on the agenda of both Kargbo and any other heat officer appointed elsewhere on the continent in future. </p>
<h2>1. Take a diverse approach to urban greening</h2>
<p>Nature-based approaches are a great way to address increasing temperatures linked to climate change. <a href="https://researchoutput.csu.edu.au/en/publications/african-urbanism-the-geography-of-urban-greenery">Scholars have established</a> positive links between green infrastructure, temperature moderation and even health outcomes in African cities as well as elsewhere in the world.</p>
<p>This has informed a growing number of tree-planting initiatives and the development of urban parks. But it is important that municipalities move beyond only these kinds of spaces. African cities are becoming densely populated; that means less space will be available for greening initiatives on land. </p>
<p>Vertical systems of building (for example on walls, roofs, columns) and urban infrastructure (for example on bridges, road furniture) should be explored to make up for the lack of space on the ground.</p>
<p>In the last few years, <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fbuil.2022.874751/full">I have led the design and development of experimental vertical gardens</a> in low-income areas of Nigeria and Tanzania. <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jue/article/8/1/juac016/6726544">We have shown </a> that these vertical gardens reduce wall temperature of residential buildings by as much as 5°C in Dar es Salaam. The gardens have other benefits like providing fresh vegetables for household consumption. Similar ways of growing vegetation vertically have been seen elsewhere in the world, including in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/oct/30/mexico-city-via-verde-vertical-gardens-pollution-climate-change">Mexico City</a>.</p>
<h2>2. Strengthen the link between heat and health</h2>
<p>Exposure to extreme heat usually comes with health problems – and can even kill people, <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fbuil.2022.874751/full">as I</a> and many other scholars <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34846569/">have documented</a>. It exacerbates underlying health conditions. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/heat-stress-is-rising-in-southern-africa-climate-experts-show-where-and-when-its-worst-198455">Heat stress is rising in southern Africa – climate experts show where and when it’s worst</a>
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<p>One area of concern when it comes to the heat-health nexus in African countries is that <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32584659/">mosquito numbers increase in higher temperatures</a>. This means malaria and other diseases transmitted by mosquitoes might become <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2542519621001327">significant problems</a> for Freetown and other African cities. </p>
<p>These health problems are further complicated by the fact that many city dwellers across the continent <a href="https://academic.oup.com/heapol/article/27/suppl_1/i46/603713">can’t access adequate and affordable health care</a>. Community health initiatives within cities and efforts to ramp up health services in qualitative and quantitative terms must be integral to heat adaptation plans and actions. </p>
<h2>3. Focus on early warning and improved awareness</h2>
<p>It is far better to be proactive than reactive. Heat vulnerability patterns within Freetown and other African cities must be studied and used to make sense of weather predictions in order to inform warning systems. </p>
<p>In the warning systems, for example, an alert level can be triggered when the weather forecast shows three or more consecutive days with daytime maximum temperature and humidity above a threshold of, say, 30°C. Other levels of alerts can correspond with higher temperatures. This sort of system has been <a href="https://www.toronto.ca/community-people/health-wellness-care/health-programs-advice/hot-weather/about-torontos-heat-relief-strategy/">implemented</a> in Toronto, Canada, with good outcomes. <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.17269/s41997-022-00665-1">A recent study</a> of urban areas in Ontario (the province where Toronto is located) shows that early warnings may have meant fewer heat-related illnesses severe enough to warrant hospital or clinic visits. </p>
<h2>4. Encourage the transfer of knowledge</h2>
<p>Cities can adapt to heat faster when they share knowledge and experiences. Some scholars <a href="https://en.x-mol.com/paper/article/1481026728131448832">argue</a> that inter-city collaboration and knowledge-sharing can enhance municipalities’ resilience and improve urban residents’ skills to deal with heat-related issues.</p>
<p>Kargbo’s work will generate many lessons that can be shared with other African cities; she, too, will learn from other cities’ successes and failures</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/growing-more-plants-and-trees-can-cut-down-the-heat-in-nigerian-cities-82185">Growing more plants and trees can cut down the heat in Nigerian cities</a>
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<h2>5. Let locals lead</h2>
<p>While there is plenty to learn from more developed countries outside Africa, it is important to also draw from local indigenous knowledge and practices. An examination of knowledge and awareness about climate-related and environmental problems in African traditional society <a href="https://pubag.nal.usda.gov/catalog/6017059">shows</a> there is much to be learned from indigenous systems.</p>
<p>Top-down approaches are not enough. They must be complemented by bottom-up approaches in the planning, funding, execution and assessment of heat adaptation initiatives. </p>
<p>Inclusion is also important because it shifts power to those who are most affected by heat – people living in low-income and informal areas <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004221012177">are disproportionately affected</a>. Involving them enhances the impacts of initiatives and interventions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199274/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Olumuyiwa Adegun previously received funding from African Academy of Sciences; DAAD ClimapAfrica Program; Commonwealth Futures Climate Research Cohort Programme</span></em></p>Freetown, the capital city of Sierra Leone, has a chief heat officer, the first in Africa. She has her work cut out for her.Olumuyiwa Adegun, Senior Lecturer, Department of Architecture, Federal University of Technology, AkureLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1980692023-01-24T19:18:51Z2023-01-24T19:18:51ZWhy loneliness is both an individual thing and a shared result of the cities we create<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505296/original/file-20230119-26-3pzdvg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C8674%2C5787&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you’re feeling lonely, you’re not alone. Loneliness is an <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en/loneliness-increase-worldwide-increase-local-community-support">increasingly common experience</a>, and it can have severe consequences. People who feel lonely are at <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-010-9210-8">higher risk of serious health issues</a>, including heart disease, immune deficiency and depression.</p>
<p>Traditionally, loneliness has been viewed as an individual problem requiring individual solutions, such as psychological therapy or medication. Yet loneliness is caused by feeling disconnected from society. It therefore makes sense that treatments for loneliness should focus on the things that help us make these broader connections. </p>
<p>The places where we live, work and play, for example, can promote meaningful social interactions and help us build a sense of connection. Careful planning and management of these places can create <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/loneliness-annual-report-the-third-year/tackling-loneliness-annual-report-february-2022-the-third-year">population-wide improvements in loneliness</a>.</p>
<p>Our research team is investigating how the way we design and plan our cities impacts loneliness. We have just published a <a href="https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1gNq14pqpjtIuw">systematic review</a> of research from around the world. Overall, we found many aspects of the built environment affect loneliness. </p>
<p>However, no single design attribute can protect everyone against loneliness. Places can provide opportunities for social interactions, or present barriers to them. Yet every individual responds differently to these opportunities and barriers.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/4-ways-we-can-recover-from-the-loneliness-of-the-covid-pandemic-187856">4 ways we can recover from the loneliness of the COVID pandemic</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What did the review look at?</h2>
<p>Our review involved screening over 7,000 published studies covering fields such as psychology, public health and urban planning. We included 57 studies that directly examined the relationship between loneliness and the built environment. These studies covered wide-ranging aspects from neighbourhood design, housing conditions and public spaces to transport infrastructure and natural spaces.</p>
<p>The research shows built environments can present people with options to do the things we know help reduce loneliness. Examples include chatting to the people in your street or neighbourhood or attending a community event. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1612065166132400129"}"></div></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/many-people-feel-lonely-in-the-city-but-perhaps-third-places-can-help-with-that-92847">Many people feel lonely in the city, but perhaps 'third places' can help with that</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>However, the link between the built environment and loneliness is complex. Our review found possibilities for social interaction depend on both structural and individual factors. In other words, individual outcomes depend on what the design of a space enables a person to do as well as on whether, and how, that person takes advantage of that design.</p>
<p>Specifically, we identified some key aspects of the built environment that can help people make connections. These include housing design, transport systems and the distribution and design of open and natural spaces.</p>
<h2>So what sort of situations are we talking about?</h2>
<p>Living in small apartments, for example can increase loneliness. <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10901-020-09816-7">For some people</a>, this is because the smaller space reduces their ability to have people over for dinner. Others who live in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X15000112">poorly maintained housing</a> report similar experiences.</p>
<p>More universally, living in areas with good access to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X19001569">community centres</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyab089">natural spaces</a> helps people make social connections. These spaces allow for both planned and unexpected social interactions. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/1-in-4-australians-is-lonely-quality-green-spaces-in-our-cities-offer-a-solution-188007">1 in 4 Australians is lonely. Quality green spaces in our cities offer a solution</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Living in environments with good access to destinations and transport options also protects against loneliness. In particular, it benefits individuals who are able to use <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/glu069">active transport (walking and cycling) and high-quality public transport</a>. </p>
<p>This finding should make sense to anyone who walks or takes the bus. We are then more likely to interact in some way with those around us than when locked away in the privacy of a car.</p>
<p>Similarly, built environments <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.21711">designed to be safe</a> — from crime, traffic and pollution — also enable people to explore their neighbourhoods easily on foot. Once again, that gives them more opportunities for social interactions that can, potentially, reduce loneliness.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505295/original/file-20230119-16-3pzdvg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505295/original/file-20230119-16-3pzdvg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505295/original/file-20230119-16-3pzdvg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505295/original/file-20230119-16-3pzdvg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505295/original/file-20230119-16-3pzdvg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505295/original/file-20230119-16-3pzdvg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505295/original/file-20230119-16-3pzdvg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Neighbourhoods that make it easier to get around without a car also promote social interactions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Environments where people are able to express themselves were also found to protect against loneliness. For example, residents of housing they could personalise and “make home” reported feeling less lonely. So too did those who felt able to “<a href="https://doi.org/10.7870/cjcmh-2002-0010">fit in</a>”, or identify with the people living close by.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/designing-cities-to-counter-loneliness-lets-explore-the-possibilities-104853">Designing cities to counter loneliness? Let's explore the possibilities</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Other important factors are less obvious</h2>
<p>These factors are fairly well defined, but we also found less tangible conditions could be significant. For example, studies consistently showed the importance of socio-economic status. The interplay between economic inequalities and the built environment can deny many the right to live a life without loneliness.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/19491247.2021.1940686">housing tenure</a> can be important because people who rent are less able to personalise their homes. People with lower incomes can’t always afford to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1440783320960527">live close to friends</a> or in a neighbourhood where they feel accepted. Lower-income areas are also notoriously under-serviced with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2020.102869">reliable public transport</a>, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1471-2458-14-292">well-maintained natural spaces</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2007.11.002">well-designed public spaces</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1605150887269335046"}"></div></p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/i-really-have-thought-this-cant-go-on-loneliness-looms-for-rising-numbers-of-older-private-renters-118046">'I really have thought this can’t go on': loneliness looms for rising numbers of older private renters</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Our review reveals several aspects of the built environment that can enhance social interactions and minimise loneliness. Our key finding, though, is that there is no single built environment that is universally “good” or “bad” for loneliness. </p>
<p>Yes, we can plan and build our cities to help us meet our innate need for social connection. But context matters, and different individuals will interpret built environments differently.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198069/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Kent receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marlee Bower receives funding from the BHP Foundation. She is affiliated with Australia's Mental Health Think Tank.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emily J. Rugel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A systematic review of thousands of studies around the world has found many aspects of our cities affect loneliness. But people’s relationship with their environment is complex and highly individual.Jennifer L. Kent, Senior Research Fellow in Urbanism, University of SydneyEmily J. Rugel, Honorary Adjunct Lecturer, Sydney Medical School, University of SydneyMarlee Bower, Research Fellow, Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1892852022-12-20T22:18:24Z2022-12-20T22:18:24ZSmart buildings: What happens to our free will when tech makes choices for us?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481358/original/file-20220826-14-d0tvbm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C8%2C988%2C389&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A so-called smart building. What will become of our free will when choices are made for us by technology embedded in the building?
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Smart buildings, which are central to the concept of smart cities, are a <a href="https://www.cushmanwakefield.com/en/united-kingdom/insights/smart-buildings">new generation of buildings</a> in which technological devices, such as sensors, are embedded in the structure of the buildings themselves. Smart buildings promise to personalize the experiences of their occupants by using real-time feedback mechanisms and forward-looking management of interactions between humans and the built environment.</p>
<p>This personalization includes continuous monitoring of the activities of occupants and the use of sophisticated profiling models. While these issues spark concerns about privacy, this is a matter of not seeing the forest for the trees. The questions raised by the massive arrival of digital technologies in our living spaces go far beyond this.</p>
<p>As a professor of real estate at ESG-UQAM, I specialize in innovations applied to the real estate sector. My research focuses on smart commercial buildings, for which I am developing a conceptual framework and innovative tools to enable in-depth analysis in the context of smart cities.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
À lire aussi :
<a href="https://theconversation.com/get-ready-for-the-invasion-of-smart-building-technologies-following-covid-19-168646">Get ready for the invasion of smart building technologies following COVID-19</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>“Choices” proposed, or imposed</h2>
<p>Thanks to <a href="https://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2alpha/alpha-eng.html?lang=eng&i=1&srchtxt=ubiquitous+computing&codom2nd_wet=1#resultrecs">ubiquitous computing</a>, interactions between building occupants and nested technology are quiet and invisible. As a result, the occupants’ attention is never drawn to the massive presence of computers operating permanently in the background.</p>
<p>Personalization allows us, for example, to have the ideal temperature and brightness in our workspace at all times. This would be idyllic if this personalization did not come at a cost to the occupants, namely their freedom of action and, more fundamentally, their free will.</p>
<p>As technology increasingly mediates our experiences in the built environment, choices will be offered to us, or even imposed on us, based on the profile the building’s technology device models have created of us in function of the goals, mercantile or otherwise, of those who control them (such as technology companies).</p>
<p>Having the ability to decide either to do something or not, and to act accordingly, is a basic definition of freedom. Smart buildings challenge this freedom by interfering with our ability to act, and more fundamentally, with our ability to decide for ourselves. Is freedom of action even possible for the occupants of a building where interactions between humans and their built environment are produced using algorithms that are never neutral?</p>
<h2>Satisfied… but not free</h2>
<p>The 17th-century English philosopher <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke/">John Locke’s</a> famous analogy of the locked room sheds light on this question. Suppose a sleeping man is transported to a room where, upon awakening, he is engaged in activities that bring him great satisfaction, such as chatting with a long-lost friend.</p>
<p>Unbeknown to him, the door of the room is locked. Thus, he cannot leave the room if he wants to. He is therefore not free, even though he voluntarily remains in the room and gets extreme satisfaction from what he is doing there.</p>
<p>Locke’s analysis reflects the situation of smart building occupants. They benefit from the personalization of their experiences from which they derive great satisfaction. However, once they enter a space, technology controls their interactions outside of their awareness. While they may want to stay in the building to enjoy personalized experiences, they are not free. Smart buildings are a high-tech version of Locke’s locked room.</p>
<p>There’s nothing new about the problem. Already in the 19th century, in <em>Notes from the Underground</em> the Russian Fyodor Dostoyevsky identifies the challenges that computational logic poses to free will.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You will scream at me … that no one is touching my free will, that all they are concerned with is that my will should of itself, of its own free will, coincide with my own normal interests, with the laws of nature and arithmetic. Good heavens, gentlemen, what sort of free will is left when we come to tabulation and arithmetic…?</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Deciding on the role of technology in our living spaces</h2>
<p>Indeed, what can be said about our free will when choices are made for us by technology?</p>
<p><a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke-freedom/">An action is something we do actively</a>, as opposed to things that happen to us in a passive way. Also, the active will to perform an action differs from the passive desire for an act to be done.</p>
<p>While algorithms are concerned with the predictability of human behaviour, things happen passively to the occupants of smart buildings. Their role is limited to receiving stimuli whilst the invisibility of the technology maintains their illusion that they have sole control over their actions.</p>
<p>These human-built environment interactions erode our will to take action, replacing it with desires shaped and calibrated by models over which we have no control. By denying the free will of their occupants, smart buildings challenge the right to action that the German philosopher <a href="https://hac.bard.edu/amor-mundi/everything-is-fragile-reading-arendt-in-the-anthropocene-2020-01-02">Hannah Arendt</a> defines as one of the most fundamental rights of humans, the one that differentiates us from animals.</p>
<p>So, should we prohibit, or at least regulate, the technology embedded in smart buildings?</p>
<p>The answer to this question takes us back to the very origins of Western democracy. Long before the Big Tech companies (<a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/gafam-stocks.asp">GAFAM</a>), the Greek Socrates (who died in 399 BC) was concerned with the nature of an ideal city. In Plato’s <a href="https://iep.utm.edu/republic/"><em>The Republic</em></a>, Socrates explains that the difference between a city where citizens have all the luxuries and a city without luxuries, which he calls “a city fit for pigs,” is the ability of the residents of the former to choose their way of life, unlike the residents of the latter where this choice is simply not possible.</p>
<p>Smart cities are the digital version of the luxury cities of antiquity. However, without granting their residents the ability to make informed choices about technology, they provide satisfaction at the expense of their rights.</p>
<p>To avoid building an entire environment according to <a href="https://www.ipl.org/essay/It-Is-Better-To-Be-A-Human-P3FJWSK6JE8R">the philosophy of pigs</a>, smart building occupants should retain the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/361924759_On_the_Economic_Nature_of_Behavioural_Control_in_Smart_Real_Estate">legally defined right</a> to decide for themselves the role of technology in their living spaces. Only then can their freedom be respected.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189285/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patrick Lecomte ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>Having the ability to decide either to do something or not, and to act accordingly, is a basic definition of freedom. Smart buildings challenge this freedom.Patrick Lecomte, Professor, Real Estate, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1941662022-11-09T19:00:22Z2022-11-09T19:00:22ZOur buildings are driving us closer to ‘climate hell’ – how do we get back on course to net zero?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494357/original/file-20221109-17-a4qjc0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=20%2C351%2C4580%2C3097&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>More and more of the world’s people are feeling the impacts of climate change. As United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said when <a href="https://unfccc.int/cop27">COP27</a> opened this week: “We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator.” </p>
<p>Much of the weight on the accelerator is coming from the construction and building sector. Accounting for 37% of global carbon dioxide emissions, the built environment is a major part of the climate change problem. That also means it can and must be a key part of the solution.</p>
<p>The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has just released its <a href="https://wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.500.11822/41133">2022 Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction</a> at COP27. Its findings are alarming. </p>
<p>The sector’s energy consumption and emissions have rebounded from the COVID pandemic to an all-time high. Emissions are 2% higher than the previous peak in 2019. </p>
<p>The report says the reasons include revival of construction activity suppressed during lockdowns, and more intensive use of existing buildings. </p>
<p>In 2021, buildings accounted for more than 34% of the world’s total energy demand. This figure includes embodied energy that goes into construction materials and processes, and operational energy that goes into running buildings. The sector produced about 37% of CO₂ emissions. </p>
<p>The gap between the sector’s performance and what needs to be done to achieve decarbonisation by 2050 is widening – despite a 16% increase in investments in building energy efficiency from 2020 to 2021. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1590101984350289923"}"></div></p>
<h2>How do we measure progress?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement">Paris Agreement</a> seeks to avoid catastrophic climate change by limiting global warming to 1.5°C and no more than 2°C. The <a href="https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/HS_ActionTable_2.1.pdf">Human Settlements Pathway</a> of the Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action identifies two objectives which are building momentum across the sector:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>by 2030, halve built environment emissions, with 100% of new buildings to be net-zero carbon in operation</p></li>
<li><p>by 2050, all new and existing built assets must be net zero across their whole life cycle, including both embodied and operational emissions.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>To <a href="https://www.bpie.eu/publication/a-methodology-for-tracking-decarbonisation-action-and-impact-of-the-buildings-and-construction-sector-globally-developing-the-globalabc-building-climate-tracker/">track the decarbonisation progress</a>, the <a href="https://www.bpie.eu/publication/eu-buildings-climate-tracker-urgency-to-close-the-buildings-decarbonisation-gap/">Global Buildings Climate Tracker</a> has mapped a direct reference path to a target of zero-carbon building stock in 2050. The tracker has seven components:</p>
<p><strong>3 impact elements:</strong> </p>
<ul>
<li><p>CO₂ emissions</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Glossary:Energy_intensity">energy intensity</a></p></li>
<li><p>share of renewables in buildings’ energy use.</p></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>4 action elements:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><p>investing in energy efficiency</p></li>
