White paper on creativity - ebla center

Chapter 12Architectural quality and sustainabledevelopment: an “Italian” wayThe lens of sustainability enables us tofocus beyond the usual horizon and tolook at the burden that will be left tofuture generations because of ouractions today. Through this lens we arerevising many aspects of our behaviourin search of that balance betweenstimulating economic development(economics), social equity (equity),respect for the environment (ecology),and the specificity of actions (culturaldiversity) which underlies the currentdefinition of the concept ofsustainabilityliv.The building sector is traditionallyconsidered to be a sector that driveseconomic development because itgenerates jobs and wealth. According toa recent CRESME report on the Italianarchitectural design market, in the 27European Union member states in 2005there were an estimated 900,000 firmsof architecture, engineering and otherrelated technical activitieslv employingover 2.6 million people with an overallturnover of 245 billion euros.Heating, cooling and illuminatinghouses and supplying energy to fridges,boilers, irons and televisions accountsfor around 30% of energy consumed inItaly and generates 30 to 40% of COemissions. The pairing of developmentand sustainability in this sector thustruly seems incongruous.To solve the apparent contradiction wemust widen our outlook to include athird dimension: architectural and urbanquality. Although the objective ofeconomic growth is to improve thequality of life and the well-being of thepopulation, this greatly depends on thequality of the places in which we live,work, trade or relax in our leisure time.If we look at the figures for growth andjobs in the building sector we noticethat they are purely quantitative. Theyreveal a concept of development whichignores the quality of the architectureand urban spaces being built. Thisquality is not the outcome of a simplesum of buildings, but is based on theircareful composition, which will includea sufficient amount of green spaces andplaces for meeting, social relations andservices. But urban quality also dependson its cultural and social value, andtherefore on the presence of services,the proportioning of spaces on a humanscale, the harmonious inclusion of builtareas in the landscape, rigorouslyprofessional building methods inmaking stable and enduringconstructions, the use of safe materialsfor human health and the abatement ofharmful emissions in the atmosphere.These are qualitative factors ofdevelopment and well-being which arepart of the values of a country butwhich unfortunately are not traded orvalued by the market and thereforecannot be measured and expressed inmonetary terms. In our widespreadperception this phenomenon tends togenerate an undervaluation of the goodsin question. Indeed, we feel justified inhabitually pursuing behaviour that hasdestructive effects on the environmentand the landscape in the name ofdevelopment, without assessing thedamage such behaviour causes to ourlife and that of future generations.In tackling the relationship betweendevelopment and sustainablearchitecture, we cannot simply limit theWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 277