Architects Declare is a remarkable call-to-arms on climate change

UK Architects are signing up to a declaration of their commitment to tackling climate change and biodiversity loss.
Over 250 architects practices have already signed up on this website.

Join the conversation on Twitter using the #architectsdeclare hashtag.

Read Hattie Hartman’s analysis of the movement below and on the AJ website.

Will the leading architects actually put into practice these good words? Who will hold them to account? Let’s wait and see…

The Architects Declare initiative is a landmark statement which now needs to be followed up with action, writes Hattie Hartman

The organisers of Architects Declare, with their call for a declaration of a state of emergency with respect to the world’s climate and biodiversity, should be applauded for providing leadership for the profession and the remarkable accomplishment of speaking in a unified voice on behalf of 17 RIBA Stirling Prize-winning practices.

I imagine further signatories will flood in from across the country. Just as the AJ’s recent Wake Up issue on the climate crisis touched a responsive chord, few architects will oppose this thoughtful and thorough declaration.

Particularly welcome is the manifesto’s top-line billing for biodiversity loss, as well as carbon-dioxide emissions. This is as much about masterplanning and site planning as it is about building design.

But sustainable design is not easy. In my decade of promoting greener design at the AJ, I have seen ambitious aspirations diluted time and again.

To succeed, sustainability must be championed from the earliest project inception – before the first concept sketch – right through to the mundane matter of daily building operation. This requires expertise, advocacy, collaboration, persistence and resources. Good intentions are not enough.

The Architects Declare manifesto has hugely far-reaching implications for everyday architectural practice. Some of the signatories and many other leading UK practices are designing vast infrastructure and airport projects around the world. What does this mean for those projects?In the least controversial sense, design, including structural and services design, is often […]

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