<li><p>green building certification</p></li>
<li><p>nationally determined contributions to include building sector action</p></li>
<li><p>building codes and regulations.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>So why is the sector going backwards?</h2>
<p>At first glance, the report offers some good news when comparing the 2021 trends to the 2015 baseline data. However, the overriding change is gross floor area, which has increased by 11% – 24 billion square metres – since 2015. This growth in construction, which is predicted to continue beyond 2050, is outweighing progress in other areas. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-green-trifecta-how-a-concrete-alternative-can-cut-emissions-resource-use-and-waste-192501">A green trifecta: how a concrete alternative can cut emissions, resource use and waste</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In addition, energy intensity has stagnated, falling by only 0.7%. Three-quarters of countries still do not have mandatory energy-efficiency standards for all building types. While an increasing number mention buildings in their nationally determined contributions, many still don’t have detailed plans for achieving net-zero emissions from the sector by 2050.</p>
<p><strong>Global buildings and construction trends, 2015 and 2021</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494343/original/file-20221109-24-26vl2o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Vertical bar chart showing trends in key construction and building energy use and emissions for 2015 and 2021" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494343/original/file-20221109-24-26vl2o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494343/original/file-20221109-24-26vl2o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=244&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494343/original/file-20221109-24-26vl2o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=244&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494343/original/file-20221109-24-26vl2o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=244&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494343/original/file-20221109-24-26vl2o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=306&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494343/original/file-20221109-24-26vl2o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=306&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494343/original/file-20221109-24-26vl2o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=306&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.500.11822/41133">Source: 2022 Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction/UNEP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What does this mean for efforts to limit climate change?</h2>
<p>Overall, the report shows we have made less than half the progress we should have made on decarbonising the sector at this stage. </p>
<p>The gap has increased this year, meaning the situation is getting worse, not better. Urgent action is needed to get the sector back on track to zero net emissions by 2050.</p>
<p><strong>Building sector performance compared to pathway to zero carbon by 2050</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494345/original/file-20221109-20-o5zngv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="line graphs showing building sector performance compared to required pathway to net zero" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494345/original/file-20221109-20-o5zngv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494345/original/file-20221109-20-o5zngv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=327&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494345/original/file-20221109-20-o5zngv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=327&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494345/original/file-20221109-20-o5zngv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=327&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494345/original/file-20221109-20-o5zngv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494345/original/file-20221109-20-o5zngv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494345/original/file-20221109-20-o5zngv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.500.11822/41133">Source: 2022 Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction/UNEP. Adapted by the Buildings Performance Institute Europe. </a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The report highlights the need to consider whole lifecycle approaches to emissions. That means taking into account emissions from the manufacture of materials and construction activity, through to the operation of buildings and then end-of-life demolition and waste. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2020.110287">research in 2020</a> found total lifecycle emissions from the new homes required for Australia’s growing population greatly exceeded our emissions targets. Federal government projections potentially underestimated emissions by 96%.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/7-star-housing-is-a-step-towards-zero-carbon-but-theres-much-more-to-do-starting-with-existing-homes-189542">7-star housing is a step towards zero carbon – but there's much more to do, starting with existing homes</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What can be done to get emissions on track?</h2>
<p>The report’s recommendations focus on strengthening:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>policies, targets and regulations</p></li>
<li><p>investment and finance </p></li>
<li><p>materials, with a focus on the construction supply chain, life cycle and circular economy.</p></li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Growth in energy demand and floor area under scenario of net zero by 2050</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494356/original/file-20221109-14-o5zngv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="vertical bar chart showing Global buildings energy demand and floor area growth under the IEA Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494356/original/file-20221109-14-o5zngv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494356/original/file-20221109-14-o5zngv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494356/original/file-20221109-14-o5zngv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494356/original/file-20221109-14-o5zngv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494356/original/file-20221109-14-o5zngv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494356/original/file-20221109-14-o5zngv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494356/original/file-20221109-14-o5zngv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=315&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.500.11822/41133">Source: 2022 Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction/UNEP. Adapted from Tracking Clean Energy Progress/IEA 2021</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-cant-afford-to-just-build-greener-we-must-build-less-170570">We can't afford to just build greener. We must build less</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Priorities in Australia are to urgently update our building regulations; shift business models and investment to prioritise net-zero buildings and construction; and secure the electricity grid’s transition to renewable energy generation.</p>
<p>While the 2022 <a href="https://ncc.abcb.gov.au/news/2022/whats-new-about-ncc-2022">National Construction Code update</a> increased energy-efficiency standards, further changes are needed to meet 2050 goals. Revisions to the code are notoriously slow, but the need for more action is urgent. </p>
<p>Australia is also yet to consider embodied carbon emissions in the construction, refurbishment and retrofitting of buildings, or the ongoing embodied emissions due to tenancy changes or home improvements. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/better-building-standards-are-good-for-the-climate-your-health-and-your-wallet-heres-what-the-national-construction-code-could-do-better-166669">Better building standards are good for the climate, your health, and your wallet. Here's what the National Construction Code could do better</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We have seen improvements as a result of the <a href="https://www.cbd.gov.au/">Commercial Building Disclosure Program</a> requiring commercial buildings to display their environmental rating under the <a href="https://www.nabers.gov.au/about/what-nabers">NABERS</a> standards. While no minimum requirements have yet been set, this program has helped to cut operational emissions. </p>
<p>However, unlike Europe, the <a href="https://www.nabers.gov.au/">NABERS</a> rating generally only measures the base building operational emissions (as required under the Commercial Building Disclosure Program). It’s missing a big piece of the puzzle, tenancy emissions. </p>
<p>Despite the level of construction activity, most of the building stock has already been built and will not be replaced for decades. This means a retrofit program is needed. </p>
<p>It’s a huge challenge. For example, the City of Melbourne’s target of <a href="https://participate.melbourne.vic.gov.au/zero-carbon-buildings-melbourne">zero-carbon buildings</a> by 2040 requires about 77 buildings to be retrofitted every year. </p>
<h2>We have the know-how but need political will</h2>
<p>We need <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-cities-policies-are-seriously-inadequate-for-tackling-the-climate-crisis-182769">political will and broadscale investment</a> to bring about the scale of changes required to achieve net-zero buildings. Impetus is building, but it needs to translate into big <a href="https://theconversation.com/cop26-cities-create-over-70-of-energy-related-emissions-heres-what-must-change-171307">structural changes in policy</a>, finance, materials supply chains and energy systems.</p>
<p>The good news is we already have the capacity and know-how we need to steer our buildings sector onto a net-zero trajectory and off the highway to climate hell.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194166/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Hurlimann receives funding from the Australian Research Council's Discovery Grant Program for Project DP200101378 - 'Integrating Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in Built Environments'. Anna is a Member of the Planning Institute of Australia and Planners for Climate Action (UN-HABITAT). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Georgia Warren-Myers receives funding from Australian Research Council, the Australian Property Research and Education Fund and New South Wales government. She is a Certified Practising Valuer with the Australian Property Institute, and is affiliated with Australian Property Institute National Standards Steering Committee, the International Valuation Standards ESG Working Group, the Green Building Council of Australia Homes Advisory Panel, Investor Group on Climate Change, Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council, and Victorian government - Residential Efficiency Scorecard Program Advisory Group.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Judy Bush receives funding from the Australian Research Council for the Discovery project Integrating Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in Built Environments (DP200101378). She is a member of the Planning Institute of Australia</span></em></p>Constructing and running buildings accounts for roughly a third of global energy use and emissions. So it’s alarming that a report to COP27 shows the sector is veering off course for net zero by 2050.Anna Hurlimann, Associate Professor in Urban Planning, The University of MelbourneGeorgia Warren-Myers, Associate Professor in Property, The University of MelbourneJudy Bush, Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1832352022-06-02T14:17:00Z2022-06-02T14:17:00ZNigerian property crime could be reduced if neighbourhoods were better designed<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464514/original/file-20220520-24-5xelh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some physical developments contribute to crime in Nigeria. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/detached-three-bedroom-apartments-are-pictured-at-haggai-news-photo/151044248?adppopup=true">Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP via Getty Images </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nigeria has a very high crime rate. The Global Peace Index ranked it the world’s <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/273160/countries-with-the-least-peace-worldwide/">17th least peaceful state</a>. Discussion of crime in Nigeria tends to focus on insurgency, terrorism and kidnapping, but other types of crime are thriving too.</p>
<p>According to the National Bureau of Statistics, <a href="https://www.proshareng.com/news/Frauds---Scandals/134,663-Crime-Cases-Were-Reported-in-201/40508">134,663</a> cases of offences were reported in 2017. Offences against property make up the <a href="https://www.proshareng.com/news/Frauds---Scandals/134,663-Crime-Cases-Were-Reported-in-201/40508">highest number of cases reported</a>. As of March 2022, Nigerians reported <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1200186/levels-of-worry-related-to-different-crimes-in-nigeria/">they worried most</a> about robbery, theft and break-ins. The level of concern stood at 66.04 points, on a scale from 0 to 100 (where 100 represents the highest concern).</p>
<p>Governments can respond to crime in <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-13-8215-4?noAccess=true">various ways</a>, like making and enforcing laws and addressing the root causes of crime. Another avenue to explore is crime prevention through spatial design.</p>
<h2>Built environment influences crime</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/7/3056">Research</a> has shown that features of the built environment influence crime. </p>
<p>Physical developments and locations can contribute to crime through flawed planning or structural design. It can also be lack of maintenance, access control, territorial reinforcement and surveillance. The plan and design of the built environment should ideally form part of a broader approach to crime prevention and community policing. This is known as “Crime Prevention through Environmental Design”.</p>
<p>I conducted a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320456478_Crime_Risk_Interpretation_in_Nigerian_Built_Environment_The_case_of_Minna_Niger_State">study</a> in Minna, Niger State, north central Nigeria, on how street layout, the neighbourhood composition, the routine activities, and resident’s lifestyle influence the risks of crime. Respondents answered questions on experience of crime in the 12 months prior to the survey. </p>
<p>The responses showed that experiences and perceptions of crime varied significantly across neighbourhoods. Socio-economic, environmental design and land use variables accounted for this variation. The findings also emphasised the importance of manipulation of the physical, built environment as ways of reducing crime.</p>
<h2>Crime prevention through environmental design</h2>
<p>The concept of <a href="https://cpted.net/">crime prevention through environmental design</a> has been in existence for decades. Law enforcement agencies worldwide use it.</p>
<p><a href="https://books.google.com.ng/books/about/Crime_Prevention_Through_Environmental_D.html?id=prgIS7CH9F8C&redir_esc=y">Proper design and effective use of the built environment</a> can reduce the fear and incidence of crime, and improve quality of life. </p>
<p>It generally consists of surveillance, access control, territorial reinforcement, and space management. </p>
<p>Surveillance means that people can see what others are doing. This will deter would-be offenders from committing crime. Clear sightlines, effective lighting and landscaping can reduce the chances that offenders can hide or entrap victims. </p>
<p>Access control is the use of physical or symbolic barriers to attract, channel, or restrict the movement of people. This can be achieved through landscaping, fencing, gates, and other forms of technology that manage entry and exit to particular locations. </p>
<p>Territorial reinforcement signifies ownership. Well-maintained properties with clearly defined purposes send signals that the occupants are on guard. Providing a sense of ownership over an area encourages responsibility for managing the area and intervening if problems arise. </p>
<p>Space management relates to sustaining attractive, well-maintained, and well used spaces. Activity coordination, cleanliness, rapid repair of vandalism, and removing abandoned vehicles and graffiti are space management practices. So are replacing burned out lighting, and removing or refurbishing decayed physical elements.</p>
<p>My recent <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/PM-02-2019-0009/full/html">study</a> examined these ideas from the perspective of property development firms and residents in Benin City. This capital of Nigeria’s Edo State is <a href="https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jgg/article/view/68087">growing rapidly</a> and had <a href="https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jgg/article/view/68087">the highest crime rate</a> in Nigeria in 2016 after Lagos, Abuja and Delta. Break-ins, robbery, kidnapping and ritual killings topped the list of crime incidents.</p>
<p>I used a questionnaire to collect data from representatives of 35 property firms and 362 residents. Findings show that: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>crime risk assessment is not one of the requirements for development approval</p></li>
<li><p>more than half (67%) of residents had been victims of burglary and theft</p></li>
<li><p>most developers (74%) and residents (79%) expect burglary and theft to increase in future</p></li>
<li><p>some developers and residents have spent money on crime prevention through environment such as fencing, lighting, access control and surveillance among others</p></li>
<li><p>about 88% of these attempts were not appropriately applied in a way that effective crime prevention could be achieved</p></li>
<li><p>most of the developers (91%) and residents (84%) were of the opinion that properly applied crime prevention would deter burglary and theft. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>The developers and residents therefore need more help to know how to get it right. </p>
<h2>Implications for fighting crime in Nigeria</h2>
<p>Environmental impact assessments provide that certain developments must be designed to prevent damage to the environment. Similarly, developments should be designed to prevent or neutralise crime. Crime risk assessment and crime prevention through environmental design should formally be part of the Nigerian urban planning landscape. </p>
<p>Guidelines could be created to help town planning authorities assess development proposals in terms of crime risks. The guidelines should suggest that town planning authorities have an obligation to ensure that a development prevents or minimises crime risks that users and the community are exposed to. </p>
<p>Such developments would include a new or refurbished shopping centre, transport facility or interchange, large scale residential development, recreational facility or public place. </p>
<p>The implementation of the guideline provisions should be done by trained town planners or urban designers. </p>
<p>The introduction of these guidelines should be supported by a special course in police training.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183235/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adewumi I. Badiora does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Nigeria’s built environment should ideally be part of a broader, integrated approach to crime prevention and community policing.Adewumi I. Badiora, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Olabisi Onabanjo UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1758662022-04-01T10:48:54Z2022-04-01T10:48:54ZThe metaverse doesn’t look as disruptive as it should, it looks ordinary – here’s why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455237/original/file-20220330-5685-w6safn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Users explore metaverse platforms, like Decentraland, here pictured, with customised avatars.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decentraland#/media/File:Decentraland_Genesis_Plaza_at_evening.png">Eibriel | Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Virtual real estate <a href="https://theconversation.com/real-estate-in-the-metaverse-is-booming-is-it-really-such-a-crazy-idea-174021">is booming</a>. In December 2021, one buyer spent US$450,000 (around £332,500) on a plot of land in rapper Snoop Dogg’s virtual world. Which begs the question of what will be built there.</p>
<p>In the physical world, cities are shaped by innumerable forces. Some are desirable, designed in conversation with local communities. Others are not, subverting building regulations for financial gain. </p>
<p>By contrast, space in the metaverse – the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-metaverse-2-media-and-information-experts-explain-165731">version of the internet</a> comprising immersive games and other virtual reality environments – has so far been smooth, clean and very ordinary. This is despite its links to emerging, “disruptive” technologies such as cryptocurrencies.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youandpea.com/videogameurbanism">Our research</a> shows that while designing virtual worlds gives people a creative voice, it can also reveal the infinitely more complex social, societal and historical ways by which physical places are formed. </p>
<p>We explore how architects can use virtual environments to enhance understanding about real-world cities. Metaverse designers need to be similarly mindful of the social effect their designs will have.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A series of colourful high-rise towers, in a video-game graphic style." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446267/original/file-20220214-113586-leoc9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446267/original/file-20220214-113586-leoc9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446267/original/file-20220214-113586-leoc9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446267/original/file-20220214-113586-leoc9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446267/original/file-20220214-113586-leoc9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446267/original/file-20220214-113586-leoc9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446267/original/file-20220214-113586-leoc9d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">London Developers Toolkit by You+Pea: using games as tools is a way of questioning the forces and systems that shape contemporary urbanism.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youandpea.com/videogameurbanism">You+Pea</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>People have always imagined cyberspace to look like a version of real urban space. In his 1992 novel, Snow Crash, American sci-fi writer Neal Stevenson was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no_o3oSkS48">the first to imagine the metaverse</a>, built along what he called the Street. In his world, this grand boulevard wrapped around the globe, but was nonetheless presented as a typical urban thoroughfare, lined with buildings and electric signs. </p>
<p>Recent ads from Facebook’s parent company Meta suggest Mark Zuckerberg’s vision for the metaverse is not much different. As a visitor, you stand in front of an impossible landscape where snowy woodlands meet tropical islands, but the built structures are minimalist villas and wipe-clean space stations. It looks more like a spatial mood board of random “cool-looking” imagery. Zuckerberg’s metaverse world acts more like a desktop background rather than as a considered, spatial environment.</p>
<p>Meta’s Horizon Worlds is a social platform where users have a set of tools with which to create and share virtual worlds. Ads here feature users’ avatars walking through food halls or seated in train dining cars, all designed to look like their real-world counterparts, but rendered in a simplistic graphic style, like a children’s TV show. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/02kCEurWkqU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Meta’s Horizon Worlds has been launched as a place of “limitless possibilities”.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Practical (yet unneccessary) design elements including streetlights, plug sockets and window frames underline the urban nature of these sterile, virtual spaces. This chimes with the generic global minimalism that American tech journalist Kyle Chayka <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2016/8/3/12325104/airbnb-aesthetic-global-minimalism-startup-gentrification">has termed</a> “airspace”: that ubiquitous aesthetic (wooden benches, exposed brick, industrial light fittings) found in coffee shops, offices and AirBnB apartments the world over.</p>
<h2>Virtual urban planning</h2>
<p>While Meta’s promotional vision for metaverse worlds is a series of distinct snapshots, other metaverse platforms such as <a href="https://decentraland.org/">Decentraland</a>, <a href="https://www.sandbox.game/en/">The Sandbox</a> and <a href="https://www.cryptovoxels.com/">Cryptovoxels</a> feature some level of urban planning. Like in many real-world cities, they use a grid system with plots of land distributed on a horizontal plane. This allows for property to be easily parcelled and sold. However, many of these plots have remained empty, demonstrating that they are primarily traded speculatively.</p>
<p>In some instances, content – buildings and things to do, see and buy within them – has been added to plots of land, in an effort to <a href="https://decentral.games/blog/decentraland-land-what-drives-long-term-value">create value</a>. Virtual property developer the Metaverse Group is <a href="https://metaversegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Tokens.com-Announces-First-Tenants-in-Virtual-Tokens.com-Tower-2.pdf">leasing Decentraland parcels</a> and offering in-house architectural services to tenants. Its parent company, Tokens.com, has virtual headquarters there too, a blocky sci-fi-style tower, in an area called Crypto Valley. Like many other metaverse buildings, it serves as a giant spatial symbol, designed to draw people towards it. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/c4mxIaYnuIw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">In December 2021, YouTuber StinkyScrublet did a tutorial on how to purchase land in Decentraland.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Other Decentraland structures include a dive-bar recreation by Miller Lite and a neon shrine promoting Japanese virtual diva Edo Lena. There are also countless white-cube art galleries selling NFTs (digital certificates linked to artworks) such as that by mlo.art. These structures look just like real-world galleries, but simplified and de-contextualised. </p>
<h2>Referential architecture</h2>
<p>In his 2012 book, Building Imaginary Worlds, media theorist Mark JP Wolf says that fictional worlds often “use Primary World [ie real world] defaults for many things, despite all the defaults they may reset”. In other words, because everything in the metaverse is built from scratch, technically you don’t actually have to reference the real world in your designs. </p>
<p>But many people choose to do so anyway. They plump for familiar architectural characteristics in their virtual buildings, because it makes it easier for participants to feel immersed. </p>
<p>Research shows how this is also how artificial worlds have been created in real life. Art historian Karal Ann Marlin <a href="https://www.cca.qc.ca/en/articles/issues/9/let-us-assure-you/32768/touring-the-architecture-of-reassurance">describes</a> the built environment of Disney’s theme parks as “an architecture of reassurance” where reality is “plussed”, that is, elevated in ways that makes it feel both new and comfortably familiar. </p>
