Overview

There is almost nothing new left to say about the urgent need to reduce our devastating impact on the biosphere that supports us. In architectural terms, we have been told since the 1960s that mainstream architecture is not engaged enough with the environmental consequences of what it produces and how it produces it. The usual approach is to propose new ways of designing and building to persuade the reader of the centrality of environmental concerns. But too many readers have remained resolutely unpersuaded over decades. In four sharp, interlocking essays, this book asks why the majority of the architectural profession and its clients still only pay lip service to the importance of the environmental. The first - Overthrowing - examines the Modern Movement’s astonishing success in establishing itself, and its legacy in contemporary architectural culture; the second - Converting - explores the inability of the environmental movement to ignite and transform architecture in the same way; the third - Making - discusses the importance of shifting architecture back to a materially-based view of itself to increase its effectiveness, and finally - Educating - looks at the need for architectural education to urgently reconsider how and what it teaches in the volatile 21st century. This in no way diminishes the extraordinary contribution that a minority in architectural practice and education have made to the development of environmental design and environmental thinking over the past fifty years. In each essay, therefore, are examples of innovative and determined people pursuing other ways of practicing architecture and other ways of training architects for this critical century, who are pulling the model of a nature-centric practice out of the margins and into the centre.

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9781848224889

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Reviews

‘This is a compelling critique of the state of architectural education and practice in the context of pressing environmental concerns, and is an insightful read for anyone keen on understanding the challenges and opportunities that lie at the intersection of architecture, design and environmentalism.’ – Krystallia Kamvasinou, *Urban Design Journal *

Author Information

Susannah Hagan is Emeritus Professor of Architecture at the University of Westminster, London, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Prior to Westminster, she was Head of Research and the Doctoral Programme at the School of Architecture, Royal College of Art. Trained as an architect at Columbia University, New York and the Architectural Association, she was the founder and director of R_E_D (Research into Environment + Design), a Europe-wide research consultancy specialising in environmentally-informed design at all scales. She has published extensively, drawing together architectural design, history and theory to examine environmental practice in publications such as Digitalia (2008), and Ecological Urbanism (2015).

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