Magasin for Bygningskunst og Kultur nr. 7 2024 - Online magasin

Magasin for Bygningskunst og Kultur nr. 7 2024 - Online magasin

Editorial by Morten Birk Jørgensen & Nicholas Thomas Lee

The planet is facing unprecedented threats and challenges caused by human activity, namely the climate crisis, ecosystem collapse and biodiversity loss. In particular, the dire ecological impact of the construction industry, both international and domestically is by this stage beyond tenable. The architectural profession itself, is inherently connected with resource consumption through the perpetual creation and transformation of buildings, whereby places, materials and energy are expended in the process of envisioning, producing, and maintaining built environments. The catalytic position that the architect has in the production of buildings makes the profession complicit in the ecological damage caused by its actions, or indeed inaction.

Currently, the call for a general halt to new construction in the developed world is gaining momentum, resulting in an existential crisis for many architects and their established modes of practice. In Denmark, the argument to stop building has gathered around the powerful slogan Byggestop. Its radical position is understandable, reasonable and to some degree imperative, when dealing with a construction industry that seems to rumble on with the status quo, despite much talk and fanfare around the topic of contributing to the green transition.

Recently, Søren Nielsen from Tegnestuen Vandkunsten was a guest on Politiken's podcast The Living, and left the listener with the impression that a general halt to construction is really the only sensible thing to do as a response to the current ecological collapse. Similar arguments have been put forward by Professor MSO Nicolai Bo Andersen & Associate Professor Michael Asgaard Andersen from the Royal Danish Academy, and last summer's UIA congress adopted 10 principles under the title Copenhagen Lessons, where number 3 states that, “Existing built structures must always be reused first”, and number 4 states that "No urban development must eradicate green areas."

Internationally, Charlotte Matherre-Barthes in collaboration with B+ took the initiative for the project A Global Moratorium on New Construction, later running an event at the Architectural Association in London together with Georges Massoud, entitled Stories about Sustainability – Stop Building! Since then, e-flux Architecture magazine has published an article about the Austrian Society for Architecture’s event series entitled Stop Building Now – The Shape of Things to Come, and the Estonian magazine MAJA has produced a publication with the same theme.

However, the simplicity and absence of nuance with the slogan Byggestop also comes with a price. The climate crisis, ecosystem collapse and biodiversity loss are wicked problems that cannot be addressed with a one size fits all slogan that lacks a longer-term strategy. Not all buildings are created equal, and while the stopping of all demolition and the questioning of many new construction projects seems beyond argument, other essential new buildings might be detrimentally affected by such a dogmatic strategy based upon binary thinking. When facing unprecedented and entangled emergencies, the need for nuance is vital, perhaps to such an extent that the statement completely loses its well-intended meaning. Together with the need for nuanced responses, there are also reasonable counter arguments to the Byggestopposition.

Many of the challenges that societies face today in the developed world, such as the need for more affordable, inclusive, and sufficient housing models, require the holistic rethinking of existing building practices, sometimes even necessitating the production of radically new architectural typologies that do not necessarily fit into existing buildings. We are also in the midst of an emergence of innovative materials that can collect CO2 and counteract the accumulation of it in the atmosphere. Light, well-insulated, flexible, and demountable buildings can in some cases prove to be more resource-saving in the longer term, than dubious conversions to existing building-stock.

One can also be critical of the call for Byggestop as coming from a distinctly privileged, and sometimes even sanctimonious position, which promotes the interests of those that already own real estate. Many big cities are in the midst of an affordable housing crisis – Copenhagen is no exception – where the production of accessible dwellings particularly for those from lower socio-economic groups is necessary and even a moral obligation in order to address societal problems such as rising rents, living costs, wealth inequality, isolated communities and rising house prices. If building is also an existential activity, young generations can shake their heads at the elders who think that they have the right to end the construction of novel forms of architecture, now that they themselves have destroyed the earth with their own building activities.

Throughout history, visionary architects have radically reimagined our built environments, often driving societal wide change for the greater good, making it difficult for some in the profession today to imagine that we can exert the same agency through transformation and adaptive reuse of our existing building-stock alone.

It is within this complex and urgent discussion that an esteemed collection of Danish and international practitioners have reflected upon the former, current and most importantly future role of the architectural profession in leading the green transition.

In the first peer reviewed research article, entitled Space Justice, architect and Professor at the Center for Sustainable Building Culture, Nicolai Bo Andersen, dives into the issue of construction freezes from an ethical perspective with a point of departure in the Paris Agreement, the UN's climate goals and the Reduction Roadmap. This is done with climate justice and the ethics of care in mind - and not least, what a stoppage of construction will actually mean for architecture and the architects’ practice.

In the other peer reviewed research article, To build or not to build? Narratives in sustainable building, postdoctoral researcher, Kim Helmersen argues that as pleasant as it may appear to stop building as a reaction to the climate crisis, it is hardly a viable strategy for the architectural community. Instead, he posits that architects poses tools to overcome such binary thinking, and that the engagement of these tools may be the most fruitful disciplinary contribution to the present crises.

Architectural exercises for a post-extractive world, written by Urszula Kozminska and Matīss Groskaufmanis reflects upon How to teach architecture for a profession to whom new buildings should be a marginal activity, if building at all? This question has been central to rethinking their pedagogies for architectural education in a post-extractive future as part of Studio 3A at the Aarhus School of Architecture.