<p>Another place to find such “plussed” architecture is Las Vegas. The Nevada city has been <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1ppnt7">described</a> by urban historians Hal Rothman and Mike Davis as a vast laboratory. Corporations there have created urban spaces as collages of other cities, such as Paris and New York, in a bid to test “every possible combination of entertainment, gaming, mass media and leisure.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A bird's eye view of downtown Las Vegas." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455232/original/file-20220330-5575-t7eokq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455232/original/file-20220330-5575-t7eokq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455232/original/file-20220330-5575-t7eokq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455232/original/file-20220330-5575-t7eokq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455232/original/file-20220330-5575-t7eokq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455232/original/file-20220330-5575-t7eokq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455232/original/file-20220330-5575-t7eokq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Strip in Las Vegas is an experimental composite of architectural references from cities around the world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/las-vegas-nevada-usa-skyline-over-1406696702">Sean Pavone | Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Real cities are now choosing to emulate themselves in the metaverse. South Korea’s <a href="https://english.moef.go.kr/pc/selectTbPressCenterDtl.do?boardCd=N0001&seq=4940">Metaverse 120 Centre</a> will provide both recreational and administrative public services. The project is one of the few metaverse initiatives primarily led by a government, as part of the nation’s digital new deal for public digital infrastructure. The aim is to nurture smart city technology, preserve and showcase heritage and host cultural festivals.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.swagroup.com/idea/plaza-life-revisited/">Research shows</a> that the design of public urban spaces has evolved alongside the way people behave within them. Likewise, the success of the metaverse – whether people use it or not – will rely heavily on the environments that are created.</p>
<p>Virtual spaces need to be convenient for people to access and engaging enough for them to return to. They also need to <a href="https://futureartecosystems.org/">harness and extend</a> what makes them different from physical spaces. Simply transplanting real-world logics of property development and trading into the metaverse might recreate the social and economic stratification we find in real-world cities, which undermines the metaverse’s emancipatory potential.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175866/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The success of the metaverse – whether people use it or not – will rely heavily on the environments that are created.Luke Pearson, Associate Professor, Bartlett School of Architecture, Faculty of the Built Environment, UCLSandra Youkhana, Lecturer and PhD student, The Bartlett School of Architecture, Faculty of the Built Environment, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1758322022-02-15T18:41:20Z2022-02-15T18:41:20ZSwabbing floors to detect COVID-19 could be a useful indicator of the disease’s spread<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445728/original/file-20220210-48821-1qf7cqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C6%2C4500%2C2795&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Floors can be tested to predict the level of COVID-19 in an environment.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Oliver Hale/Unsplash)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 175px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/swabbing-floors-to-detect-covid-19-could-be-a-useful-indicator-of-the-disease-s-spread" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus causing COVID-19, over the past two years has been nothing short of devastating. Although widespread vaccination and new antiviral therapies are helping to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2021.11.009">mitigate the worst outcomes of the disease</a>, the recent evolution of the highly transmissible <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04411-y">Omicron variant</a> has only added to the strain on our health-care systems.</p>
<p>Omicron spreads so quickly <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/omicron-testing-canada-cases-hospitalizations-po-1.6304195">that it is no longer feasible to use individual testing</a> to track how many people are infected in a population. And that means we no longer have the basic information we need to inform public health mitigation policies. </p>
<p>New strategies for keeping tabs on the virus are needed.</p>
<p>One approach is to look for the virus in the environment rather than people. Infected individuals shed viral particles, either in their stool or by breathing or coughing, and viral particles collect in environmental reservoirs like sewage or surfaces such as furniture or floors. </p>
<p>Sampling wastewater or the built environment allows us to <a href="https://theconversation.com/environmental-dna-how-a-tool-used-to-detect-endangered-wildlife-ended-up-helping-fight-the-covid-19-pandemic-158286">detect trace viral particles</a>, providing a window into the burden and location of infection without having to test individuals directly. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/testing-sewage-can-give-school-districts-campuses-and-businesses-a-heads-up-on-the-spread-of-covid-19-149593">Testing sewage can give school districts, campuses and businesses a heads-up on the spread of COVID-19</a>
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<p>Wastewater testing has been used extensively since <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36852">the beginning of the pandemic by municipalities worldwide</a>. The viral genome concentration in wastewater has proven to be an accurate predictor of human case burden, providing an early-warning signal for public health officials. Wastewater sampling provides a <a href="https://covid19-sciencetable.ca/sciencebrief/the-role-of-wastewater-testing-for-sars-cov-2-surveillance/">bulk measure of viral load across a large geographic area</a>, but isn’t as useful at smaller scales, like in rooms within a school or office building. This is where surface testing could be useful.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SkCQ9zBR8-8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Global News looks at wastewater testing as a way to measure the presence of COVID-19.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Floors and surfaces</h2>
<p>We started exploring this idea by focusing on a place where we know there are lots of people infected with COVID-19: hospitals. We wanted to know <a href="https://doi.org/10.1139/facets-2021-0139">whether we could detect the virus in the built environment where COVID-19 patients normally reside and whether this information revealed anything about the number of infected individuals</a>. </p>
<p>Our approach was simple. We used a sterile swab, which looks like a typical cotton swab you might buy at a local pharmacy, wiped it across the surface in question, and then stored it in a special solution that preserved the sample for transport back to the lab. We then used standard molecular biology techniques to test the sample for the presence of SARS-CoV-2. </p>
<p>After confirming we could recover the virus from acrylic, vinyl and stainless steel surfaces touched regularly in a hospital, we set out to collect samples from two area hospitals. We swabbed surfaces from COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 wards in two Ottawa hospitals over the course of about 10 weeks, collecting close to 1,000 swabs in total. We focused on high-touch objects like door handles, elevator buttons and computer terminals, as well as floors and benches. </p>
<p>Reassuringly, we rarely detected the virus on high-touch surfaces, presumably because these were being cleaned regularly. The floors, though, were another story. </p>
<p>We recovered the virus from the floors of COVID-19 wards far more frequently than from non-COVID-19 wards. We suspect this is because virus particles released into the air from infected people then settle on the floor where they accumulate steadily over time and the floors are cleaned less frequently than other objects like door handles or computer keyboards. </p>
<p>COVID-19 patients don’t move around much once they enter the hospital, so there is plenty of opportunity for the virus to accumulate in the environment around them. This result tells us that by sampling floors, we can identify sites within a building where infectious individuals are present or not. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445579/original/file-20220210-23-dat939.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="two people in scrubs disinfecting a hospital bed and room" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445579/original/file-20220210-23-dat939.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445579/original/file-20220210-23-dat939.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445579/original/file-20220210-23-dat939.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445579/original/file-20220210-23-dat939.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445579/original/file-20220210-23-dat939.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445579/original/file-20220210-23-dat939.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445579/original/file-20220210-23-dat939.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Surfaces were cleaned regularly, resulting in fewer traces of COVID-19.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Changing case numbers</h2>
<p>Cases reported from individual testing declined in the hospital and <a href="https://www.ottawapublichealth.ca/en/reports-research-and-statistics/daily-covid19-dashboard.aspx">across Ottawa</a> during our study period. This trend provided us with a good test case for our approach. If there are fewer cases being admitted to the hospital, we should recover the virus less often from the floors of COVID-19 wards and the viral burden in wastewater outflows from the hospital should also decline. </p>
<p>This was exactly what we saw: both surface and wastewater testing indicated a steady drop in viral prevalence over time, mirroring the data we saw from conventional individual testing. Surface testing seems to be a reliable approach to viral surveillance, one that gives a more spatially refined view as to where the virus is, and where it is not, in areas where infected people might gather.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fresh-research-says-omicron-lasts-much-longer-on-surfaces-than-other-variants-but-disinfecting-still-works-176156">Fresh research says Omicron lasts much longer on surfaces than other variants – but disinfecting still works</a>
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<p>As promising as this approach is, our study was restricted to hospitals where patients and staff are already screened regularly for the virus. The real test of its value is whether it can be useful in settings where individual screening cannot be done on a regular basis, and whether it provides a signal of infection in advance of cases. </p>
<p>We are working to provide answers through a much larger study of long-term care homes, schools and daycares. Preliminary results are promising: floor samples can detect the virus up to a week before cases are reported in some of these facilities. If these results hold up, we will have a new tool to guide us in managing a safe return to life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175832/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rees Kassen receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), Cystic Fibrosis Canada Foundation, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the University of Ottawa. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aaron Hinz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As we move through the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, new predictive methods of testing can help monitor the spread of the disease. Environmental testing, like swabbing floors, is a useful tool.Aaron Hinz, Research associate, Evolution and Biodiversity, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaRees Kassen, Professor of Evolutionary Biology, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1704012021-11-11T15:56:29Z2021-11-11T15:56:29ZEmbodied carbon: why truly net zero buildings could still be decades away<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431562/original/file-20211111-25-w7e05e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5560%2C3712&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-industrial-bricklayer-installing-bricks-on-462881602">Bogdanhoda/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions come from two sources: using things (known as operational emissions) and making things (embodied emissions). For a familiar example of the first kind, your home probably burns natural gas for heating and uses electricity that fossil fuels may have generated. Governments plan to eliminate these emissions by making buildings better insulated and airtight so that they need less energy and ensuring renewable sources, such as wind and solar, generate enough power.</p>
<p>But what about the second kind – those embodied emissions that arise from making the thermal insulation, solar panels, bricks and concrete blocks in energy-efficient buildings?</p>
<p>A typical cubic metre of brick has embodied emissions of <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fbuil.2021.754733/abstract">around 357kg of CO₂</a>. This comes from extracting the raw material from quarries, processing it, shaping it into raw bricks and firing them in a kiln at a very high temperature. A cubic metre of concrete can have embodied emissions of around 3,507kg of CO₂ – ten times more than brick. </p>
<p>These and other materials add many tonnes of embodied emissions to the construction of a house. An alternative material based on a mix of hemp and lime called hempcrete has, according to <a href="https://researchportal.bath.ac.uk/en/publications/hemp-lime-construction-a-guide-to-building-with-hemp-lime-composi">research published in 2008</a>, negative embodied emissions of -108kg CO₂ per cubic metre. This is because the hemp crop absorbs more CO₂ as it grows than is released while making it into hempcrete.</p>
<h2>New buildings</h2>
<p>A typical three-bedroom semi-detached house newly made from brick, insulation and concrete blocks will have around seven tonnes of embodied CO₂ in the exterior walls alone. Another 19 tonnes of embodied CO₂ will be contained in the ground floor slab typically made from concrete, the roof, glazing and other materials, bringing it to a total of 26 tonnes of embodied CO₂.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Gloved hands fitting yellow foam insulation into a wall cavity." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431492/original/file-20211111-27-bm3cxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431492/original/file-20211111-27-bm3cxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431492/original/file-20211111-27-bm3cxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431492/original/file-20211111-27-bm3cxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431492/original/file-20211111-27-bm3cxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431492/original/file-20211111-27-bm3cxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431492/original/file-20211111-27-bm3cxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Thermal insulation cuts operational emissions, but has its own embodied emissions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-worker-hands-white-gloves-insulating-1165780618">Bilanol/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>If engineers fit the same house with rooftop solar panels, it will have negative operational emissions of -0.6 tonnes of CO₂ a year. That’s because when solar panels generate and supply electricity to a house, they not only prevent the emissions that would otherwise have been generated by fossil fuels, they also reduce them by the same amount by supplying new clean energy to the grid. This is why the official way of accounting for these so-called grid-displaced emissions is to use them with a minus sign.</p>
<p>These negative operational emissions will offset the starting embodied emissions year on year. At this rate, the semi-detached house built from conventional materials in 2021 will have its total of embodied and operational emissions reduced to zero in 2065.</p>
<p>If the same house is built from hempcrete, with walls thick enough to achieve the same level of insulation as in the house made from conventional materials, embodied emissions in the external walls will be -7.3 tonnes. Adding the remaining 19 tonnes of embodied CO₂ contained elsewhere will make 11.7 tonnes of embodied CO₂ for the whole house.</p>
<p>Since the starting point for embodied emissions is much lower in the house with hempcrete walls, the rooftop solar panels will eliminate the house’s total emissions by 2041 – 25 years earlier than the house made from conventional materials.</p>
<h2>Existing buildings</h2>
<p>New buildings are only a small part of the problem, though. Some 80% of the buildings that will be around in 2050 <a href="https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Housing_stock_/_building_stock">already exist</a> and have high operational emissions. </p>
<p>Existing buildings must be retrofitted with thermal insulation and renewable energy systems, such as solar panels and heat pumps or other renewable heating systems, for them to achieve net zero. To keep these buildings airtight and prevent cold wind from getting in or warm air from getting out, tight doors and windows and mechanical ventilation systems are used.</p>
<p>For over a decade, our lab has monitored the energy use and carbon emissions of the <a href="https://zerocarbonhousebirmingham.org.uk/">Birmingham zero carbon house</a>. The house was built in 1840 and extended and renovated in 2009 with solar panels and solar thermal collectors for heating water. In 2010, the house won an award for architectural excellence from the Royal Institute of British Architects. </p>
<p>Embodied emissions in the original building materials have been in the atmosphere since 1840. The house was retrofitted with materials that required low amounts of energy to make, such as unfired clay blocks, bricks from demolished buildings, recycled newspaper insulation, lime plaster with ground recycled glass, rammed earth floors and reclaimed 200-year old timber from the floor of a silk factory. </p>
<p>Even then, the embodied emissions after the retrofit amounted to more than 40 tonnes of CO₂. The renewable energy systems, including solar panels that generate electricity and solar thermal collectors that heat water, reduce the house’s total emissions year on year, but our calculations showed that the house will only reach net zero in 2030. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A white-walled house with red-tile roof covered in blue solar panels." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431493/original/file-20211111-19-1dlg0ln.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431493/original/file-20211111-19-1dlg0ln.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431493/original/file-20211111-19-1dlg0ln.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431493/original/file-20211111-19-1dlg0ln.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431493/original/file-20211111-19-1dlg0ln.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431493/original/file-20211111-19-1dlg0ln.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431493/original/file-20211111-19-1dlg0ln.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Solar panels can offset the embodied emissions in buildings over several decades.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/solar-panel-on-red-roof-reflecting-72500704">Smileus/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Not taking embodied emissions into account could mean overshooting carbon emissions targets by several decades. Even a home retrofitted with numerous reclaimed materials and with negative operational emissions will take 21 years to reach net zero. This puts the scale of efforts needed across the UK and beyond to reach net zero by 2050 into perspective.</p>
<p>Fully <a href="https://www.climateemergency.uk/blog/list-of-councils/">75% of UK councils</a> aim to make their operations carbon neutral by 2050, including social housing stock. These aims, in many cases brought forward to 2030, cannot be achieved without taking into account embodied emissions in building materials. The net zero by 2050 target may seem far away, but accounting for embodied carbon means acknowledging that countries may have already overshot it.</p>
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<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="COP26: the world's biggest climate talks" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><strong>This story is part of The Conversation’s coverage on COP26, the Glasgow climate conference, by experts from around the world.</strong>
<br><em>Amid a rising tide of climate news and stories, The Conversation is here to clear the air and make sure you get information you can trust. <a href="https://page.theconversation.com/cop26-glasgow-2021-climate-change-summit/"><strong>More.</strong></a></em> </p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170401/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ljubomir Jankovic received funding from EPSRC, EU, EUREKA, ARTEMIS, KTP, Innovate UK, Research England, and AHRC. </span></em></p>Embodied emissions in buildings could be a hidden setback for carbon reduction targets.Ljubomir Jankovic, Professor of Advanced Building Design, University of HertfordshireLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1705702021-11-10T16:23:40Z2021-11-10T16:23:40ZWe can’t afford to just build greener. We must build less<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430457/original/file-20211105-15-ykn0e0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The greenest buildings are those that exist already</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/8Gg2Ne_uTcM">Danist Soh on Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the built environment <a href="https://ukcop26.org/the-conference/presidency-programme/">takes centre stage</a> at COP26, the scale and urgency of the climate crisis and of the industry’s responsibility to address it comes into focus. A <a href="https://globalabc.org/sites/default/files/2021-10/2021%20Buildings-GSR%20-%20Executive%20Summary%20ENG.pdf">recent report</a> from the UN’s Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction shows that the buildings and construction sector is responsible for 38% of global CO2 emissions. </p>
<p>Increasing attention has been paid, in recent years, to emissions resulting from how our buildings are operated: how they are heated, cooled and lit. Those due to the production and supply of building materials and the construction itself have received less attention. And yet, they alone account for 10% of global emmissions.</p>
<p>Much of the sector thrives on a wasteful cycle of demolition and new builds. In the UK alone, an estimated <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/demolishing-50-000-buildings-a-year-is-a-national-disgrace-wbrf09952">50,000 buildings</a> are torn down each year. Which begs the question: is building greener really the solution? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An overhead view of a red-rood building partially demolished" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430463/original/file-20211105-17-bekcn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430463/original/file-20211105-17-bekcn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430463/original/file-20211105-17-bekcn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430463/original/file-20211105-17-bekcn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430463/original/file-20211105-17-bekcn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430463/original/file-20211105-17-bekcn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430463/original/file-20211105-17-bekcn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The demolition and new-build construction cycle is a major source of waste.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/vOYW7USj1Cc">Jarrett Mills | unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Whole-life carbon approach</h2>
<p>Despite efforts by the likes of sustainable architecture pioneer <a href="https://mcdonough.com/#about">William McDonough</a> and organisations including <a href="https://www.worldgbc.org">World Green Building Council</a>, breaking this demolition and new-build cycle has proven difficult.</p>
<p>Reusing existing building stock is a complex issue. If not done sustainably, it can also cause a hike in emissions. But there are several other reasons why reuse has not become more of a default option. </p>
<p>Many architects have found that it was easier to make a name for themselves with glitzy new buildings than with sustainable design methods and retrofits, and, frequently, more - and quicker – money could be made by tearing down existing buildings and replacing them. Perverse financial incentives play a role alongside other factors: in the UK, for example, <a href="https://theconversation.com/refurbishing-old-buildings-reduces-emissions-but-outdated-tax-rates-make-it-expensive-125892">VAT rates</a> still encourage new builds and penalise renovations. </p>
<p>Further there are economic incentives for those who profit from the current system – who sell construction materials, carry out demolitions or whose business model exclusively focuses on new builds, instead of reckoning with existing buildings, refurbishing them and integrating them into new schemes – to not do things differently. </p>
<p>Lastly, in architecture education and professional accreditation, as elsewhere, there has been a lack of <a href="https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/architecture/news/interview-professor-fionn-stevenson">climate literacy</a>. This has left architects <a href="https://www.buildingsandcities.org/insights/commentaries/climate-architecture-education.html">ill-prepared</a> to effectively tackle the climate crisis. </p>
<p>Recent initiatives show that things are changing. <a href="https://www.architectscan.org/">Architects Climate Action Network</a> and <a href="https://www.architectsdeclare.com">Architects Declare</a> launched in 2019, are just two of several alliances that aim to raise awareness within the construction industry of the climate crisis, <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk-plans-to-slash-carbon-emissions-68-by-2030-how-banking-building-and-borrowing-can-help-151043">decarbonise the sector</a> and drive the shift towards renewable and green building. In addition, Architects’ Journal started the <a href="https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/retrofirst">RetroFirst</a> campaign in 2019, which advocates for prioritising retrofitting over demolition and new construction. As the latter campaign puts it, the greenest buildings are those that already exist. </p>
<p>In September, a <a href="https://www.raeng.org.uk/RAE/media/General/Policy/Net%20Zero/NEPC-Policy-Report_Decarbonising-Construction_building-a-new-net-zero-industry_20210923.pdf">report</a> published by the Royal Academy of Engineering drew further attention to the environmental costs that the industry incurs and possible ways to address them. Central to this new way of thinking about construction is what architects and developers call a <a href="https://theconversation.com/cities-and-climate-change-why-low-rise-buildings-are-the-future-not-skyscrapers-170673">whole-life carbon approach</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Snow falls on a city neighbourhood" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430462/original/file-20211105-21-y55d6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430462/original/file-20211105-21-y55d6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430462/original/file-20211105-21-y55d6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430462/original/file-20211105-21-y55d6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430462/original/file-20211105-21-y55d6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430462/original/file-20211105-21-y55d6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430462/original/file-20211105-21-y55d6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Making heating and lighting energy efficient has long been a priority.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/Z375qSR3VLI">Johny Goerend on Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Building greener</h2>
