Architecture of a new balance

We all live and work with the aim to make the brief moment we have on this earth a beautiful experience.

It’s August now and the mornings are beautifully crisp. Malmö is still in a summer haze, people walk by my window slightly slower than usual. Yet in this quiet stillness the mad world violently hits my consciousness as soon as I open my computer. Floodings, heatwaves, fires, Covid, Haiti, IPCC and Afghanistan.  

Over the last year our lives have been dramatically changed. A majority of my beliefs do not feel as clear or reasonable as before. Crisis and fear has a great impact on how we feel and how we think. With that being said I wish for this short lecture to be seen as a very personal input or viewpoint of what I believe today. With this global world in a speed tomorrow is still unclear. 

I spend most of my time trying to be creative and find ideas for how to befriend the current status of climate change. As part of the first generation who will have to deeply address the issue I feel both responsibilities and hope, but also stress and despair. What gives me hope is the beauty of humans, interconnectedness and the poetry of being alive. However, there is a belief that technology and innovation is what will save us and I would like to invite you to a short journey where that idea may not be the saviours we are looking for. I think we need a different urban harmony, an architecture of a new balance. 

But before getting to some provisional answers to this hypothesis, I want to start to develop the argument by a recent anecdote.

Earlier this summer I went to have a glass of wine with my old friend who devoted her life to saving people, she’s a doctor. She told me she had just been to a conference where highly regarded companies presented their latest technological innovations. One of these innovations made my friend wonder whether she was at a real conference or in a film. The product is made for patients who want to lose weight but who, for some reason or another, cannot do that. Instead they get a plastic button implanted in their stomach and within 15 minutes after having had a meal they can withdraw and pump out 30% of the food they just ate. 

I walked home that evening, full of thoughts. Why eat those extra 30% in the first place? How much would that save the planet? But I was also thinking about society as a whole. Why is it so hard for us to change minor issues? Why do we always look for the easy way out? And what other plastic button implants do we have all around us that we don’t see until we take a step back and get a better overview of our ideas. 

Current policies to address a sustainable future are threefold; decarbonisation, energy efficiency and behavioural change. The first two are currently solved with technology, economic models and other concrete actions, yet they seem to not be effective enough, which means we need to look into the much more complex world of how we behave as human beings, our social structures and actions.

We will need to look beyond the tools we feel safe to use (like technology, science, statistics or digital tools like AI for ex- ample), and curiously walk into territories that traditionally aren’t seen as powerful and guaranteed tools for societal shifts (that could be art, philosophy, old wisdom and spirituality). Is there a connection between these two tool boxes that is a force much needed for an extraordinary and caring world to thrive? 

If, as many argue, the global emergency demands systemic changes to dominant economic models, social structures and behaviours, then what are the implications of these changes for the architectural profession?

For a long time architecture has boomed and flourished hand in hand with global capitalism and growth. Amazing architecture with glossy facades or sculpture-like features have been the goal to reach status as a successful architectural firm. Now we see that a constant societal growth with the economy as it’s epicenter is neither a good idea, nor workable at all. It is not through economic growth and materialistic consumption that we will find a balance within climate change. And saying this is not any news at all, we know this too well by now. Still, we’re looking for “plastic buttons” to save us. We’re looking for new innovative materials. We’re looking for new arguments to keep pushing cheap constructions forward. We’re looking for political decision making to keep our mandates when designing new but non sustainable airports, shopping malls or data centers. We’re blaming engineers, construction companies and municipalities for our own inability to be extraordinarily creative when the world demands us to. 

Now, what possibilities do we have?

Architects have a broad education and a creative understanding of built and constructed environments. Many of us work in multidisciplinary fields and with forward thinking crossovers. When, if not now, are we to push boundaries, use our wide knowledge and be brave? 

I propose we change our ideas of value in society. What architecture looks like is an irrelevance here. The importance is how we are all connected and what role we have, as space creators, to help people see this, feel this and be inspired to live differently together. 

ECONOMIC MODELS FOR EQUALITY

There are around 2,150 billionaires in the world, worth a combined and mind blowing $10 trillion. Their wealth is greater than that of 60% of the world’s population. At the same time, land values have created a global housing crisis and people can no longer afford a home. 

We need to fundamentally change and rethink our economic foundations. For architects it is time to be radical and possibly not always collaborative with dominating developers. We could instead develop new innovative business models where projects are funded by complex investment chains via companies, citizens and municipalities and thereby skip the growing market of unethical property owners. 

To work closer with economists and invent our own business models would benefit not only the end user, but also our freedom to create beautiful buildings and cities. What if architecture schools collaborated with economy schools just like the Stockholm School of Economics is doing right now with the Royal School of art where they explore and develop knowledge at the intersection between economy and the arts and humanities? 

The future of architecture needs to move beyond esthetics and become a deeply rooted science of built human societies. Architecture could be a holistic science of urban growth where it’s not the physical space growing but human minds and their lives. We could be even better specialists in designing extraordinary commons. 

LIFE IN THE CENTER

We all live and work with the aim to make the brief moment we have on this earth a beautiful experience. That is a nice reminder on why we work with climate change.  It is not only about sustainable materials, flights or meat. It is about the fundamental right to live and feel. And that right is heavily threatened. 

While the focus for most sustainable change often rests at the scale of governments and industry, changes at the level of individuals, households and communities are of profoundly greater importance than most people appreciate. Nearly two-thirds of global emissions are linked to both direct and indirect forms of human consumption. How can architects create spaces that inspire a mental shift? Can we design cities based on life, not consumption?

The major change from traditional ideas of constantly growing cities through erasing-and-replacing with large-scale urban developments would be the idea of the centre as a place not based on product consumption but rather a place where humans meet and interact. Could we use all of our forces to create something with possibly less physical constructions but with an enormous societal architecture that could massively change our shared urban lives?

ACCELERATED BRAVERY

We like to make decisions based on facts and proofs to be sure that we are doing the right thing. But how do we make decisions about uncertain futures where there are no proofs to hang on to? 

It is time for everyone to be brave. 

There is an extreme focus on zero carbon when building and transitioning cities which is fantastic. But we are back at the plastic button solution way of thinking. We need to dare to jointly regroup and rethink, and we need to do it right now. There is no time to wait for someone else to start a discussion group or to invite for a meeting, do it yourself today. 

We are missing the joyful common vision and collaboration that we could be having right now. It could be a heartening moment to gather up with colleagues and friends to make a sustainable impact. But it could just as well be a heartening practice for politicians and urban developers to reflect and resolve shared dilemmas.

To create the atmosphere I imagine will require a balanced state of mind. To open up for emotional and vulnerable communication needs bravery. To shift from strict information based platforms to creativity and culture driven ambitions needs us all to stand grounded and see the magnificent world with all its complex fragments that together create something truly beautiful and worth fighting for.