9 Bioclimatic Designs - Low Carbon Materials Processing

7 Questions one hardly dare ask:
1. What does ‘Sustainability’ mean?
The Brundtland Declaration seems more than
adequate.
2. Is there really a Global Problem?
We are architects, not climate scientists, but the
evidence seems compelling.
3. How are buildings implicated?
To a surprising extent. Our discipline has been
most definitely incriminated.
4. Are we heading for a new Dark Age under
the pressures of political correctness? and
5. Is ‘sustainable’ design necessarily
primitive?
Emphatically not. There is a rich Architecture to be
invented, out of the rigour required, not despite it,
and it is going to be subject to different judgements.
6. Can one make an Architecture out
of ‘good’ environmental intentions?
No, as demonstrated clearly by early passive
buildings,‘goodness’ doesn’t negate formal naivety.
Bio-climatic Architecture is a difficult field and
demands more than General Practice skills. The
Department here is exceptionally well positioned
to deliver these, particularly with the introduction
in 2008 of our new Mphil/MArch, delivering research
level skills with the prospect of timely Registration.