<p>The whole-life approach considers a building’s <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279711810_Life-cycle_analysis_of_the_built_environment">entire life cycle</a>, from construction, occupation and renovation to repair, demolition and disposal. In a typical UK housing block, emissions attributable to construction and maintenance account for <a href="https://www.ukgbc.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Net-Zero-Carbon-Buildings-A-framework-definition.pdf">51%</a> of the building’s total carbon emissions.</p>
<p>Making buildings energy efficient to operate has long been a priority. But in most places, government policies for low or zero-carbon buildings still do not fully – if at all – consider the so-called <a href="https://www.reutersevents.com/sustainability/building-sector-takes-concrete-steps-address-hidden-emissions">hidden</a> or <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/engineering-exchange/sites/engineering-exchange/files/fact-sheet-embodied-carbon-social-housing.pdf">embodied</a> emissions. These result from the extraction and production of building materials, such as cement, and the construction process itself. Green-building certification schemes too have long overlooked them. </p>
<p>Buildings today are usually built to last notably shorter periods of time than they used to be. If the <a href="https://www.architectmagazine.com/technology/inside-the-gettys-initiative-to-save-modern-architecture_o">typical lifespan</a> of a traditional building of stone, brick and timber saw first repairs needed after 60 years, modern buildings have deteriorated twice as fast. Significant carbon savings could be achieved by returning to more robust and adaptable construction. </p>
<p>When the <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9780429346712-4/built-last-david-cheshire?context=ubx&refId=d10efbfb-c188-46cd-a187-f827f8fc32bb">built-to-last principle</a> proves impractical, however, buildings designed for a shorter lifespan can still be made more sustainable, provided a whole-life carbon approach is adopted and the components and materials used are easy to dismantle and reuse.</p>
<p>A surge in <a href="https://theconversation.com/bendable-concrete-and-other-co2-infused-cement-mixes-could-dramatically-cut-global-emissions-152544">innovation</a> in recent years has seen a rise in <a href="https://www.archdaily.com/893552/8-biodegradable-materials-the-construction-industry-needs-to-know-about">the use of wood and other bio-based materials</a> and sustainable design principles, from the <a href="https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Circular_economy">circular economy</a> to the idea of “<a href="https://www.c2ccertified.org/get-certified/product-certification">cradle-to-cradle</a>” production and manufacturing, which <a href="https://sustainabilityguide.eu/methods/cradle-to-cradle/#:%7E:text=Cradle%20to%20Cradle%20(C2C)%20is,right%20thing%20from%20the%20beginning.&text=C2C%20methodology%20builds%20on%20the,in%20a%20new%20product%20cycle.">defines waste as a resource</a> and aims to perpetuate recycling. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A timber-frame building under construction, seen from above" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430459/original/file-20211105-15-1d1giyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430459/original/file-20211105-15-1d1giyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430459/original/file-20211105-15-1d1giyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430459/original/file-20211105-15-1d1giyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430459/original/file-20211105-15-1d1giyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430459/original/file-20211105-15-1d1giyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430459/original/file-20211105-15-1d1giyb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sustainable building materials can only go so far in reducing the sector’s emissions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/IB0VA6VdqBw">Avel Chuklanov on Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.c40reinventingcities.org/en/professionals/winning-projects/scalo-greco-breda-1276.html">L'Innesto</a> in Milan, for example, has been promoted as a showcase for the city’s sustainability strategies, and is set to be Italy’s first zero-emissions social housing. This project ticks all kinds of boxes: construction will involve minimal soil excavation and bio-sourced building materials with lots of greenery and very little space for cars. Internal heating systems will be powered by renewable energy sources – and more.</p>
<p>The problem, though, is that even L'Innesto will only be fully carbon-neutral 30 years after its construction. The project, like many others, relies on <a href="https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Carbon_offsetting">carbon offsetting</a> to achieve its zero-carbon credentials.</p>
<p>When the French architects Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal won the Pritzker Prize this year, their victory was hailed as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/mar/16/lacaton-vassal-unflashy-french-architectures-pritzker-prize">a turning point</a>. They have earned a reputation for <a href="https://www.lacatonvassal.com/index.php?idp=37#">turning down commissions</a> or proving to city councils why <a href="https://theconversation.com/lacaton-and-vassal-how-this-years-pritzker-prize-could-spark-an-architectural-revolution-157636">refurbishment</a> would be better – and cheaper – than building something new.</p>
<p>They remain outliers though. For the most part, building greener still involves actual construction. </p>
<p>Make no mistake. Green projects such as L'Innesto becoming the norm would be a big step forward. But there is no getting around the fact that three decades to carbon neutrality is a long time in the fight against climate change. </p>
<p>This is the industry’s inconvenient truth. The climate crisis is, in no small part, a product of our voracious appetite to build. It is not something, as climate activist Greta Thunberg <a href="https://awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/2019/12/02/acceptance-speech-at-the-2019-goldene-kamera-awards-march-30-2019/">has pointed out</a>, that we can simply build our way out of. We cannot afford to only build greener. We need to build less.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="COP26: the world's biggest climate talks" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>This story is part of The Conversation’s coverage on COP26, the Glasgow climate conference, by experts from around the world.</strong>
<br><em>Amid a rising tide of climate news and stories, The Conversation is here to clear the air and make sure you get information you can trust. <a href="https://page.theconversation.com/cop26-glasgow-2021-climate-change-summit/"><strong>More.</strong></a></em> </p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170570/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Johannes Novy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>One-tenth of global emissions result from the production and supply of building materials – and the construction process itself.Johannes Novy, Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning, School of Architecture and Cities, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1706732021-10-27T15:31:13Z2021-10-27T15:31:13ZCities and climate change: why low-rise buildings are the future – not skyscrapers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428805/original/file-20211027-13-omqzje.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C2444%2C1685&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Paris is an example of a densely built low-rise city.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/editor/image/panoramic-aerial-view-paris-eiffel-tower-1557480866">DaLiu/Shutterestock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>More than <a href="https://population.un.org/wup/Publications/Files/WUP2018-Highlights.pdf">half of the world’s 7.8 billion people</a> live in cities and urban areas. By 2050, an additional <a href="https://population.un.org/wup/Publications/Files/WUP2018-Highlights.pdf">2.5 billion</a> will be living there. As that figure continues to climb and ever more people flock to metropolitan areas in the hope of a better life, the big question is: how do we fit everyone in?</p>
<p>It is the job of city developers and urban planners to figure out how to build or adapt urban environments to accommodate the living and working needs of this rapidly expanding population. There is a popular belief that taller, more densely packed skyscrapers are the way forward, because they optimise the use of space and house more people per square metre and limit urban sprawl. </p>
<p>But given the global commitments to <a href="https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/net-zero-coalition">emissions-reduction targets</a> and mitigating climate change, is this the most sustainable solution from a carbon-reduction perspective?</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s42949-021-00034-w">recent study</a>, which examined whether building denser and taller is the right path to sustainability, busts this myth: we found that densely built, low-rise environments are more space and carbon efficient, while high-rise buildings have a drastically higher carbon impact.</p>
<h2>Impact on the environment</h2>
<p>We assessed the <a href="https://www.rics.org/globalassets/rics-website/media/news/whole-life-carbon-assessment-for-the--built-environment-november-2017.pdf">whole-life cycle of carbon emissions</a> – meaning both operational and “embodied” carbon – of different buildings and urban environments. Operational carbon is generated while a building is in service. Embodied carbon is all the hidden, behind-the-scenes carbon produced during the extraction, production, transport and manufacture of raw materials used to construct a building, plus any produced during maintenance, refurbishment, demolition or replacement.</p>
<p>This aspect is often overlooked, especially in building design, where operational efficiency is always to the fore. The argument for cutting carbon at the design stage has been <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.114107">made by numerous researchers</a>, and it is gaining traction with leading international organisations such as the <a href="https://worldgbc.org/news-media/commitment-includes-embodied-carbon">World Green Building Council</a>. But it’s still something that is largely disregarded, mainly because embodied impact assessment is voluntary, and there is no legislation concerning its inclusion. But it must be advocated for if we are to reach our <a href="https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/net-zero-coalition">2050 emissions targets</a>.</p>
<p>At a global scale, the construction sector is responsible for a significant impact on the environment, as is clear from the graph below. The largest contribution comes from its consumption of energy and resources, which boils down to the design stage – the part of the process that no one is looking at. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Graph showing construction sector's contribution to environmental impacts." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428607/original/file-20211026-19-jkae8r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428607/original/file-20211026-19-jkae8r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428607/original/file-20211026-19-jkae8r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428607/original/file-20211026-19-jkae8r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428607/original/file-20211026-19-jkae8r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428607/original/file-20211026-19-jkae8r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428607/original/file-20211026-19-jkae8r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Construction sector’s contribution to environmental impacts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Edinburgh Napier University</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Now that new buildings have to be more energy efficient and the energy grid is being decarbonised, this hidden embodied energy varies from <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378778817325835">11%-33%</a> for projects such as <a href="https://passivehouse.com/02_informations/01_whatisapassivehouse/01_whatisapassivehouse.htm">Passive House designs</a> (a building standard that uses non-mechanical heating and cooling design techniques to lower energy use) to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378778817325835">74%-100%</a> for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2018.10.019">near-zero energy builds</a> (high performance buildings where the low amount of energy required comes mostly from renewable sources).</p>
<p>Given the focus on driving down the energy impact of day-to-day operations, the proportional share of embodied energy consumption has been driven up. So as energy demand becomes lower when the building is in use, the materials and activities required to build it in first place produce proportionally more impacts across the building’s lifespan. For example, low and near-zero energy buildings are made by improving insulation and using more materials and additional technologies, which greatly increases the hidden energy impact and carbon cost.</p>
<p>Moving to a smaller scale, the embodied carbon share across construction materials shows that minerals have the largest proportion by far, at <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378778810003154">45%</a>. The graph below shows the breakdown of materials, where concrete dominates in terms of hidden carbon contribution. This is important because skyscrapers rely heavily on concrete as a structural material. So the type of materials we use, how much we use, and how we use them is crucial.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Graph showing the carbon contribution of different minerals used in construction." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428775/original/file-20211027-17-x8asgs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428775/original/file-20211027-17-x8asgs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428775/original/file-20211027-17-x8asgs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428775/original/file-20211027-17-x8asgs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428775/original/file-20211027-17-x8asgs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428775/original/file-20211027-17-x8asgs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428775/original/file-20211027-17-x8asgs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The carbon contribution of different minerals used in construction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Edinburgh Napier University</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How we can fix it</h2>
<p>We developed four different urban scenarios shown in the graph below, based on data from real buildings: high-density, high-rise (HDHR) which are tall and close together; low-density, high-rise (LDHR) which are tall but more spread out; high-density, low-rise (HDLR) which are low and close together; and low-density, low-rise (LDLR) which are low level and more spaced out.</p>
<p>To do this, we split the building stock into five main categories: non-domestic low-rise (NDLR); non-domestic high-rise (NDHR); domestic low-rise (DLR); domestic high-rise (DHR); and terraced/house. We gathered numerous data, including height, number of storeys, building footprint (the land area the building physically occupies), facade material and neighbouring constraints. This includes the number and area of blocks and green spaces within one square kilometre, average street width and average distance between buildings. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428609/original/file-20211026-15-4cw1gg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A graphic showing four different urban environments contained in the research study." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428609/original/file-20211026-15-4cw1gg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428609/original/file-20211026-15-4cw1gg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428609/original/file-20211026-15-4cw1gg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428609/original/file-20211026-15-4cw1gg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428609/original/file-20211026-15-4cw1gg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428609/original/file-20211026-15-4cw1gg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428609/original/file-20211026-15-4cw1gg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Four urban scenarios analysed in the study.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Edinburgh Napier University</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These parameters were all fed into a computer model to analyse the data looking at the following:</p>
<p><strong>1.</strong> How whole life-cycle carbon changed based on the buildings and the number of people accommodated within an area of 1km².</p>
<p><strong>2.</strong> How whole life-cycle carbon changed due to an increasing population based on four fixed population sizes – 20, 30, 40 and 50 thousand people – and the land use required to accommodate them under the four different urban scenarios.</p>
<p>Our findings show that high-density low-rise cities, such as Paris, are more environmentally friendly than high-density high-rise cities, such as New York. Looking at the fixed population scenarios, when moving from a high-density low-rise to a high-density high-rise urban environment, the average increase in whole life-cycle carbon emissions is 142%.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428796/original/file-20211027-14984-ps78if.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A panorama of New York's iconic skyscrapers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428796/original/file-20211027-14984-ps78if.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428796/original/file-20211027-14984-ps78if.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428796/original/file-20211027-14984-ps78if.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428796/original/file-20211027-14984-ps78if.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428796/original/file-20211027-14984-ps78if.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428796/original/file-20211027-14984-ps78if.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428796/original/file-20211027-14984-ps78if.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">New York’s densely packed skyscrapers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/new-york-usa-skyline-762344239">Sean Pavone/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Equating this to the potential savings per person, based on the fixed population size, building high-density low-rise offers a saving of 365 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent per person compared with high-density high-rise.</p>
<p>It’s time for urban planners to start embedding this new understanding of the whole carbon life-cycle of a building, balancing the impact of urban density and height while accommodating expanding populations. To achieve urban sustainability the world will need more Parises and fewer Manhattans.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170673/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francesco Pomponi receives funding from the EPSRC, the Royal Academy of Engineering, and Innovate UK. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ruth Saint does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New research has found that low-rise urban environments are more space and carbon efficient than high-rise buildings which have a drastically higher carbon impact.Ruth Saint, Postdoctoral research fellow, Edinburgh Napier UniversityFrancesco Pomponi, Associate Professor of Sustainability Science, Edinburgh Napier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1636722021-07-02T15:29:42Z2021-07-02T15:29:42ZMost buildings were designed for an earlier climate – here’s what will happen as global warming accelerates<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409497/original/file-20210702-21-1ewgh31.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4104%2C2733&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/summer-heat-wave-distort-city-background-1402261577">Lunatictm/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Climate change will affect every aspect of our lives – including the buildings we live and work in. Most people in the US, for example, spend about <a href="https://www.epa.gov/report-environment/indoor-air-quality#:%7E:text=Americans%2C%20on%20average%2C%20spend%20approximately,higher%20than%20typical%20outdoor%20concentrations.">90% of their time</a> indoors. Climate change is fundamentally altering the environmental conditions in which these buildings are designed to function.</p>
<hr>
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<p>Architects and engineers design buildings and other structures, like bridges, to operate within the parameters of the local climate. They’re built using materials and following design standards that can withstand the range of temperatures, rainfall, snow and wind that are expected, plus any geological issues such as earthquakes, subsidence and ground water levels.</p>
<p>When any of those parameters are exceeded, chances are some aspect of the building will fail. If there are high winds, some roof tiles may be ripped off. If, after days of heavy rain, the water table rises, the basement might flood. This is normal, and these problems cannot be designed out entirely. After the event has passed, the damage can be repaired and additional measures can reduce the risk of it happening again.</p>
<p>But climate change will breed conditions where these parameters are exceeded more often and to a far greater degree. Some changes, like higher average air temperatures and humidity, will become permanent. What were previously considered once in a century floods may become a regular occurrence.</p>
<p>Some of these impacts are fairly obvious. Houses will be more prone to overheating, putting the lives of residents at risk, which is what has happened during the recent <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/30/world/canada/bc-canada-heat-wave.html">“heat dome” over North America</a>. Flooding will happen more often and inundate greater areas, to the point that some places might have to be abandoned. The village of Fairbourne in Wales has already been <a href="https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/welsh-village-being-abandoned-sea-16330847">identified as a likely candidate</a>. Failure to act on both of these threats in the UK was highlighted in a recent report by <a href="https://www.theccc.org.uk/publication/2021-progress-report-to-parliament/">the Climate Change Committee</a>. </p>
<p>To some extent, these impacts will be localised and containable, with fairly simple remedies. For example, overheating can be reduced by shading windows with awnings or blinds, good insulation, and ample ventilation. Perhaps more worrying are the insidious effects of climate change which gradually undermine the core functions of a building in less obvious ways. </p>
<h2>Termites and melting asphalt</h2>
<p>More intense wind and rain will cause external cladding to deteriorate more rapidly and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032112005862">leak more often</a>. Higher temperatures will expand the regions <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5288252/">where some insects can live</a>. That includes timber-eating termites that can cause major structural damage, or malaria-carrying mosquitoes which living spaces must be redesigned to protect us from. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A wooden window frame being decomposed by termites." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409495/original/file-20210702-17-30qy96.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409495/original/file-20210702-17-30qy96.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409495/original/file-20210702-17-30qy96.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409495/original/file-20210702-17-30qy96.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409495/original/file-20210702-17-30qy96.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409495/original/file-20210702-17-30qy96.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409495/original/file-20210702-17-30qy96.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Termite damage on a wooden window frame.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/window-frame-had-been-damaged-by-1130623727">Attapon Thana/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Materials expand as they get hotter, especially metals, which can cause them to buckle once their designed tolerance is exceeded. For one skyscraper in Shenzhen, China, high temperatures were partially blamed for causing the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/20/china-skyscraper-wobble-shenzhen-winds-rail-lines-weather-reports">structure to shake</a>, forcing its evacuation, as the steel frame stretched in the heat. Extreme temperatures can even cause materials to melt, resulting in roads “bleeding” as <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/agra/heat-makes-bitumen-on-agra-roads-melt/articleshow/69746873.cms">the surface layer of bitumen softens</a>. </p>
<p>Subsidence – when the ground below a structure gives way, causing it to crack or collapse – is also expected to happen more often in a warmer world. Buildings with foundations in clay soils are particularly vulnerable, as the soils swell when they absorb water, then harden and shrink as they dry out. Changing rainfall patterns will exacerbate this. Over the next 50 years, for example, more than 10% of properties in Britain will be <a href="https://www.bgs.ac.uk/news/maps-show-the-real-threat-of-climate-related-subsidence-to-british-homes-and-properties/">affected by subsidence</a>. </p>
<h2>Concrete cancer</h2>
<p>Perhaps the biggest concern is how climate change will affect reinforced concrete, one of the most widely used materials on Earth. Used in everything from skyscrapers and bridges to the lintels above windows in homes, reinforced concrete is made by placing steel rods within a mould and pouring wet concrete in. Once dry, this produces incredibly strong structures.</p>
<p>But a warmer wetter climate will <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/10/3/53/pdf">play havoc</a> with the durability of this material. When the steel inside the concrete gets wet it rusts and expands, cracking the concrete and weakening the structure in a process sometimes referred to as “concrete cancer”. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Crumbling reinforced concrete exposing rusted steel grid." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409496/original/file-20210702-21-byrb7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409496/original/file-20210702-21-byrb7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409496/original/file-20210702-21-byrb7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409496/original/file-20210702-21-byrb7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409496/original/file-20210702-21-byrb7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409496/original/file-20210702-21-byrb7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409496/original/file-20210702-21-byrb7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Once rust sets in, reinforced concrete can disintegrate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/steel-corrosion-reinforced-concrete-damaged-rusty-1785638519">Arayan Rattanaphan/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Buildings in coastal areas are especially susceptible as the chloride in salt water accelerates rusting. Rising sea levels will raise the water table and make it saltier, affecting building foundations, while salt-spray will spread further on stronger winds. </p>
<p>At the same time, the concrete is affected by <a href="http://www.concrete.org.uk/fingertips-document.asp?id=736">carbonation</a>, a process where carbon dioxide from the air reacts with the cement to form a different chemical element, calcium carbonate. This lowers the pH of the concrete, making the steel even more prone to corrosion. Since the 1950s, global CO₂ levels have increased from about 300 parts per million in the atmosphere to <a href="https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide">well over 400</a>. More CO₂ means more carbonation.</p>
