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The promises, dreams and hopes of architects for future cities are now inextricably linked to climate change. Architects, Sustainability and the Climate Emergency: A Political Ecology chronicles how architects have shaped their ideas of the city—and sustainability—as knowledge of the climate emergency has unfolded. Have architects responded to the climate crisis too slowly?
Describing a political ecology of architecture, Peter Raisbeck draws on architectural history, theory and practice, and the climate imaginaries of architects themselves. This exploration indicates how architects have viewed the climate emergency and positions architecture alongside the politics of climate and development studies. Raisbeck questions to what degree the traditional agency of architects leads to a political authority isolated from nature, human-environment systems and the nonhuman ecological subjects rapidly approaching tipping points.
The fluidity of the climate emergency itself and its unfolding relationship to architectural knowledge suggests that new approaches, agencies and subjectivities are urgently required. As architects struggle to respond to the climate emergency, this book is an important and timely contribution to sustainability, climate and development debates. Architects, Sustainability and the Climate Emergency: A Political Ecology is a necessary provocation of a critical topic.
Living in and with Nature is the signal challenge for humanity as climate change rapidly propels us down the path of ecocide and extinction. New visions of ecological sustainability demand that we, literally, build the future in a different way. For this, we need to listen to the voices of intellectual innovation, learn the wisdom of the ancients, and draw energy from those who see, judge and act as global calamity unfolds. This fascinating book provides vital insights and critiques at the interfaces of architectural theory and practice, in the process elaborating a contemporary policy ecology of the built form. For anyone concerned about the climate emergency, it is essential reading.
Peter Raisbeck is the Associate Professor of Architectural Practice at the Melbourne School of Design, University of Melbourne, where he teaches Architectural Practice, Design Activism and Contemporary Architectural Archives.
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Giving Voice to the Peatlands
Chapter 3. Biophysical Imaginaries
Chapter 4. Cities in the Global South
Chapter 5. Green Architecture and the Good Anthropocene
Chapter 6. Environmental Politics and Design Activism
Chapter 7. Towards a Political Ecology of Architecture
Chapter 8. Conclusion: Reworlding the Canon