World Architecture Day 2022: Can architects bridge the inequality gap?
3 OCTOBER 2022 – The first Monday in October is commemorated as World Architecture Day—established by the International Union of Architects to coincide every year with United Nations’ World Habitat Day. This is meant to drive home the point that the practice of architecture is interlinked with habitats, manmade and natural.
The theme for World Architecture Day 2022 is “Mind the Gap. Leave No One and Place Behind”, which looks at the problem of growing inequality and vulnerabilities, where cities and local stakeholders play a front-line role. Take a look at past stories on FuturArc that explore this theme below.
Rethinking Sustainability: Form follows systems
Despite occupying only 3 per cent of the world’s land, cities today consume 75 per cent of all natural resources, accounting for up to 80 per cent of global GHG emissions. This article takes a look at how we can get past a crisis of perception and values in sustainable solutions, to truly arrive at new systems that promote environmental stewardship.
Read the excerpt here; subscribe to the digital edition or hardcopy to read the complete article.
Hong Ha Eco City: Affordable housing with an ecological park
From the planning stage of this affordable apartment complex in Vietnam, Green considerations helped it achieve a high standard of comfort with verdant spaces for the residents. This is something still rare, even in sprawls of low-rise housing.
Read the excerpt here; subscribe to the digital edition or hardcopy to read the complete article.
In Conversation with Yatin Pandya: Timelessness and sustainability
According to Pandya, human behavioural responses have not changed for centuries. Today, we base our existence on technology that becomes obsolete in no time. He firmly believes that making a prototype independent of context will lend tremendous burden on the user to maintain the entire mechanised infrastructure, and proposes to rethink what we view as ‘timeless’.
Read the article here.
FuturArc Interview: Dr Hossein Rezai, Serina Hijjas, Lee Chin Wei discuss architecture petitions
The petitions in Construction Declares describe the ambitions of a profession, through which they will engage clients and fellow consultants. But some say that such declarations are too ambitious, with no point if there are no rules to adhere to.
Read the excerpt here; subscribe to the digital edition or hardcopy to read the complete article.
FuturArc Interview: Anna Heringer on ‘designing for decay’
The role of designer expands to educator, activist and agitator. Upon calling out a key stakeholder in the construction industry for their role in climate change, Anna Heringer said, “I don’t think we can achieve the change we need without feeling uncomfortable. Change comes with some pain. That is challenging, but the earlier we start, the more time we have to adjust and learn.”
Read the excerpt: here; subscribe to the digital edition or hardcopy to read the complete article.
Architectural practice in Web 3.0: NFTs and digital real estate
As the divide between physical and virtual environments are blurring, traditional architects are also venturing into the realm of digital real estate through creation of objects such as NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and virtual property in the metaverse.
But what is the ‘true cost’ of Web 3.0 systems, and what has been done to mitigate its impacts on the environment?
Read more here.
Read more stories from our latest issue, FuturArc 3Q 2022 Green Awards: Reinterpretation!