<p>The tragic recent collapse of an apartment building in Miami in the US may be an early warning of this process gaining speed. While the exact cause of the collapse is still being investigated, some are suggesting it might be <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/30/us/florida-building-collapse-sea-level-rise/index.html">linked to climate change</a>.</p>
<p>The local mayor, Charles Burkett, <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article252340108.html">summed up</a> the bewilderment many felt:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It just doesn’t happen. You don’t see buildings falling down in America.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Whether or not the link to climate change proves to be true, it is nevertheless a wake up call to the fragility of our buildings. It should also be seen as a clear demonstration of a critical point: wealth does not protect against the effects of climate change. Rich nations have the financial clout to adapt more rapidly and to mitigate these impacts, but they can’t stop them at the border. <a href="https://theweek.com/articles/808106/wealth-cannot-save-from-climate-change">Climate change is indiscriminate</a>. Buildings are vulnerable to these impacts no matter where in the world they are, and if anything, the modern buildings of developed countries have more things in them that can go wrong than simpler traditional structures.</p>
<p>The only option is to begin adapting buildings to meet the changing parameters in which they are operating. The sooner we begin retrofitting existing buildings and constructing new ones that can withstand climate change, the better.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163672/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ran Boydell has received funding from the Scottish government for various reports on energy efficiency in the built environment.</span></em></p>Structures are built to withstand a normal range of conditions. But what’s ‘normal’ is changing rapidly.Ran Boydell, Visiting Lecturer in Sustainable Development, Heriot-Watt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1397772020-06-11T15:03:19Z2020-06-11T15:03:19ZThe new architectural frontier: buildings and their microbiomes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340086/original/file-20200605-176575-tzio8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Misha Jordaan/Gallo Images via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As we grow to better understand the microorganisms in <a href="https://indoor.lbl.gov/research">built environments</a> – and what dynamics support their survival – we will be able to design and engineer buildings for better health.</p>
<p>Our built environments matter. Research shows that 85% of our time is spent <a href="https://pages.uoregon.edu/green/">indoors</a>, and we are the main source of bacteria in indoor environments. Some of the bacteria and viruses sourced from humans are pathogenic – they can cause disease. </p>
<p>Not all microorganisms are bad for us. In fact, only about 1% of known microbial species are harmful. It’s true that that’s not the full picture, given that microbiologists have only been able to define an estimated 1% of the potential microorganisms out there. Nevertheless, the 1% of the known 1% enable infectious diseases that kill an estimated <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nrmicro2644">16 million</a> people a year.</p>
<p>Along with urbanisation and population growth comes densification and increasing time spent indoors. By 2018, according to the <a href="https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/theme/urbanization/index.asp">United Nations</a>, 55% of the world resided in urban environments – towns and cities. By 2050, it’s predicted it will be 68%. Africa is expected to see a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320543227_Urbanization_in_Africa_Challenges_and_opportunities_for_conservation">300% increase</a> in urbanisation over the next 40 years.</p>
<p>The profound impact of global interconnectivity and urban densification on the character and composition of the indoor environment has been demonstrated by the rampant spread of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/africa/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=COVID-19">COVID-19</a> pandemic. </p>
<p>Health-related conditions arising from the ‘<a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/sick-building-syndrome">sick building syndrome</a>’, and <a href="https://www.who.int/infection-prevention/publications/burden_hcai/en/">healthcare-associated infections</a> are further negative consequences of microbes in the built environment. The transmission of infectious diseases like tuberculosis, measles and COVID-19 is escalated in shared space. </p>
<p>All of this puts a firm focus on indoor environmental quality. Architects and built environment professionals design and shape these spaces that will soon host 68% of the world’s population. Without realising, they also design the <a href="http://microbe.net/simple-guides/fact-sheet-building-ecology/">microbial landscape</a> – the conditions favourable for the growth and proliferation of microbial communities. </p>
<h2>A new approach</h2>
<p>Buildings are unique ecosystems that form part of larger urban ecosystems. Building ecology expert <a href="http://www.buildingecology.net/index_files/Page455.htm">Hal Levin</a>, formerly from the College of Environmental Design at the University of California, Berkeley, says</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A building is a dynamic combination of physical, chemical, and biological dimensions.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Levin, a research mentor, introduced me to the emerging field of the <a href="https://microbe.net/tag/biobe/">microbiology of the built environment</a>. This research field investigates and characterises the indoor built environment <a href="https://microbiomejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40168-015-0094-5">microbiome</a>. The microbiome is the entire habitat, including the microorganisms like bacteria and viruses and the surrounding environmental conditions. </p>
<p>This is a multi-disciplinary approach, a nexus of architecture, engineering, microbiology and anthropology. Environments studied have included schools, university residences, hospitals, offices and even the international space station. </p>
<p>My recent <a href="https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/68469">study</a> into microbiomes and the built environment was a first for the continent. The microbiomes of two South African hospitals were characterised and sequenced. We identified engineering and architectural factors and measured the environmental conditions of each building in different seasons. We simultaneously sampled the air and surface. Each of the 288 DNA samples that we collected was gene sequenced to help define each building’s unique microbiome.</p>
<p>We found some very interesting things. Human-sourced organisms accounted for most of the microbes sequenced. Only 35% of organisms were from outdoor sources. This included rooms with open windows and rooms with no windows. Some common pathogen species were found and were still viable – they could still potentially cause disease. </p>
<hr>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/architecture-four-ideas-from-history-that-offer-healthier-design-134261">Architecture: four ideas from history that offer healthier design</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<p>Building microbiomes vary dynamically according to season, ventilation, occupancy and spatial patterns. Our research supports the premise that niche areas exist within indoor environments.</p>
<p>Investigating building ecology through the lens of microbiology presents insight into how building design, planning and engineering decisions affect microbiomes – and potential infection, prevention and control of disease in the built environment. </p>
<p>Most microbiome <a href="https://www.nap.edu/catalog/23647/microbiomes-of-the-built-environment-a-research-agenda-for-indoor">studies</a> globally emphasised microbiological approaches and engineering methodologies, with architectural analysis still lagging.</p>
<p>Architecture has for too long followed a self disciplinary approach. It’s now time to deepen inter- and transdisciplinary research collaboration towards integrated knowledge solutions.</p>
<h2>Where to from here?</h2>
<p>Our understanding of the micro-environments of buildings is very limited. More study offers untapped insight into human health, infection spread, material selection, building systems and building programmes.</p>
<p>From what we have learnt studying the composition and distribution of microbial communities in buildings, a rethink is needed. We need to reconsider the character of indoor public spaces, highly congregated settings, building user pathways and ventilation solutions.</p>
<p>We need to convert our growing data and knowledge in the field into real world applications – like ‘add-in’ software programs for building models used by architects and engineers. We need empirical data to support and inform public health policy and design guidelines. </p>
<p>What if a data matrix of building factors and related microbial dynamics could be translated into a design tool? A <a href="https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/68469">model</a> that would guide and inform building designers of potential risks or even benefits from microorganisms. Could this be the future for building design in a post-COVID-19 world? After all, it’s time for healthier buildings.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/139777/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr. Jako Nice is permanently employed at the CSIR, and received research funding for this work.</span></em></p>The study of two hospitals was a first for researching the microbiology of the built environment in South Africa – a multi-disciplinary approach to understanding how to design healthier buildings.Jako Nice, Senior Researcher, Architect, Healthy building specialist, Council for Scientific and Industrial ResearchLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1312792020-03-23T12:01:42Z2020-03-23T12:01:42ZBuildings grown by bacteria – new research is finding ways to turn cells into mini-factories for materials<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321652/original/file-20200319-22590-j5lr20.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C4%2C1495%2C833&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A block of sand particles held together by living cells.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">The University of Colorado Boulder College of Engineering and Applied Science</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Buildings are not unlike a human body. They have bones and skin; they breathe. Electrified, they consume energy, regulate temperature and generate waste. Buildings are organisms – albeit inanimate ones.</p>
<p>But what if buildings – walls, roofs, floors, windows – were actually alive – grown, maintained and healed by living materials? Imagine architects using genetic tools that encode the architecture of a building right into the DNA of organisms, which then grow buildings that self-repair, interact with their inhabitants and adapt to the environment. </p>
<p>Living architecture is moving from the realm of science fiction into the laboratory as interdisciplinary teams of researchers turn living cells into microscopic factories. At the University of Colorado Boulder, I lead the <a href="https://spot.colorado.edu/%7Ewisr7047/">Living Materials Laboratory</a>. Together with collaborators in biochemistry, microbiology, materials science and structural engineering, we use <a href="https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/policy-issues/Synthetic-Biology">synthetic biology</a> toolkits to engineer bacteria to create useful minerals and polymers and form them into living building blocks that could, one day, bring buildings to life. </p>
<p>In one study published in Scientific Reports, my colleagues and I <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-51133-9">genetically programmed <em>E. coli</em> to create limestone particles</a> with different shapes, sizes, stiffnesses and toughness. In another study, we showed that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymben.2019.09.007"><em>E. coli</em> can be genetically programmed to produce styrene</a> – the chemical used to make polystyrene foam, commonly known as Styrofoam.</p>
<h2>Green cells for green building</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321957/original/file-20200320-22622-k9ydze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321957/original/file-20200320-22622-k9ydze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=724&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321957/original/file-20200320-22622-k9ydze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=724&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321957/original/file-20200320-22622-k9ydze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=724&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321957/original/file-20200320-22622-k9ydze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=910&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321957/original/file-20200320-22622-k9ydze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=910&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321957/original/file-20200320-22622-k9ydze.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=910&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Juliana Artier, a University of Colorado Boulder postdoctoral researcher, works with a flask of cyanobacteria that’s been genetically altered to produce building materials.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The University of Colorado Boulder College of Engineering and Applied Science</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In our most recent work, published in Matter, we used photosynthetic cyanobacteria <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matt.2019.11.016">to help us grow a structural building material</a> – and we kept it alive. Similar to algae, cyanobacteria are green microorganisms found throughout the environment but best known for growing on the walls in your fish tank. Instead of emitting CO2, cyanobacteria use CO2 and sunlight to grow and, in the right conditions, create a biocement, which we used to help us bind sand particles together to make a living brick.</p>
<p>By keeping the cyanobacteria alive, we were able to manufacture building materials exponentially. We took one living brick, split it in half and grew two full bricks from the halves. The two full bricks grew into four, and four grew into eight. Instead of creating one brick at a time, we harnessed the exponential growth of bacteria to grow many bricks at once – demonstrating a brand new method of manufacturing materials.</p>
<p>Researchers have only scratched the surface of the potential of engineered living materials. Other organisms could impart other living functions to material building blocks. For example, different bacteria could produce materials that heal themselves, sense and respond to external stimuli like pressure and temperature, or even light up. If nature can do it, living materials can be engineered to do it, too.</p>
<p>It also take less energy to produce living buildings than standard ones. Making and transporting today’s building materials uses a lot of energy and emits a lot of CO2. For example, limestone is burned to make cement for concrete. Metals and sand are mined and melted to make steel and glass. The manufacture, transport and assembly of <a href="https://architecture2030.org/buildings_problem_why/">building materials account for 11% of global CO2 emissions</a>. <a href="https://reader.chathamhouse.org/making-concrete-change-innovation-low-carbon-cement-and-concrete#">Cement production alone accounts for 8%</a>. In contrast, some living materials, like our cyanobacteria bricks, could actually sequester CO2.</p>
<h2>A growing field</h2>
<p>Teams of researchers from around the world are demonstrating the power and potential of engineered living materials at many scales, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1557/mrc.2019.27">electrically conductive biofilms</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1800869115">single-cell living catalysts</a> for polymerization reactions and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/admt.201900931">living photovoltaics</a>. Researchers have made <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201907401">living masks that sense and communicate exposure to toxic chemicals</a>. Researchers are also trying to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/acssynbio.8b00448">grow and assemble bulk materials</a> from a genetically programmed single cell.</p>
<p>While single cells are often smaller than a micron in size – one thousandth of a millimeter – advances in biotechnology and 3D printing enable commercial production of living materials at the human scale. <a href="https://ecovativedesign.com">Ecovative</a>, for example, grows foam-like materials using fungal mycelium. <a href="http://www.biomason.com">Biomason</a> produces biocemented blocks and ceramic tiles using microorganisms. Although these products are rendered lifeless at the end of the manufacturing process, researchers from Delft University of Technology have devised a way to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/acssynbio.7b00424">encapsulate and 3D-print living bacteria into multilayer structures</a> that could emit light when they encounter certain chemicals. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321958/original/file-20200320-22610-ccgc1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321958/original/file-20200320-22610-ccgc1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321958/original/file-20200320-22610-ccgc1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321958/original/file-20200320-22610-ccgc1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321958/original/file-20200320-22610-ccgc1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321958/original/file-20200320-22610-ccgc1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/321958/original/file-20200320-22610-ccgc1d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Living building materials can be formed into many shapes, like this truss.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The University of Colorado Boulder College of Engineering and Applied Science</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The field of engineered living materials is in its infancy, and further research and development is needed to bridge the gap between laboratory research and commercial availability. Challenges include cost, testing, certification and scaling up production. Consumer acceptance is another issue. For example, the construction industry has a negative perception of living organisms. Think mold, mildew, spiders, ants and termites. We’re hoping to shift that perception. Researchers working on living materials also need to address concerns about safety and biocontamination. </p>
<p>The National Science Foundation recently named engineered living materials <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=299946">one of the country’s key research priorities</a>. Synthetic biology and engineered living materials will play a critical role in tackling the challenges humans will face in the 2020s and beyond: climate change, disaster resilience, aging and overburdened infrastructure, and space exploration. </p>
<p>If humanity had a blank landscape, how would people build things? Knowing what scientists know now, I’m certain that we would not burn limestone to make cement, mine ore to make steel or melt sand to make glass. Instead, I believe we would turn to biology to help us build and blur the boundaries between our built environment and the living, natural world.</p>
<p>[<em>Get facts about coronavirus and the latest research.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=upper-coronavirus-facts">Sign up for our newsletter.</a>]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131279/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wil Srubar receives funding from the US National Science Foundation, the US Department of Energy, and the US Department of Defense.</span></em></p>Researchers are turning microbes into microscopic construction crews by altering their DNA to make them produce building materials. The work could lead to more sustainable buildings.Wil Srubar, Assistant Professor of Architectural Engineering and Materials Science, University of Colorado BoulderLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1255482019-12-09T13:43:01Z2019-12-09T13:43:01ZRisk rooted in colonial era weighs on Bahamas’ efforts to rebuild after Hurricane Dorian<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305023/original/file-20191203-66982-llphup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The neighborhood known as The Mudd suffered disproportionate damage, a reflection of the Bahamas' history.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Bahamas-Tropical-Weather/0bd16915d65d4f70be68a7839a6a5b04/11/0">AP Photo/Fernando Llano</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Hurricane Dorian made landfall on Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas on Sept. 1, 2019, it packed winds of up to 185 miles per hour and a 20-foot storm surge. A day later, it ravaged Grand Bahama for 24 hours. </p>
<p>Across both islands, the storm brought <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/04/hurricane-dorian-bahamas-death-toll-devastation">“generational devastation.”</a> Thousands of houses were leveled, telecommunications towers were torn down, and roads and wells were badly damaged. The cost to the Bahamas has been <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/bahamas/hurricane-dorian-situation-report-16-november-19-2019">estimated to be up to US$7 billion</a> – more than half of the country’s annual economic output.</p>
<p>But not all structures and communities in Dorian’s path were equally affected. The <a href="https://www.steer.network/">Structural Extreme Events Reconnaissance Network, or StEER</a> – a research group we participate in – found that while <a href="https://www.designsafe-ci.org/data/browser/public/designsafe.storage.published/PRJ-2555">structural failure was widespread</a>, houses intentionally built to resist high wind and storm surge fared much better.</p>
<p>The problem is that not everyone has access to a house that can weather a storm like Dorian. The different ways in which Abaco and Grand Bahama – and their residents – were affected by the same event is yet another example of how disaster impacts are <a href="https://aas.uncg.edu/documents/ashby/3%20OliverSmith500year_eqrthquake.pdf">rooted in the historical development of society</a>. </p>
<p>This happens around the world time and again. To really understand what happened in the Bahamas – and determine how it should rebuild – one needs to look back at how society has developed there. </p>
<h2>Dominant (and safe) narratives</h2>
<p>Certain narratives tend to dominate the media in the aftermath of disasters: <a href="https://lithub.com/why-do-we-turn-to-stories-in-the-midst-of-a-disaster/">death and destruction</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-vietnam-poverty-and-poor-development-not-just-floods-kill-the-most-marginalised-82785">heroes that come to the rescue</a> and “villains” that allegedly <a href="https://time.com/5670980/dorian-abaco-bahamas-apocalypse-survivors/">capitalize on misery</a> or are <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/HurricaneKatrina/blame-delayed-response-katrina/story?id=1102467">to blame for the calamity</a>. In recent years, what could be called a <a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/09/12/the-four-storms-of-the-apocalypse-katrina-sandy-maria-and-dorian/">climate breakdown narrative</a> that links disasters to climate change has also become prominent.</p>
<p>But we can sometimes learn even more by examining the narratives that are not present. </p>
<p>The historical context of injustice, discrimination and inequality – experienced through <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/26/opinion/the-intellectual-life-of-violence.html">social structures that cause harm to certain people</a> – is often missing. This context informs today’s risk. </p>
<p>In the Bahamas, we see this kind of accumulated risk most clearly among the Haitian diaspora and <a href="https://theconversation.com/haitian-migrants-face-deportation-and-stigma-in-hurricane-ravaged-bahamas-127008">Haitian Bahamians</a>, who are stigmatized and <a href="https://www.monroecollege.edu/uploadedFiles/_Site_Assets/PDF/The%20stigma%20of%20being%20Haitian%20in%20The%20Bahamas.pdf">face many barriers to full participation in society</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299456/original/file-20191030-17938-35ovbx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299456/original/file-20191030-17938-35ovbx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299456/original/file-20191030-17938-35ovbx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299456/original/file-20191030-17938-35ovbx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299456/original/file-20191030-17938-35ovbx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299456/original/file-20191030-17938-35ovbx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299456/original/file-20191030-17938-35ovbx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299456/original/file-20191030-17938-35ovbx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Engineers from the Structural Extreme Events through Reconnaissance research group inspected buildings damaged after the hurricane to capture how failures happened.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.doi.org/10.17603/ds2-4616-1e25">Justin Marshall</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The most catastrophic damage from Dorian occurred in communities like “The Mudd” – a shantytown housing the nation’s largest Haitian immigrant community – where land is not owned by residents, and daily survival is paramount. People there trade the risk presented by massive hurricanes for the necessity of a place to live. </p>
<p>This trade-off can only be understood as part of <a href="https://theconversation.com/natural-disasters-and-people-on-the-margins-the-hidden-story-100251">the story of risk creation</a>.</p>
<h2>Natural hazards are not disasters</h2>
<p>Disasters are <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/disasters-are-not-natural-jason-von-meding/9920536">not “natural events”</a>; they are long-term processes of accumulated risk and impact.</p>
<p>Yes, nature shows its unyielding force through earthquakes and tsunamis. But in their differential impacts, disasters can actually be seen as <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/why-natural-disasters-arent-all-that-natural/">social and political manifestations of injustice</a>. In the Bahamas, inequality, poverty, political ideology, class and power relations <a href="https://theconversation.com/grenfell-tower-fire-exposes-the-injustice-of-disasters-79666">lead to the buildup of unequal risks</a> that make some people considerably more vulnerable than others. </p>
<p>For every inadequate building, there is a social context.</p>
<p>The same phenomenon plays out <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-the-caribbean-colonialism-and-inequality-mean-hurricanes-hit-harder-84106">across the Caribbean</a> – in <a href="https://theconversation.com/maria-will-fundamentally-change-us-policy-toward-puerto-rico-86038">Puerto Rico</a>, <a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/11/10/haiti-from-slavery-to-debt/">Haiti</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/nov/01/it-feels-like-dominica-is-finished-life-amid-the-ruins-left-by-hurricane-maria">Dominica</a> – and around the world as a <a href="https://www.jasonhickel.org/blog/2019/1/25/the-scandal-of-british-aid">protracted class divide</a>.</p>
