News

We have vacancies on our Steering Group and are keen to recruit new members reflecting the diversity of signatory practices as we develop AD’s programme.

New members will contribute to the full range of the Steering Group’s discussions and decisions, and will also bring specific areas of expertise. We are seeking individuals with expertise in any of the following: financial management, fundraising, or communications and social media.

Please click here for the role description and details of how to apply.

With the crucial COP26 UN Climate Change Summit taking place in Glasgow, leading architectural, engineering, planning and construction companies are demanding the government introduce a carbon tax/law on ecocide to tackle the climate crisis and say VAT should also be reformed to promote refurbishment over new-build projects. Uniting as the umbrella group Built Environment Declares - in which Architects Declare is a partner - they say these changes are needed to meet the UK’s net zero carbon targets and the wider response to the climate crisis.

They are also pressing for changes to building regulations and planning systems such that:

• embodied carbon calculations and targets are mandatory at planning stage and planning authorities should have embodied carbon quotas
• embodied carbon regulated through building regulations
• post occupancy evaluation should be mandatory
• building regulations should regulate performance in-use and health and wellbeing metrics

“We are strongly committed to making changes in our own practices, but changes in regulation, taxation and legislation are essential to achieve the rapid and profound reduction in carbon emissions legislated by the UK Parliament.”

In the lead up to COP26, a survey of attitudes across UK built environment professional firms has measured the level of their concern and commitment to change. This survey was returned by over 200 UK businesses, including architects, contractors, building services, civil, and structural engineers, interior designers, landscape architects and project managers strive to “...meet the needs of our society without breaching the earth’s ecological boundaries will demand a paradigm shift in our behaviour”.

The survey took the form of a questionnaire to discover the level of a signatory’s commitment to specific changes in their own practice, in regulation and in legislation. The short report and results are available here.

Architects Declare fully support the LETI Climate Emergency Retrofit Guide and applaud the hugely talented team behind this well-timed publication. We acknowledge the importance of prioritising the retrofitting and re-use of the existing built environment over demolition and new build if we are to have any hope of meeting Net Zero Carbon targets for 2050. Whilst we appreciate the challenges that successful low carbon retrofit presents the architecture profession, like LETI, we believe that our industry has the collective knowledge and expertise to step up and meet this head-on.

With careful reasoning, backed up with meticulous research and (as with previous LETI publications) exemplary infographics, LETI provide us with the tools to deliver on ambitious Net Zero carbon targets which will not be met without carbon emissions from the UK’s 28 million homes being reduced by over 70%. LETI present us with clear working methods and explanations for ‘Why retrofit’, ‘What is Retrofit’, and ‘How we do it”, supported by accessible case studies and the brilliant “Home Retrofit Specification” for different house types. The guide makes the case for the social, health & well-being benefits of retrofit, whilst arguing the case for the huge opportunities a national retrofit programme will present the whole of the UK in the form of 100,000’s of new jobs and “a £309bn boost to the economy”.

The issue of retrofitting our homes has never been so high-profile, and recently, so controversial. Recent developments have not detracted from the fact that decarbonising our housing stock is a huge priority if we are to meet Net Zero Carbon targets and try to slow down the Climate and Ecological Emergency, whilst creating climate-resilient, healthy and affordable homes for everybody. This guide makes the case, and crucially, provides clear deliverable working methodologies that can be understood by clients, tenants and the whole design team.

The LETI Climate Emergency Retrofit Guide was launched on 21st October 2021 is available to download here.

Architects Declare has welcomed seven new Steering Group members to join the existing team in developing our next phase of urgent action, leading up to COP26.

After an open invitation for applications, we interviewed many candidates and were extremely impressed with the level of commitment and knowledge displayed. We are excited to announce that our new members are:

Alasdair Ben Dixon - Collective Works

Anna Lisa McSweeney - White Arkitekter

Anna Woodeson - LTS Architects

Craig Robertson - AHMM

Duncan Baker-Brown - BakerBrown

Kevin Logan - Maccreanor Lavington

Zoe Watson - Levitt Bernstein

We would also like to officially welcome Tara Gbolade from Gbolade Design Studio, who joined us earlier this year.

Membership terms for all volunteers to the Steering Group will be between one and three years. In this spirit of rotation one of our original members, Peter Clegg, has now left after two years. We are very grateful to him for his time and valuable guidance.

Following responses to our funding request to signatory practices, and ticket sales from our April event, we have also engaged a Manager. Mark Goldthorpe will be working for Architects Declare two days a week, running our various workstreams.

18 industry experts have been selected to help shape the first Built Environment Summit (BESt) that will take place from 28-29 October 2021. Grouped into panels corresponding with the six conference themes, they will help review open call submissions and programme the two-day event:

Panel for Theme 1: The Significance of the Built Environment

• Mel Allwood, Director and Sustainable Buildings Lead, Ove Arup & Partners
• James Mitchell, Co-Founder and CEO of BuildX Studio

Chaired by: Hélène Chartier, Head of Zero Carbon Development at C40 Climate Leadership Group

Panel for Theme 2: The Environmental Footprint of the Built Environment

• Jake Attwood-Harris, Sustainable Design Advisor of Hawkins\Brown Architects
• Michael Ramage, Director of Centre for Natural Material Innovation, University of Cambridge

Chaired by: Jane Anderson, Director of ConstructionLCA Limited

Panel for Theme 3: How to affect change in the Built Environment

• Asif Din, Sustainability Director, Perkins & Will
• Christhina Candido, Associate Professor and Director of Sustainable and Healthy Environments (SHE) Lab, The University of Melbourne

Chaired by: Duncan Baker-Brown, Founder of BakerBrown

Panel for Theme 4: The Built Environment Industry’s Capabilities

• Sonja Oliveira, Founder of Radical Architecture Practice for Sustainability Network
• Pete Winslow, Associate Director of Expedition

Chaired by: Nigel Tonks, Director and Senior Adviser to Climate Champions Team of Ove Arup & Partners

Panel for Theme 5: The Industry is Committed to Change

• Adrian Campbell, Founder of Changebuilding
• Ted Ochieng Otieno, Chair of Kenya Green Building Society

Chaired by: Caroline Pidcock, Director of Pidcock PTY

Panel for Theme 6: The Industry needs governments’ support to change

• Ben Derbyshire, Chair of HTA Design
• Judit Kimpian, Chair of Environment and Sustainable Architecture Work Group, Architects Council of Europe

Chaired by: Pooran Desai, CEO of OnePlanet.com

The international open call for research will close on Monday 5 July at 9am (BST).

Thu, 28 Oct 2021, 09:00 – Fri, 29 Oct 2021, 17:00 BST Click here for details and to book.