In the article and associated propositions, the Stockholm based architectural office Secretary generates a Palazzo plan through the reimagination of left over office buildings as prospective student housing. Through the works, Helen Rix Runting, Rutger Sjögrim and Karin Matz, propose that the future is what to depend upon when neither the present nor the past appear reliable or attractive.

In his critical study of Papirøen, entitled Areal overconsumption, architect Filip Ivarsson, dissects the condition of the current speculative development industry in Denmark. Questioning the rising tendency to view housing as a commercial product rather than a home, he highlights how the need for affordable housing is crucial for maintaining Copenhagen’s standard as an open and inclusive city.

In Beyond Byggestop, Antonio Bernacchi and Alicia Lazzaroni discusses the Danish term Byggestop, and how one single word can contain so much nuance. In this context, speculative scenarios of radical reduction are presented through three short stories, which are structured as critical newspaper articles, created through an artistic process.

Samtidens Resursförvaltning recounts a journey to the northern Swedish mining landscape where architect Emma Svanberg reflects upon the construction industry's destruction of living environments for indigenous people and the miners themselves.

Can the narrative of the future be rewritten? In dialogue with photographs by Hampus Berndtson documenting the landscapes of construction waste company Norrecco, architect Michelle Malling discusses in her contribution entitled, Om at deltage, how it is possible to redefine architecture. She calls for an ongoing collective search for sustainable alternatives – even if it may already be too late.

In the contribution entitled, Mere end forbrug?, Frans Drewniak, architect and Associate Professor at the Institute of Architecture and Technology, discusses the possibilities for an alternative to Byggestop. Using examples from his own research, and inspiration from some of the great thinkers of the time, he examines whether a meaningful world can be hidden behind the environmental challenges, and whether a toolbox with experimental elements can help to produce radical new thinking.

With her diploma project, spatial designer Laura Pap demonstrates what may become the default practice of architecture in the age of Byggestop. In the article she presents the proposal to transform a dilapidated sorting factory into a communal bath house and reflects upon methods for an architecture of adaptive reuse based upon the notions of care and narrative transformation.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. In conversation with HouseEurope!, architect and educator Beata Hemer discusses finding common ground in an industry full of interdependent disciplines. Is it possible to organize and take action against the rapid changes of the current climate emergency? With reference to the movie Demolition Drama, which uses tools such as propaganda-like visuals and aesthetic expression, this article raises the topics of paradigm shifts, strikes, and forming alliances.

In the article entitled, Bliver Byggestop Et Vilkår For Arkitekter?, Associate Professor at the Institute of Architecture and Culture, Thomas Kampmann, focuses on two aspects regarding a possible construction stop as a result of climate change. Based upon two specific studies of climate stress, he touches on, among other things, Life Cycle Assessment as an important tool for today's architects, as well as the EU's new revised directive on the energy performance of buildings.

Byggestop can draw attention to the values in the existing building stock, which Professor of Architectural Conservation Lone-Pia Bach points out is completely absent today. However, the good solutions do not come by themselves, but require care and empathy, which the restoration architect profession has learned over time.

How do architects navigate in a time of crises, where they face new regulations and ethical considerations, in a system that requires them to keep building? In the article entitled, Hvorfor bygge?, architect MAA Jacques Chevrant asks the fundamental question of for whom and why we build, and touches upon the subject of housing as a commodity, fixed capital, and fluid money.

Is architecture already dead? In his manifesto architect Sean Li calls for a rethinking of the original purpose of art and architecture. With reference to artist Peter Fischli's exhibition Stop Painting from 2021, Li reflects on the ongoing crises in architecture, highlighting the potential for self-reflection and how challenging conventional practices can spark a paradigm shift and architectural rebirth.

While the established role of the architect has never seemed so threatened by fundamentally questioning the act of building, our positioning within the construction industry has never been more vital. Consistently engaged in inter-disciplinary collaboration, often undertaking an important intermediary role between stakeholders, that include clients, inhabitants, municipalities, regulatory institutions, and fabricators, as well as possessing a broad array of diverse and adaptable competencies, the architects’ potential agency could not seem more relevant to the challenges that the planet faces today. It is fundamental to our profession’s agency in leading a green transition that we have an honest and nuanced discussion about our former, current and most importantly future role in the shaping of built environments. A debate, to which the articles contained within this issue of Magasin for Bygningskunst og Kultur have productively contributed.

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Magasin for Bygningskunst og Kultur Nr. 7, themed Byggestop? / Stop building? is co-edited by Morten Birk Jørgensen, Associate Professor at the Institute of Architecture and Culture and Nicholas Thomas Lee, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Architecture and Design. Manja Gyldendal and Stine Elnif Nielsen, respectively Institute Coordinator and Research Assistant at the Institute of Architecture and Culture has provided significant editorial assistance. Graphic design by Studio Hanna Bergman. Cover photo by Hampus Berndtsson, see contribution number 9, Om at deltage. 

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the contributions belong solely to their authors and do not necessarily reflect the positions of the editors, the Institute of Architecture and Culture or The Royal Danish Academy. 

Forsideillustration: Bidrag nr. 9, Om at deltage. Foto: Hampus Berndtson

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