<p>Of course, people know that <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0167610594900566">Caribbean housing is often ill-prepared for hurricanes</a>. This is linked to <a href="https://ascelibrary.org/doi/full/10.1061/%28ASCE%29NH.1527-6996.0000017">inappropriate long-standing structural design choices</a> and the limited enforcement of building codes. Both of these problems have supposedly been solved on paper, but the best technical solutions very often fail to grapple with social and political realities – and the root causes of disasters. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299458/original/file-20191030-17882-1u2u264.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299458/original/file-20191030-17882-1u2u264.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/299458/original/file-20191030-17882-1u2u264.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=221&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299458/original/file-20191030-17882-1u2u264.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=221&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299458/original/file-20191030-17882-1u2u264.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=221&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299458/original/file-20191030-17882-1u2u264.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=277&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299458/original/file-20191030-17882-1u2u264.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=277&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/299458/original/file-20191030-17882-1u2u264.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=277&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Two houses side by side - only one survived the storm surge.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.DOI.org/10.17603/ds2-4616-1e25">Daniel Smith, Structural extreme Events Reconnaissance Network</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What turned Hurricane Dorian into an epic disaster, particularly in places like The Mudd, was the lack of access to the resources necessary to achieve wellness everyday and safety during the storm.</p>
<h2>Accumulated risk in the Bahamas</h2>
<p>When Europeans arrived in 1492, they <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/10/14/here-are-indigenous-people-christopher-columbus-his-men-could-not-annihilate/">committed atrocities</a> against the indigenous peoples that lived there. The Caribbean was rapidly turned into a site to <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807844885/capitalism-and-slavery/">sustain and protect colonial circulations of goods, money and slaves</a>. Between the 16th and 19th centuries, <a href="https://www.bl.uk/west-india-regiment/articles/an-introduction-to-the-caribbean-empire-and-slavery">an estimated 5 million Africans</a> were enslaved and transported to the Caribbean. Half ended up in British territorial possessions, such as the Bahamas. </p>
<p>Colonization <a href="https://disastersdecon.podbean.com/e/s1e14-empire/">created the conditions for the chronic levels of risk</a> that we see today among the descendants of enslaved people.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304975/original/file-20191203-66990-zmim2h.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304975/original/file-20191203-66990-zmim2h.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304975/original/file-20191203-66990-zmim2h.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304975/original/file-20191203-66990-zmim2h.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304975/original/file-20191203-66990-zmim2h.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304975/original/file-20191203-66990-zmim2h.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=629&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304975/original/file-20191203-66990-zmim2h.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=629&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/304975/original/file-20191203-66990-zmim2h.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=629&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Engraving depicting Christopher Columbus landing on Hispaniola. His expedition originally landed in the Bahamas and was met by the Lucayans, who were wiped out along with an estimated 12-15 million indigenous people across the Caribbean.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Columbus_landing_on_Hispaniola.JPG">Theodor de Bry/Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While slavery was abolished in these territories <a href="http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/caribbeanhistory/slavery-negotiating-freedom.htm">in the 1830s</a>, most descendants of slaves remained indebted and were forced to undertake low-wage agricultural labor for mostly white absentee landowners. Inequalities, injustices and discrimination were thus institutionalized in the colonies, and remain largely in place within now-independent societies. </p>
<p>Alongside invasion, conquest and colonization, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/09/25/world/americas/hurricane-dorian-abaco-island-bahamas.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article">contemporary vulnerabilities</a> in the Bahamas reflect laissez-faire historical attitudes toward addressing long-term risk. This is the foundation of contemporary structures of governance, society and the economy – and a big part of why today poor Bahamians, Haitians and Haitian Bahamians <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/13/hurricane-dorian-the-mudd-haitians-inequality">struggle for survival</a>. </p>
<h2>How can we do better?</h2>
<p>Moving into the recovery phase of Dorian is daunting. Affected communities need support to not just return to “normal” but address structural injustice. The probability of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/04/climate-crisis-hurricane-dorian-floods-bahamas">stronger storms under climate change</a> – and impacts distributed primarily onto the most marginalized – continues to increase. </p>
<p>A historically and socially conscious approach to recovery and reconstruction could address not only shelter and infrastructure needs, but broader issues of equity and justice. </p>
<p>Understanding the origins of risk can inform better decisions about <a href="https://theglobepost.com/2019/10/09/bahamas-dorian-clean-up/">building back</a> (or not). Ironically, the most vulnerable often continue to be left with no choice but to <a href="https://disastersdecon.podbean.com/e/season-1-episode-6-disaster-ingredients-series-part-3-exposure/">live in the most exposed areas</a>.</p>
<p>Optimum building codes, planning policies and design strategies are critical. Much of the detailed <a href="https://fortifiedhome.org/standards/">hurricane-resistant structural knowledge</a> is proven and available – small design changes make a substantial difference. </p>
<p>But without a plan for achieving equity and establishing basic rights and access for all, solutions will serve mostly the privileged. Colonial patterns of displacement, dependency and disadvantage are likely to be reinforced. </p>
<p>Dorian, like so many others recently, was a monster storm. But blaming disasters on nature – or human-induced climate change – allows those with power to maintain the status quo and to avoid their responsibility for the failures of development. </p>
<p>[ <em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125548/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason von Meding is the co-host of Disasters: Deconstructed Podcast. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>David O. Prevatt receives funding from the National Science Foundation and is Associate Director and Co-PI of an NSF EAGER Award #1841667</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ksenia Chmutina is the co-host of Disasters: Deconstructed Podcast.</span></em></p>It’s now officially the end of hurricane season, but the rebuilding of the Bahamas continues, slowed by the risks imposed by a history of colonialism and class division.Jason von Meding, Associate Professor, Florida Institute for Built Environment Resilience, University of FloridaDavid O. Prevatt, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering, University of FloridaKsenia Chmutina, Senior Lecturer in Sustainable and Resilient Urbanism, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1251992019-10-14T18:58:31Z2019-10-14T18:58:31ZWhy we need to treat wildfire as a public health issue in California<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296787/original/file-20191013-96257-g8a8kd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fires that affect populated areas raise different safety and public health issues than wildfires.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-California-Wildfires/ee07322a82af46b3b6472fcfc6e96595/6/0">AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Deadly fires across California over the past several years have shown how wildfire has become a serious public health and safety issue. Health effects from fires close to or in populated areas range from <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/the-health-effects-of-wildfire-smoke-may-last-a-lifetime/">smoke exposure</a> to drinking water contaminated by chemicals <a href="https://www.chicoer.com/2019/08/07/butte-county-revises-drinking-advisory-for-camp-fire-area/">like benzene</a> to limited options for the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/11/california-pge-utility-power-shutoff-disabled">medically vulnerable</a>. These kinds of threats are becoming major, statewide concerns.</p>
<p>Many people still think of wildfires as events that happen “out there” in the wildlands – distant forests, shrublands or grasslands – and see better land and fire management as the primary solution. However, the reality is that <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-driving-wildfires-and-not-just-in-california-107240">fires are spreading</a> into communities and increasingly affecting large numbers of Californians, sometimes repeatedly. </p>
<p>As researchers who have worked extensively on fire in California, we believe it is time to treat fires that affect communities as the public health challenge they have become. This means taking a more robust approach to a host of issues, including focusing on where and how we build, taking the needs of vulnerable populations seriously, and ensuring that solutions are equitable. </p>
<h2>Predictable conditions, but future unclear</h2>
<p>Fire is a part of life in California, and it doesn’t take long to develop a feel for “fire weather.” Across the state, late fall winds – called by various names including Santa Anas, Diablos and sundowners – blow hot, dry air from the interior of the state out toward the coasts. The winds often intensify as they are channeled through mountain passes and blasted across dry vegetation and steep surfaces to create perfect fire conditions. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1182694111490400258"}"></div></p>
<p>Given an ignition, those same winds then help to spread fire very quickly. The strategy that utility companies are taking to implement “Public Safety Power Shutoffs” – sometimes preemptively <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/wildfires-california-fires-rage-as-residents-scramble-without-power-pge/">shutting down electricity service</a> – are aimed at reducing this type of ignition (there are <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-10-11/entire-neighborhood-obliterated-by-riverside-county-fire-3-blazes-still-burning">many others</a>) under specific wind and weather conditions. </p>
<p>While winds are in many ways <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/2013JG002541">predictable</a>, they are also altering fire hazard in ways that researchers don’t fully understand. As the climate changes, bringing warmer temperatures and increasingly erratic precipitation patterns, more of these extreme wind events may occur during times that are highly conducive to fire. </p>
<p>It is also conceivable that climate change will cause shifts in the atmospheric pressure patterns that spawn extreme wind events to begin with, and that in the future people may see extreme winds in new regions or during unexpected times of year. A deeper understanding of the controls on these events <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/2013JG002541">is emerging</a>, but relatively little is known about what the future will hold.</p>
<h2>Homes as ‘fuel’ for fires</h2>
<p>Wind is one of the biggest factors in fire spread, and it also generates flying embers far ahead of the fire itself. It is this storm of burning embers that often shower neighborhoods and <a href="https://theconversation.com/california-fire-damage-to-homes-is-less-random-than-it-seems-88817">ignite homes</a> after finding sensitive parts of landscaping and structures. </p>
<p>Under the worst circumstances, wind-driven home-to-home fire spread then occurs, causing risky, fast-moving “urban conflagrations” – like those that happened in <a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-blame-california-wildfires-on-a-perfect-storm-of-weather-events-86128">Santa Rosa in 2017</a> and Paradise in 2018 – that can be difficult to stop and dangerous to evacuate.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245843/original/file-20181115-194513-13wmrjm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245843/original/file-20181115-194513-13wmrjm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245843/original/file-20181115-194513-13wmrjm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245843/original/file-20181115-194513-13wmrjm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245843/original/file-20181115-194513-13wmrjm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245843/original/file-20181115-194513-13wmrjm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245843/original/file-20181115-194513-13wmrjm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245843/original/file-20181115-194513-13wmrjm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dry, northeasterly winds come in the fall and the winter, often through mountain ranges, which fuels wildfires in Southern California – a different pattern than summertime fires.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/86647/the-split-personality-of-socal-fires">NASA</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Managing the type and amount of vegetation, or “fuel,” in an area provides a set of tools for altering fire behavior and enhancing firefighter safety in wildland fires. But during wind-driven urban conflagrations, <a href="https://theconversation.com/california-needs-to-rethink-urban-fire-risk-after-wine-country-tragedy-85966">homes</a> are usually a major – if not the main – source of fuel. Retrofitting homes to address vulnerabilities to fire ignition is therefore crucial.</p>
<p>One immediate strategy is for people to create so-called <a href="https://www.readyforwildfire.org/prepare-for-wildfire/get-ready/defensible-space/">defensible space</a> – removing flammable materials in the area surrounding homes. Vegetation management and prescribed burning in surrounding areas are also part of, but not the only, solutions. Fire-prone communities must also intensify <a href="https://theconversation.com/california-needs-to-rethink-urban-fire-risk-starting-with-where-it-builds-houses-88825">urban and evacuation planning</a> efforts that make the built environment – the buildings where people live and work and the infrastructure we depend on – and those living there safer.</p>
<h2>A different lens to view preparedness</h2>
<p>The state faces a formidable challenge, and opportunity, to reduce wildfire risk to communities in a way that combines the best of both research and practice. It must integrate both new (and potentially controversial) <a href="https://theconversation.com/wildfires-are-inevitable-increasing-home-losses-fatalities-and-costs-are-not-101295">urban planning reforms</a> as well as novel thinking about evacuation alternatives and other solutions, particularly for vulnerable populations. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296956/original/file-20191014-135517-16yhdcg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296956/original/file-20191014-135517-16yhdcg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/296956/original/file-20191014-135517-16yhdcg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296956/original/file-20191014-135517-16yhdcg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296956/original/file-20191014-135517-16yhdcg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296956/original/file-20191014-135517-16yhdcg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296956/original/file-20191014-135517-16yhdcg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/296956/original/file-20191014-135517-16yhdcg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Utility PG&E turned off power to hundreds of thousands of people to lower risk of power lines and electrical equipment from starting fires, but that raises the risk of harm to people who depend on power for medical reasons.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/California-Wildfires-Power-Shutoff/bcba62f505d44f189d489bec8b1a6b47/2/0">AP Photo/Jeff Chiu</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These are steps toward addressing some of the public health and safety concerns that come with wildfires in populated areas. Through this lens, it seems clear that short-term solutions like power shut-offs that may lessen a particular type of ignition come with their own <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-10-13/3-deaths-fires-southern-california-los-angeles-porter-ranch-calimesa-saddleridge">serious</a> <a href="https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2019/10/11/pollock-pines-man-on-oxygen-dies-after-pge-power-shutoff/">risks</a>. Indeed, solutions that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/11/us/pge-outage.html">worsen inequities</a> cannot really be considered solutions at all. </p>
<p>Fires in California are sounding alarm bells that cannot be ignored, lest we fall into the trap of normalizing the incredible loss of lives and devastated communities year after year. As it stands, California is failing to keep up with what we know about fire hazard and risk, and losing time as we struggle against rapidly changing climate conditions.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article that was <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-fierce-fall-and-winter-winds-help-fuel-california-fires-106985">originally published</a> on Nov. 16, 2018.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125199/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Max Moritz receives funding from the University of California and CAL FIRE related to fire and climate change effects.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Faith Kearns does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Two fire researchers argue that recent fires in Northern and Southern California show why health and social equity need to be part of fire preparedness.Faith Kearns, Academic Coordinator, California Institute for Water Resources, University of California, Division of Agriculture and Natural ResourcesMax Moritz, Wildfire Specialist at the University of California Cooperative Extension; Adjunct Professor Bren School of Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa BarbaraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1164612019-05-14T12:46:41Z2019-05-14T12:46:41ZGlass skyscrapers: a great environmental folly that could have been avoided<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274348/original/file-20190514-60549-11ssax8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4047%2C2730&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">New York restricts the growth of glass skyscrapers. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/panorama-midtown-manhattan-lower-dusk-blue-1334754314?src=B-eWnk4HzPFyiMtqvH7rzg-9-99">Shutterstock.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>New York Mayor Bill de Blasio <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/04/22/de-blasio-glass-skyscrapers-have-no-place-on-our-earth/">has declared</a> that skyscrapers made of glass and steel “have no place in our city or our Earth anymore”. He argued that their energy inefficient design contributes to global warming and insisted that his administration would <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/25/nyregion/glass-skyscraper-ban-nyc.html">restrict glassy high-rise developments</a> in the city.</p>
<p>Glass has always been an unlikely material for large buildings, because of how difficult it becomes to control temperature and glare indoors. In fact, the use of fully glazed exteriors only became possible with advances in air conditioning technology and access to cheap and abundant energy, which came about in the mid-20th century. And <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2017/jun/high-rise-buildings-much-more-energy-intensive-low-rise">studies suggest</a> that on average, carbon emissions from air conditioned offices are 60% higher than those from offices with natural or mechanical ventilation.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-short-history-of-tall-buildings-the-making-of-the-modern-skyscraper-56850">A short history of tall buildings: the making of the modern skyscraper</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>As part of <a href="https://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21432539350003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&lang=en_US&search_scope=SCOP_CAM_ALL&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=cam_lib_coll&query=any,contains,Schoenefeldt&sortby=rank&offset=0">my research</a> into sustainable architecture, I have examined the use of glass in buildings throughout history. Above all, one thing is clear: if architects had paid more attention to the difficulties of building with glass, the great environmental damage wrought by modern glass skyscrapers could have been avoided. </p>
<h2>Heat and glare</h2>
<p>The United Nations Secretariat in New York, constructed between 1947 and 1952, was the earliest example of a fully air conditioned tower with a glass curtain wall – followed shortly afterwards by Lever House on Park Avenue. Air conditioning enabled the classic glass skyscraper to become a model for high rise office developments in cities across the world – even hot places such as Dubai and Sydney.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274313/original/file-20190514-60563-1nnulay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274313/original/file-20190514-60563-1nnulay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274313/original/file-20190514-60563-1nnulay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274313/original/file-20190514-60563-1nnulay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274313/original/file-20190514-60563-1nnulay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274313/original/file-20190514-60563-1nnulay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274313/original/file-20190514-60563-1nnulay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274313/original/file-20190514-60563-1nnulay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The UN Secretariat building.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/un_photo/8250223333/sizes/l">United Nations Photo/Flickr.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet as far back as the 19th century, horticulturists in Europe intimately understood how difficult it is to keep the temperature stable inside glass structures – the massive hot houses they built to host their collections. They wanted to maintain the hot environment needed to sustain exotic plants, and devised a large repertoire of technical solutions to do so. </p>
<p>Early central heating systems, which made use of steam or hot water, helped to keep the indoor atmosphere hot and humid. Glass was covered with insulation overnight to keep the warmth in, or used only on the south side together with better insulated walls, to take in and hold heat from the midday sun. </p>
<h2>The Crystal Palace</h2>
<p>When glass structures were transformed into spaces for human habitation, the new challenge was to keep the interior sufficiently cool. Preventing overheating in glass buildings has proven enormously difficult – even in Britain’s temperate climate. The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park – a temporary pavilion built to house the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations in 1851 – was <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0066622X00004068">a case in point</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273827/original/file-20190510-183100-ocgn5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273827/original/file-20190510-183100-ocgn5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/273827/original/file-20190510-183100-ocgn5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273827/original/file-20190510-183100-ocgn5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273827/original/file-20190510-183100-ocgn5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273827/original/file-20190510-183100-ocgn5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273827/original/file-20190510-183100-ocgn5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/273827/original/file-20190510-183100-ocgn5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Painting of Queen Victoria opening the Crystal Palace in London, 1851.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_Abel_Prior_-_Queen_Victoria_opening_the_1851_Universal_Exhibition,_at_the_Crystal_Palace_in_London_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg">Thomas Abel Prior/Wikimedia Commons.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Crystal Palace was the first large-scale example of a glass structure designed specifically for use by people. It was designed by Joseph Paxton, chief gardener at the Duke of Devonshire’s Chatsworth Estate, drawing on his experience constructing timber-framed glasshouses. </p>
<p>Though recognised as a risky idea at the time, organisers decided to host the exhibition inside a giant glasshouse in the absence of a more practical alternative. Because of its modular construction and prefabricated parts, the Crystal Palace <a href="https://doi.org/10.1680/ehah.11.00020">could be put together</a> in under ten months – perfect for the organisers’ tight deadline.</p>
<p>To address concerns about overheating and exposing the exhibits to too much sunlight, Paxton adopted some of the few <a href="https://doi.org/10.1680/ehah.11.00020">cooling methods</a> available at the time: shading, natural ventilation and eventually removing some sections of glass altogether. Several hundred large louvres were positioned inside the wall of the building, which had to be adjusted manually by attendants several times a day.</p>
<p>Despite these precautions, overheating became a major issue over the summer of 1851, and was the subject of frequent commentaries in the daily newspapers. An <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S1359135508001218">analysis of data recorded</a> inside the Crystal Palace between May and October 1851 shows that the indoor temperature was extremely unstable. The building accentuated – rather than reduced – peak summer temperatures. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274315/original/file-20190514-60554-1xrm6xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274315/original/file-20190514-60554-1xrm6xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274315/original/file-20190514-60554-1xrm6xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274315/original/file-20190514-60554-1xrm6xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274315/original/file-20190514-60554-1xrm6xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274315/original/file-20190514-60554-1xrm6xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274315/original/file-20190514-60554-1xrm6xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274315/original/file-20190514-60554-1xrm6xg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A timeline of the temperature in the Crystal Palace, May to October, 1851.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S1359135508001218">Henrik Schoenefeldt.</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These challenges forced the organisers to temporarily remove large sections of glazing. This procedure was repeated several times before parts of the glazing were permanently replaced with canvas curtains, which could be opened and closed depending on how hot the sun was. When the Crystal Palace was re-erected as a popular leisure park on the outskirts of London, these issues persisted - despite changes to the design which were intended to improve ventilation.</p>
<h2>Chicago glass</h2>
<p>These difficulties did not perturb developers in Chicago from building the first generation of highly glazed office buildings during the 1880s and 1890s. Famous developments by influential architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, such as the Crown Hall (1950-56) or the Lakeshore Drive Apartments (1949), were also designed without air conditioning. Instead, these structures relied mainly on natural ventilation and shading to moderate indoor temperatures in summer.</p>
<p>In the Crown Hall, each bay of the glass wall is equipped with iron flaps, which students and staff of the IIT School of Architecture had to manually adjust to create cross-ventilation. Blinds could also be drawn to prevent glare and reduce heat gains. Yet these methods could not achieve modern standards of comfort. This building, and many others with similar features, were eventually retrofitted with air conditioning. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274316/original/file-20190514-60541-xwskac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274316/original/file-20190514-60541-xwskac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/274316/original/file-20190514-60541-xwskac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274316/original/file-20190514-60541-xwskac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274316/original/file-20190514-60541-xwskac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274316/original/file-20190514-60541-xwskac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274316/original/file-20190514-60541-xwskac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/274316/original/file-20190514-60541-xwskac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chicago’s Crown Hall.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/yusunkwon/439825014/sizes/o/">yusunkwon/Flickr.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet it’s worth noting that early examples of glass architecture were not intended to provide airtight, climate controlled spaces. Architects <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0066622X00004068">had to accept</a> that the indoor temperature would change according to the weather outside, and the people who used the buildings were careful to dress appropriately for the season. In some ways, these environments had more in common with the covered arcades and markets of the Victorian era, than the glass skyscrapers of the 21st century.</p>
<h2>Becoming climate conscious</h2>
<p>The reality is that the obvious shortcomings of glass buildings rarely received the attention they warranted. Some <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/American_Building.html?id=r_1PAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">early critics</a> raised objections. Perhaps the most outspoken was Swiss architect Le Corbusier, who in the late 1940s launched an attack on the design of the UN Secretariat, arguing that its large and unprotected glass surfaces were unsuitable for the climate of New York. </p>
<p>But all too often, historians and architects have focused on the aesthetic qualities of glass architecture. The Crystal Palace, in particular, <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/13644/pioneers-of-modern-design/9780141932323.html">was portrayed</a> as a pristine icon of an emerging architecture of glass and iron. Yet in reality, much of the glass was covered with canvas to block out intense sunlight and heat. Similarly, the smooth glass facades of Chicago’s early glass towers were broken by opened windows and blinds.</p>
<p>There’s an an urgent need to take a fresh look at urban architecture, with a sense of environmental realism. If de Blasio’s plea for a more climate conscious architecture is to materialise, future architects and engineers must be equipped with an intimate knowledge of materials – especially glass – no less developed than that held by 19th century gardeners.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116461/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henrik Schoenefeldt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Glass has always been a notoriously energy inefficient building material – but an obsession with aesthetics led architects to ignore its shortcomings.Henrik Schoenefeldt, Senior Lecturer (US: Associate Professor) in Sustainable Architecture, University of KentLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1056522019-01-15T01:29:36Z2019-01-15T01:29:36ZBuildings produce 25% of Australia’s emissions. What will it take to make them ‘green’ – and who’ll pay?<p>In signing the Paris Climate Agreement, the Australian government <a href="https://www.climateworksaustralia.org/sites/default/files/documents/publications/summary_report_-_low_carbon_high_performance_20160511_1.pdf">committed to a global goal of zero net emissions by 2050</a>. Australia’s promised reductions to 2030, on a per person and emissions intensity basis, <a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/climate-change/publications/factsheet-australias-2030-climate-change-target">exceed even the targets</a> set by the United States, Japan, Canada, South Korea and the European Union. </p>
<p>But are we on the right track to achieve our 2030 target of 26-28% below 2005 levels? With <a href="https://theconversation.com/factcheck-is-australias-population-the-highest-growing-in-the-world-96523">one of the highest population growth rates in the developed world</a>, this represents at <a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/climate-change/publications/factsheet-australias-2030-climate-change-target">least a 50% reduction in emissions per person over the next dozen years</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-is-not-on-track-to-reach-2030-paris-target-but-the-potential-is-there-102725">Australia is not on track to reach 2030 Paris target (but the potential is there)</a>
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<p>Consider the impact of one sector, the built environment. The construction, operation and maintenance of buildings accounts for almost a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318754386_From_leaders_to_majority_a_frontrunner_paradox_in_built-environment_climate_governance_experimentation">quarter of greenhouse gas emissions</a> in Australia. As Australia’s population grows, to an <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/3222.0">estimated 31 million</a> in 2030, even more buildings will be needed. </p>
<p>In 2017, around <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/8731.0">18,000 dwelling units were approved for construction every month</a>. Melbourne is predicted to need another <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/melbournes-continuing-population-boom-means-another-720000-homes-will-be-needed-by-2031/news-story/98872b3ab27f00891d50c694adba7abd">720,000 homes by 2031</a>; Sydney, <a href="https://rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/geo2.33">664,000 new homes within 20 years</a>. Australia will have <a href="https://ap01-a.alma.exlibrisgroup.com/view/delivery/61USOUTHAUS_INST/12143325290001831">10 million residential units by 2020</a>, compared to 6 million in 1990. Ordinary citizens might be too preoccupied with home ownership at any cost to worry about the level of emissions from the built environment and urban development.</p>
<h2>What’s being done to reduce these emissions?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.abcb.gov.au/ncc-online/NCC?pageNumber=1&searchTerm=&sort=&results=&generalParam=%7B%22applications%22:%5B%5D,%22years%22:%5B%22%7BC4166DCC-D939-41A9-855D-D66F2AACC2D3%7D%22%5D%7D">National Construction Code of Australia</a> sets <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652618304827">minimal obligatory requirements for energy efficiency</a>. Software developed by the National Housing Rating Scheme (<a href="http://www.nathers.gov.au/">NatHERS</a>) <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/2093761X.2015.1025451?journalCode=tsub20">assesses compliance</a>. </p>
<p>Beyond mandatory minimum requirements in Australia are more aspirational voluntary measures. Two major measures are the National Australian Built Environment Rating System (<a href="https://www.nabers.gov.au/">NABERS</a>) and <a href="http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTURBANDEVELOPMENT/Resources/336387-1256566800920/6505269-1268260567624/Mitchell.pdf">Green Star</a>. </p>
<p>This combination of obligatory and voluntary performance rating measures makes up the practical totality of our strategy for reducing built environment emissions. Still in its experimentation stage, it is <a href="https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/111568?mode=full">far from adequate</a>.</p>
<p>An effective strategy to cut emissions must <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259158759_Green_building_research-current_status_and_future_agenda_A_review">encompass the whole lifecycle</a> of <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319123629_A_comparative_life_cycle_study_of_alternative_materials_for_Australian_multi-storey_apartment_building_frame_constructions_Environmental_and_economic_perspective">planning, designing, constructing</a>, operating and even decommissioning and disposal of buildings. A <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360132317302937">holistic vision of sustainable building</a> calls for building <a href="https://ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/%28ASCE%29LA.1943-4170.0000123">strategies that are less resource-intensive and pollution-producing</a>. The <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/4/981">sustainability of the urban landscape</a> is <a href="https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=847972018939494;res=IELHSS">more than the sum of the sustainability of its component buildings</a>; transport, amenities, <a href="http://www.academia.edu/28437391/Comparison_of_sustainable_community_rating_tools_in_Australia">social fabric and culture</a>, among other factors, have to be taken into account. </p>
<p>Australia’s emission reduction strategy fails to incorporate the whole range of sustainability factors that impact emissions from the built environment. </p>
<p>There are also much-reported criticisms of existing mandatory and voluntary measures. A <a href="https://rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/geo2.33">large</a> <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/2093761X.2015.1025451?journalCode=tsub20">volume</a> of <a href="https://www.energy.gov.au/publications/evaluation-5-star-energy-efficiency-standard-residential-buildings">research</a> details the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378778817307648">failure</a> of voluntary measures to accurately evaluate energy performance and the granting of <a href="http://www.journalofgreenbuilding.com/doi/10.3992/jgb.11.2.131.1">misleading ratings based on tokenistic gestures</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/greenwashing-the-property-market-why-green-star-ratings-dont-guarantee-more-sustainable-buildings-91655">Greenwashing the property market: why 'green star' ratings don't guarantee more sustainable buildings</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>On top of that, the strategy of using front runners to push boundaries and win over the majority has been proven ineffective, at best. We see compelling evidence in the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318754386_From_leaders_to_majority_a_frontrunner_paradox_in_built-environment_climate_governance_experimentation">low level of voluntary measures</a> permeating the Australian building industry. Some major voluntary rating tools have <a href="http://theconversation.com/green-building-revolution-only-in-high-end-new-cbd-offices-24535">penetration rates of less than 0.5%</a> across the Australian building industry. </p>
<p>As for obligatory tools, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/2093761X.2015.1025451?journalCode=tsub20">NatHERS-endorsed buildings</a> <a href="https://rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/geo2.33">have been</a> <a href="https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/elsevier/heat-stress-resistant-building-design-in-the-australian-context-CcZecyU0S5">shown</a> to <a href="https://www.energy.gov.au/publications/evaluation-5-star-energy-efficiency-standard-residential-buildings">underperform</a> against traditional “non-green” houses. </p>
<p>That said, voluntary and obligatory tools are not so much a weak link in our emission reduction strategy as the only link. And therein lies the fundamental problem.</p>
<h2>So what do the experts suggest?</h2>
<p>We conducted a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329066129_Barriers_inhibiting_the_transition_to_sustainability_within_the_Australian_construction_industry_An_investigation_of_technical_and_social_interactions">study</a> involving a cohort of 26 experts drawn from the sustainability profession. We posed the question of what must be done to generate a working strategy to improve Australia’s chances of keeping the carbon-neutral promise by 2050 was posed. Here is what the experts said:</p>
<p>Sustainability transition in Australia is failing because:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>government lacks commitment to develop effective regulations, audit performance, resolve vested interests (developers), clarify its own vision and, above all, sell that sustainability vision to the community</p></li>
<li><p>sustainability advocates are stuck in isolated silos of fragmented markets (commercial and residential) and hampered by multiple jurisdictions with varied sustainability regimes</p></li>
<li><p>most importantly, end users just do not care – nobody has bothered to communicate the Paris Accord promise to Joe and Mary Citizen, let alone explain why it matters to them.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Tweaking the rating tools further would be a good thing. Getting more than a token few buildings rated would be better. But the show-and-tell display of a pageant of beautiful, <a href="http://theconversation.com/green-building-revolution-only-in-high-end-new-cbd-offices-24535">green-rated headquarters buildings from our socially responsible corporations</a> is not going to save us. Beyond the CBD islands of our major cities lies a sea of suburban sprawl that <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318754386_From_leaders_to_majority_a_frontrunner_paradox_in_built-environment_climate_governance_experimentation">continues to chew up ever more energy and resources</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-task-for-australias-energy-ministers-remove-barriers-to-better-buildings-64052">A task for Australia's energy ministers: remove barriers to better buildings</a>
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<p>It costs between <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235262457_Is_the_social_agenda_driving_sustainable_property_development_in_Melbourne_Australia">8% and 30% more than the usual costs of a building to reduce emissions</a>. Someone needs to explain to the struggling home owner why the Paris climate promise is worth it. Given the next election won’t be for a few months, our political parties still have time to formulate their pitch on who exactly is expected to pay.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105652/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Igor Martek receives funding from Deakin University. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>M. Reza Hosseini is affiliated with Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning, Deakin University. </span></em></p>Australia’s commitments to cut emissions are on a collision course with urban growth. We need a much more comprehensive strategy to make the transition to a sustainable built environment.Igor Martek, Lecturer In Construction, Deakin UniversityM. Reza Hosseini, Lecturer in Construction, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1049382019-01-01T19:48:58Z2019-01-01T19:48:58ZDigital Earth: the paradigm now shaping our world’s data cities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249184/original/file-20181206-128193-5ae42j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The vast amounts of data from more than 650 Earth observation satellites are transforming how we see and shape urban landscapes.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pitney Bowes Australia courtesy PSMA</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Today’s smart cities rely on networks: squillions of semiconductor devices that constantly pulse electromagnetic waves (light and radio frequencies) through telecommunications satellites.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250859/original/file-20181217-185240-1ww7oy3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250859/original/file-20181217-185240-1ww7oy3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250859/original/file-20181217-185240-1ww7oy3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250859/original/file-20181217-185240-1ww7oy3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250859/original/file-20181217-185240-1ww7oy3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250859/original/file-20181217-185240-1ww7oy3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250859/original/file-20181217-185240-1ww7oy3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250859/original/file-20181217-185240-1ww7oy3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Data Cities, by the author.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.lundhumphries.com/products/106796">Lund Humphries (2018)</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another genre of satellites, equipped especially for Earth observations, is accelerating a more advanced form of urbanism: data cities. These realms are not only “smart and connected” but also increasingly responsive to electronic evidence revealing real situations and challenges.</p>
<p>In various <a href="http://davinajackson.com/publications/">publications</a> and a new book, <a href="http://data-cities.net/data-cities-book-out-november-2018/">Data Cities: How satellites are transforming architecture and design</a>, I explain how this century’s Earth observation science paradigm is destined to transform traditional practices among built environment professionals. That includes land surveyors, architects, engineers, landscape designers, property developers, builders and urban planners.</p>
<h2>How do all the satellite data affect urban design?</h2>
<p>In essence, much more detailed and accurate information about local environmental conditions will be supplied to development teams before new building concepts are designed. This should be more informative and less time-wasting than current routines. At present, planning authorities determine building proposals based on environmental impact assessment reports prepared <em>after</em> the design phase.</p>
<p>Architects and engineers already share the on-screen construction of <a href="https://www.autodesk.com/solutions/bim">building information models</a>. They should benefit from obtaining more site-specific information earlier than is now usual. This would allow them to calculate more useful parameters, and receive more accurate performance predictions, for their virtual buildings and landscapes.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Eduspace_EN/SEM7YN6SXIG_0.html">Earth observation satellites</a> carry sensor and scanner systems that bounce different signals to and from the Earth. These systems constantly monitor and display many environmental conditions that normally are invisible to humans.</p>
<p>Some innovations in sat-imaging include: the patterns of street lighting that reliably map different cities at night; thermo-imaging (infrared) of the surface temperatures and energy losses of buildings; and high-res overviews of areas affected by drought, flooding, fires, chemical spills, eruptions, wars and other disasters.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250853/original/file-20181217-185249-1kxuy8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250853/original/file-20181217-185249-1kxuy8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250853/original/file-20181217-185249-1kxuy8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250853/original/file-20181217-185249-1kxuy8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250853/original/file-20181217-185249-1kxuy8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250853/original/file-20181217-185249-1kxuy8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250853/original/file-20181217-185249-1kxuy8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250853/original/file-20181217-185249-1kxuy8u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Earth observation has come a long way since this first photograph taken from space, on October 24 1946.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">White Sands Missile Range/Applied Physics Laboratory</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Earth observation satellites are not new. In 1946, a camera aboard a V-2 (aka A-4) missile launched from New Mexico took the <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/the-first-photograph-of-earth-taken-from-space">first picture of Earth from space</a>. The <a href="https://www.space.com/8186-weather-satellites-changed-world.html">first satellite weather map</a> was broadcast through small black-and-white television screens in 1960.</p>
<p>Today, more than 650 Earth observation satellites operate beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. Some orbit the planet to allow scanning in swathes. Others hold geostationary positions above specific places.</p>
<p>These satellites also operate at different distances from the Earth. And they carry different types of scanning and sensing equipment. As a result, they produce a diverse range of image resolutions, styles and scales of ground coverage.</p>
<p>The satellites record various kinds of environmental information, depending on which waves of the electromagnetic spectrum are used. These data are analysed and processed using precise algorithms. </p>
<p>A common example is data visualisations – often 2D or 3D video maps recorded over time. Typically, bright colours are applied to highlight contrasting conditions. For example, temperature data are colourised to show heat islands in cities. The same thing is done with aerosol data to depict patterns of carbon pollution.</p>
<h2>What’s Australia’s role in this?</h2>
<p>Australia does not fly satellites yet. But in July 2018 it launched the Australian Space Agency (ASA). Headed by former CSIRO director Megan Clark, it has an initial budget of A$300 million.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ten-essential-reads-to-catch-up-on-australian-space-agency-news-108671">Ten essential reads to catch up on Australian Space Agency news</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The ASA is working with <a href="http://www.ga.gov.au/about">Geoscience Australia</a> (GA) on a A$225 million program to improve data positioning accuracy – to 3cm in cities with mobile coverage. Another A$37 million is going into developing the <a href="http://www.ga.gov.au/dea/about">Digital Earth Australia</a> program for environmental data simulations.</p>
<p>Digital Earth, a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3396470/">term Al Gore coined</a> in his 1992 book, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_in_the_Balance">Earth in the Balance</a>, is an international science agenda to use Earth observation systems to update the ancient cartography ambition to “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2561346?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">present the known world as one and continuous</a>”. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251450/original/file-20181219-27767-nvy926.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251450/original/file-20181219-27767-nvy926.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251450/original/file-20181219-27767-nvy926.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=786&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251450/original/file-20181219-27767-nvy926.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=786&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251450/original/file-20181219-27767-nvy926.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=786&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251450/original/file-20181219-27767-nvy926.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=988&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251450/original/file-20181219-27767-nvy926.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=988&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251450/original/file-20181219-27767-nvy926.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=988&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Buckminster Fuller’s 1927 vision of a ‘4D Interconnected, Unified World’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.buckyfullernow.com/sec-3-bio-of-buckminster-fuller-1927---1947.html">Biography of R. Buckminster Fuller</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This dream was championed most influentially in the 20th century by US scientist <a href="https://www.bfi.org/about-fuller/biography">Richard Buckminster Fuller</a>, with his evolving concepts for an <a href="https://geospatialmedia.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Fuller-air-ocean-world-town-plan-1927.jpg">Air-Ocean World Town Plan</a> (1928), <a href="http://www.geni.org/globalenergy/library/buckminster_fuller/dymaxion_map/dymaxion_projection.shtml">Dymaxion map</a> (1943), <a href="https://mediartinnovation.com/2014/06/06/richard-buckminster-fuller-geoscope-world-game/">Geoscope</a> (a giant electronic space-frame globe, 1962) and his book, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_Manual_for_Spaceship_Earth">Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth</a> (1969).</p>
<p>In the early 2000s, NASA (<a href="https://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/">World Wind</a>) and Google (<a href="https://www.google.com/earth/">Google Earth</a>) launched the first internet-enabled “virtual globes”. </p>
<p>In 2005, major nations established the Group on Earth Observations (<a href="https://www.earthobservations.org/geo_community.php">GEO</a>) secretariat in Geneva to develop a globally networked administration and online access system for geospatial data. These data are mainly from satellites at this stage.</p>
<p>The Global Earth Observations System of Systems (<a href="https://www.earthobservations.org/geoss.php">GEOSS</a>) program now involves more than 200 national governments, United Nations data agencies, and global science and non-government organisations. </p>
<p>Australia’s representative on GEO is Geoscience Australia’s environmental division chief, Stuart Minchin. Working with Minchin, a GA team led by Adam Lewis produced the world-leading <a href="http://nci.org.au/services/virtual-laboratories/australian-geoscience-data-cube/">Data Cube</a> system for rapidly analysing time-series stacks of American <a href="https://landsat.usgs.gov/landsat-project-description">Landsat</a> images covering Australia’s 40-plus zones of latitude and longitude. </p>
<p>European scientists are now using this method to compile a <a href="https://ghsl.jrc.ec.europa.eu/index.php">data-layered map of human settlements</a> around the world. </p>
<p>Another notable advance in urban modelling comes from a public-private partnership between the Australian government’s data-marketing company, <a href="https://www.psma.com.au/about">PSMA</a>, and two global corporations: US satellite imagery supplier <a href="https://www.digitalglobe.com/about/our-company">DigitalGlobe</a> and business software vendor <a href="https://www.pitneybowes.com/au/our-company.html">Pitney Bowes Australia</a>. They offer information-rich online aerial imagery of Australian suburbs. Multispectral and shortwave infrared sensors aboard DigitalGlobe’s <a href="https://www.digitalglobe.com/resources/satellite-information">WorldView satellites</a> are used to create these images. </p>
<p>Menu options enable users to clarify footprints and heights of buildings and trees, roof materials, and locations of swimming pools and solar panels. PSMA adds cadastral and other government land data, including plot areas and street addresses. This covers more than 15 million buildings over 7.6 million square kilometres.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249185/original/file-20181206-128208-nuwfj4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249185/original/file-20181206-128208-nuwfj4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249185/original/file-20181206-128208-nuwfj4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249185/original/file-20181206-128208-nuwfj4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249185/original/file-20181206-128208-nuwfj4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249185/original/file-20181206-128208-nuwfj4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249185/original/file-20181206-128208-nuwfj4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249185/original/file-20181206-128208-nuwfj4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mapping of building and roof materials in the Australian city of Adelaide, using GeoVision tools by Pitney Bowes derived from PSMA’s Geoscape data system, with imagery from shortwave infrared and multispectral sensors aboard DigitalGlobe’s WorldView 3 satellite.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pitney Bowes Australia courtesy PSMA</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>So where do people fit into this world?</h2>
<p>As Al Gore <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=FYfcAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA358&dq=cope+with+the+enormous+volumes+of+data+that+will+be+routinely+beamed+down&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjEtIH636XfAhVNfX0KHfXRCGgQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=cope%20with%20the%20enormous%20volumes%20of%20data%20that%20will%20be%20routinely%20beamed%20down&f=false">noted</a> in 1992:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… no one yet knows how to cope with the enormous volumes of data that will be routinely beamed down from orbit. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>But he cited the importance of machines learning to improve their methods and a global infrastructure of massive parallelism — using dispersed chips and computers to process information at faster speeds. </p>
<p>Where do people step into this auto-piloting system? That remains moot.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>A caption to an image in this article has been updated to clarify that it is an aerial view of Adelaide.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104938/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Davina Jackson was employed in the late 2000s as a multifaculty research strategies professor by UNSW and NICTA, and received grants from Austrade to ‘catalyse’ a national and global data cities network that NICTA formally launched in Sydney in 2008. From 2009 to 2012, she was a director of non-profit companies funded by the NSW and Singapore governments to produce the first ‘smart light’ city festivals. Her 2012 online report on the ‘Digital Earth, Virtual Nations, Data Cities’ movement was print-sponsored by the Group on Earth Observations for distribution to two international conferences of geospatial science academics and urbanists in 2012 and 2014.</span></em></p>The huge volume and high quality of data streaming down from Earth observation satellites are transforming how we see and shape our cities.Davina Jackson, Honorary Academic, School of Architecture, University of KentLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1078242018-12-12T14:57:22Z2018-12-12T14:57:22ZUrban planning is failing children and breaching their human rights – here’s what needs to be done<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250223/original/file-20181212-110261-16tth6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Children are not being considered when it comes to urban planning.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/little-girl-headache-against-blurred-new-249750559">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Children are being left out of decisions about the environments created around them, when really, their needs should be at the heart of them.</p>
<p>In the UK, children are becoming <a href="https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/resources/state-child-health-2017-full-report">less healthy</a> – physically and mentally – and spend more time indoors than previous generations. Society is so caught up in discussing children’s health, education, safety and social media use, that little time is spent looking at the effect urban planning has on their lives.</p>
<p>Children growing up in towns and cities have less freedom to move around their neighbourhoods than their parents. Experts <a href="http://www.psi.org.uk/docs/7350_PSI_Report_CIM_final.pdf">suggest</a> that a ten-year-old child today has far less licence to roam than a ten-year-old two generations ago. The biggest problem here is the increase of traffic and dangerous roads, which makes many adults hesitant to allow children out.</p>
<p>Children can also be excluded from open space due to overzealous <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/02/no-ball-games-haringey-council-children-play-obesity">regulations</a> such as “no ball games”, or the idea that that playing near their homes <a href="https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/full-housing-companys-letter-threatening-1633556">causes nuisance</a>. There are even more <a href="http://www.openspace.eca.ed.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Teenagers-and-Public-Space-literature-review.pdf">problems for teenagers</a> who are more likely to be treated with suspicion in a public space than adults. While social issues at heart, these problems are perpetuated by poor planning and urban design. This is leading to children living increasingly sheltered lives and experiencing the outdoors only in adult-led, organised activities.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250225/original/file-20181212-110264-290gqi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250225/original/file-20181212-110264-290gqi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250225/original/file-20181212-110264-290gqi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250225/original/file-20181212-110264-290gqi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250225/original/file-20181212-110264-290gqi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250225/original/file-20181212-110264-290gqi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250225/original/file-20181212-110264-290gqi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Children today move around their neighbourhoods less freely than their parents did.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/596730344?size=huge_jpg&src=lb-59856941&sort=newestFirst&offset=5">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Children’s rights and needs</h2>
<p>The UK signed up to the UN <a href="https://www.unicef.org.uk/what-we-do/un-convention-child-rights/">Convention on the Rights of the Child</a> (UNCRC) in 1991. It gives all people below the age of 18 additional rights to adults, recognising that children are generally more vulnerable to being manipulated, and also less likely to be given a say in how they live their lives. Among these rights are three articles especially relevant to their environment:</p>
<p><strong>Article 12:</strong> the right to participate in all matters that affect them.</p>
<p><strong>Article 15:</strong> the right to freedom of association, including to gather in public space and organise their own activities.</p>
<p><strong>Article 31:</strong> the right to play, rest, leisure and access cultural life.</p>
<p>Current planning policy across the UK recognises a need for greater sustainability and inclusivity. But in practice, this mostly takes into account economic matters such as providing enough employment opportunities; transport, traffic and parking; and enough housing to meet growing demand.</p>
<p>In the midst of all these economic concerns, social needs – and especially those of the youngest, most vulnerable citizens – can be brushed aside. When it comes to planning, a plethora of <a href="http://whatworksscotland.ac.uk/publications/hard-to-reach-or-easy-to-ignore-promoting-equality-in-community-engagement-evidence-review/">evidence</a> shows adult communities often feel unheard, while involving children at all is still viewed as an innovative thing to do. The proliferation of parks, playgrounds and skateparks is an indication that children’s rights are not well understood.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250231/original/file-20181212-110231-1mvo8q0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250231/original/file-20181212-110231-1mvo8q0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250231/original/file-20181212-110231-1mvo8q0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250231/original/file-20181212-110231-1mvo8q0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250231/original/file-20181212-110231-1mvo8q0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250231/original/file-20181212-110231-1mvo8q0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250231/original/file-20181212-110231-1mvo8q0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Children need more than skateparks and playgrounds if they are to be independent and confident.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/children-having-fun-balancing-on-tree-389052964">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When children are asked about their favourite places to play, the playground is rarely their first choice. And most adults will often agree that they also favoured places other than the playground when they were children: parks, woods, riverbanks, fields and beaches were the places that captured imagination, not a few swings in an enclosed tarmacked space. Similarly, skateparks offer only limited recreation potential and tend to be favoured more by boys than by girls. </p>
<p>Playgrounds often lack a range of equipment to suit children of different ages and abilities and are not always well maintained. Children also have to be able to reach the playground safely on their own, otherwise they have to be accompanied. This can limit the time children have to play outdoors and contributes further demands on the time of already pressured parents and carers.</p>
<p>These exclusions and misunderstandings of what children really need contribute to environments that favour adults over children, and can leave children feeling disempowered, discouraged, inactive and dependent on the adults around them.</p>
<h2>Fixing the problem</h2>
<p>Far from a side issue, this <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/02/no-ball-games-haringey-council-children-play-obesity">leads</a> to epidemics in childhood obesity, mental health issues and a lack of opportunity for poorer children. Environments need to become more child friendly, and everything has to start with planning policy.</p>
<p>First and foremost, the UNCRC can and should be integrated into UK law,
putting children first at all levels of policy and practice.</p>
<p>Planners need to understand that keeping children in mind helps meet other agendas, such as improving facilities for cycling and walking, biodiversity, and ensuring access to green space for all. Planners can create more child-friendly environments if they take into account that for children to go outside they need time, space, and attitudes that support their use of public space.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250230/original/file-20181212-110243-1v8mm4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250230/original/file-20181212-110243-1v8mm4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250230/original/file-20181212-110243-1v8mm4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250230/original/file-20181212-110243-1v8mm4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250230/original/file-20181212-110243-1v8mm4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250230/original/file-20181212-110243-1v8mm4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250230/original/file-20181212-110243-1v8mm4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Planning with children in mind can help fulfil other goals such as biodeversity and green space for all.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/children-playing-on-summer-sunset-meadow-205995295">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>My <a href="https://i-sphere.org/2017/05/01/five-steps-to-make-childrens-rights-a-reality-in-the-scottish-planning-system/">research</a> suggests five key steps policymakers can take to improve the facilitation of children’s rights in the environment:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Encourage and endorse children’s rights training for planners at both degree and professional level.</p></li>
<li><p>Produce guidelines and methods for engaging with children.</p></li>
<li><p>Create a robust and routine feedback practise between planners and children.</p></li>
<li><p>Encourage networking, collaboration, and skills exchange between planners and childhood professionals.</p></li>
<li><p>Collate an accessible evidence base on children, and their relationship to, and use of, the built environment.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Improving children’s rights in the built environment requires paying attention to both the process and the outcomes of planning. The environments we live in have a major impact on our routines and lifestyles, but they can be changed over time and include local communities, taking account of their needs.</p>
<p>Society has a vital opportunity here to seriously step up to create spaces and places that work for everyone. When determining what this looks like, the rights of the child are a clear and accessible barometer for progress, respecting the most vulnerable citizens now and in future.</p>
<p>But this can’t happen in isolation – what children need has to be integrated into all the other community needs under consideration. Playparks and skateparks are all very well, but if society is going to foster confidence and independence in children, the way environments are created has to put them at the centre of planning in the first place.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107824/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jenny Wood is co-founder and chair of the board for A Place in Childhood, a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation. She is also a board member at Play Scotland, Scotland's national play charity. She received funding for her PhD research from the Economic and Social Research Council. </span></em></p>The UK is terrible at creating child-friendly environments and children are suffering for it.Jenny Wood, Research Associate, Institute for Social Policy, Housing and Equalities Research, Heriot-Watt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/825822018-11-19T11:36:59Z2018-11-19T11:36:59ZDomicology: A new way to fight blight before buildings are even constructed<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246033/original/file-20181116-194503-1553ppp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=133%2C39%2C2791%2C1793&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In recent years, Detroit has demolished thousands of abandoned homes annually.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Foreclosures-Michigan/a4ebb055899649cb9e996e1991fab176/1/0">AP Photo/Carlos Osorio</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Detroit has been demolishing <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/money/business/michigan/2014/12/14/detroit-blight-duggan/20360959/">about 200 vacant</a> <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2014/12/16/michigan-detroit-blight-funding/20479333/">houses per week</a> since December 2014, with a <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2014/12/16/michigan-detroit-blight-funding/20479333/">goal to take down</a> <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2016/04/20/feds-expected-give-detroit-demolitions-another-boost/83270176/">6,000 houses in one year</a>. Much of the demolition work is <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/money/business/michigan/2014/12/14/detroit-blight-duggan/20360959/">concentrated in about 20 neighborhoods</a> where the blight removal is projected to have immediate positive effects of improving remaining property values and clearing land for future development.</p>
<p>While Detroit may be an extreme example, economic decline, disinvestment, racial segregation and natural and human-made disasters have left <a href="https://www.curbed.com/2018/6/1/17419126/blight-land-bank-vacant-property">other American communities with unprecedented</a> amounts of structural debris, abandonment and blight, too.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=odXvvl8AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">scholars</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=1pS6CL4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">who</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=HIbvNzkAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">focus</a> on understanding the complex circumstances that have led to blight, we also have some ideas about potential solutions that could prevent this cycle the next time around. </p>
<p>We’ve coined the term <a href="https://domicology.msu.edu">domicology</a> to describe our study of the life cycles of the built environment. It examines the continuum from the planning, design and construction stages through to the end of use, abandonment and deconstruction or reuse of structures.</p>
<p>Domicology recognizes the cyclical nature of the built environment. Ultimately we’re imagining a world where no building has to be demolished. Structures will be designed with the idea that once they reach the end of their usefulness, they can be deconstructed with the valuable components repurposed or recycled.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246034/original/file-20181116-194513-14hjnzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246034/original/file-20181116-194513-14hjnzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246034/original/file-20181116-194513-14hjnzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246034/original/file-20181116-194513-14hjnzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246034/original/file-20181116-194513-14hjnzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246034/original/file-20181116-194513-14hjnzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246034/original/file-20181116-194513-14hjnzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/246034/original/file-20181116-194513-14hjnzq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">As people abandon homes the effects ripple through the community.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Detroit-Demolitions-Lead/86113ccfa72b47d689c5bacd78fc93e9/4/0">AP Photo/Carlos Osorio</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Thinking about the end at the beginning</h2>
<p>The U.S. reached a <a href="http://www.jchs.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/son2013.pdf">record high of 7.4 million abandoned homes</a> in 2012. When people leave homes, the local commercial economy falters, resulting in commercial abandonment as well. The social, environmental and economic consequences disproportionately affect already struggling communities. <a href="https://www.citylab.com/equity/2018/07/vacancy-americas-other-housing-crisis/565901/">Abandoned buildings contribute</a> to lower property values and are associated with higher rates of crime and unemployment. Due to the scale of the problem, local governments are often unable to allocate enough resources to remove blighted structures.</p>
<p>All human-made structures have a life cycle, but rarely do people embrace this reality at the time of construction. The development community gives little thought to the end of life of a structure, in large part because the costs of demolition or deconstruction are <a href="https://domicology.msu.edu/Upload/forum1.pdf">passed on to some future public or private entity</a>.</p>
<p>Currently, <a href="https://detroitmi.gov/departments/detroit-building-authority/detroit-demolition-program">publicly financed demolition</a> and landfilling are the most frequent methods used to remove abandoned structures, but these practices <a href="https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/article/deconstruction-makes-sense-demolition">generate a huge amount of material waste</a>. Upwards of <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/lawrenceyun/2016/12/13/housing-shortage-for-how-long/#1526534f5ee4">300,000 houses are demolished annually</a>, which generates <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2018-07/documents/2015_smm_msw_factsheet_07242018_fnl_508_002.pdf">169.1 million tons of construction and demolition debris</a> – about 22 percent of the U.S. solid waste stream.</p>
<p>Here’s where a shift to a new domicology mindset can help. Unlike demolition, <a href="https://delta-institute.org/delta/wp-content/uploads/Delta-Decon-Flyer-2015.pdf">deconstruction</a> is a sustainable approach to systematically disassembling buildings, which can result in up to <a href="https://delta-institute.org/delta/wp-content/uploads/Delta-Decon-Flyer-2015.pdf">95 percent material reuse and recycling</a>. This method, however, may increase time and cost, while at the same time potentially creating a vibrant reuse market for salvaged materials.</p>
<p>Domicology’s comprehensive paradigm shift from landfill-dependent demolition waste streams to sustainable construction, deconstruction and material salvage will affect both methods of construction and the materials used. For example, in design and construction of structures, modular components tend to be easier to dismantle than “stick-built” methods. Construction techniques that rely more on connectors like screws instead of glues or nails mean dismantlers can remove materials with less damage, increasing the value of the salvaged material.</p>
<p><a href="https://domicology.msu.edu/upload/Material-Market-Study-web.pdf">On the materials side</a>, using salvaged wood products to create new structural wood products can reduce reliance on virgin timber, which has recently experienced <a href="http://eyeonhousing.org/2018/06/number-of-builders-reporting-framing-lumber-shortages-surges/">shortages and price fluctuations</a>. Salvaged concrete can be used as <a href="https://www.cement.org/learn/concrete-technology/concrete-design-production/recycled-aggregates">aggregate in new construction</a>. In some cases, even roof shingles can be <a href="http://asphaltmagazine.com/using-recycled-asphalt-shingles-in-asphalt-pavements/">melted for asphalt road surfacing</a>. In the Midwest, where there are substantial numbers of abandoned properties, an <a href="https://www.detroitresearch.org/pictures-of-a-city-scrappers/">underground “scrapper” economy has emerged</a> that salvages copper and other valuable metals from structures.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245646/original/file-20181114-194506-cuhlvh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245646/original/file-20181114-194506-cuhlvh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245646/original/file-20181114-194506-cuhlvh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245646/original/file-20181114-194506-cuhlvh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245646/original/file-20181114-194506-cuhlvh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245646/original/file-20181114-194506-cuhlvh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245646/original/file-20181114-194506-cuhlvh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245646/original/file-20181114-194506-cuhlvh.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">To make deconstruction a viable alternative to demolition on a large scale, some things need to change.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.usafa.af.mil/USAFANews/Article/706952/alternative-spring-break-cadets-deconstruct-houston-home/">U.S. Air Force/John Van Winkle</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What needs to change?</h2>
<p>All of this requires forethought in recognizing that structures have an end of life. There is value in planning, designing and building in such a way that when a structure reaches the end of its usefulness, people can maximize the salvage of the materials removed from these structures. Creating a value in the end of life of a structure also decreases the likelihood of walking away from these valuable resources – reducing private sector abandonment in a community experiencing distress. </p>
<p><a href="https://domicology.msu.edu/upload/GuidetoLocalOrdinances_May2018.pdf">Governments can help by</a> putting in place policies, incentives and regulations to prevent abandonment and facilitate removal. Domicology will depend on figuring out the best processes and technologies for safe removal. Deconstructors will need to hire differently skilled laborers than for a standard demolition. And for domicology to work there will need to be a way to take the removed material to a place where it can be given a second life of some kind.</p>
<p>As with any paradigm shift, the most challenging issue is to change current mindsets. People need to leave behind a “build it, use it, demolish it” perspective and replace it with a “plan it, design it, build it, use it, deconstruct it and reuse the materials” view. Builders must imagine at the beginning of a structure’s life what will happen at the end of it.</p>
<h2>Economics do add up</h2>
<p>Our domicology team recently <a href="https://domicology.msu.edu/upload/MuskegonDeconstructionHubFinalReport.pdf">tested the economic feasibility</a> of using deconstruction practices rather than demolition as a way to reduce blight. We also wanted to explore how feasible it would be to establish a deconstruction-based repurposing economy.</p>
<p>Our findings suggest that the central collection, reuse and repurposing of material from legacy cities in the Great Lakes region is feasible with the help of specific policies, practices and targeted economic development strategies.</p>
<p>A crucial support would be a strong supply chain for salvaged materials. In Europe, California and the East Coast of the U.S., deconstruction firms can more easily acquire the material from blighted structures, access a skilled deconstruction labor force and use low-cost modes of transportation to move salvaged materials to processing facilities. All these advantages make deconstruction <a href="https://domicology.msu.edu/upload/Berghorn-DollarsandSenseofDomicology.pdf">cost-competitive in those regions</a> against demolition and disposal.</p>
<p>As a result of the work done so far, we and our colleagues have begun to incorporate the concepts and practices of domicology in <a href="https://schedule.msu.edu/CourseDesc.aspx?SubjectCode=PDC&CourseNumber=403&Term=1186">targeted courses for students</a>. By introducing this emerging science in the classroom, students here at Michigan State University are helping to pioneer a new 21st-century conception of a sustainable built environment.</p>
<p>As these ideas take hold and spread through planning, design, financing and construction industries, the goal is to prevent another blight epidemic like the one we see today in Detroit.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82582/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rex LaMore receives funding from U. S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration. Rex LaMore is the recent Past President of the Michigan Association of Planning. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>George H. Berghorn receives funding from the National Science Foundation, the US Department of Energy, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the US Forest Service, the National Housing Endowment, and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>M.G. Matt Syal receives funding from the National Association of Home builders, U.S. PA, U.S. HUD, U.S. DOC, United Nations Industrial Development Organization, Govt. of Qatar, Takenaka Construction Co, Japan, and National Electrical Contractors Association. He is affiliated with Am Society of Civil Engineers, National Association of Home Builders, Associated Schools of Construction, </span></em></p>By the time a building is abandoned and falls into disrepair, its community is already suffering. Michigan scholars suggest it’s time to plan for structures’ end of life before they even go up.Rex LaMore, Director of the Center for Community & Economic Development and Adjunct Faculty in Urban and Regional Planning Program, Michigan State UniversityGeorge H. Berghorn, Assistant Professor of Construction Management, Michigan State UniversityM.G. Matt Syal, Professor of Construction Management, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.