Earth Day 2020: Learning with the Anthropocene Architecture School

In this blog post, Scott McAulay shares ways of learning about sustainability in architecture and gathers resources to mark half-a-century of Earth Day and associated actions.

To mark the 50th Earth Day, I am going to set out to answer two recurring questions that have been asked in a variety of forms over the past few months as the Anthropocene Architecture School has developed from a protest into an educational endeavour. They fall broadly into two categories:

  1. “How do you learn about sustainability?”

  2. “Where should I look to find out more about the Climate Crisis/Sustainable Architecture and get involved?”

This blog post shall answer both, emphasise the opportunities created by setting out to learn about sustainable practice and it shall be followed by signposting toward further material regarding climate action in architecture and sustainable practice. So, to paraphrase Bruce King’s opening to The New Carbon Architecture: shall we dance?

For starters, a lot of this knowledge – particularly the fundamentals of low-impact design, has existed for well over 50 years, longer than we have marked Earth Day, and has been written about extensively. So, to save time reinventing the wheel: begin with books, and in libraries! There is an abundance of literature that should be urgently passed onto educators and future practitioners to learn from, and just as urgently passed on to upskill practitioners. As part of introducing the Anthropocene Architecture School, I retrospectively reviewed a book a day on Twitter throughout March 2019, pooling the beginnings of a Climate Breakdown Reading List, that is ever-growing and includes links to freely downloadable resources alongside recommended literature. Including SEDA’s Design Guides such as its most recently published Sustainable Renovation Guide and LETI’s Climate Emergency Design Guide and its supplementary Embodied Carbon Primer.

The AAS Climate Breakdown Reading List draws together useful resources as an Instagram page, with each posting being accompanied by a short synopsis.

The AAS Climate Breakdown Reading List draws together useful resources as an Instagram page, with each posting being accompanied by a short synopsis.

After your time immersed in books and libraries - and when we are able to again, endeavour to visit construction sites that utilise low-impact construction materials and systems, that are built to rigorously high standards: Energiesprong, the Living Building Challenge or the Passivhaus Standard for starters. No CPD presentation nor full-page photograph in a journal shall ever compare to being on-site and being able to ask questions of those doing the building and those who designed it - or even better still: get trained or look to try/volunteer to do this type of building yourself! I am confident in my knowledge of particular ecological construction techniques because that theory is reinforced by having put it into practice: getting stuck in alongside experts in these crafts on-site to build hempcrete and straw bale buildings - giving more practical insight than seminars and research prior. When you can practically build a construction system and understand its intricacies, you can design with it far more proficiently, and - optimistically, maybe even be better placed to inspire clients to specify it.

Another route is to simply seek out someone that you know has this experience and expertise, and - always politely and sincerely - ask if they can recommend sources or teach you; and importantly, do not limit this search to architectural academics and practitioners. There is absolutely no shame in asking questions when you do not know something, and wish to learn - regardless of its current status as taboo in certain architectural spaces, and there is an abundance to be learnt from non-architectural disciplines and knowledge. The traditional path into architecture was one of apprenticeship, and I personally have been blessed to have mentors I can ask for guidance and help: in learning about particular materials during a dissertation; learning extensively on the job; recommending organisations to get involved with, or in supporting me in running AAS studios that have supported over 100 students. Wisdom accumulated through refined practice is invaluable, and we should all take a moment to consider what we can personally pass onward as we set out to upskill architecture for the Climate Crisis - whilst cultivating cultures that encourage asking questions and the sharing of skills.

Lastly, set out to learn from beyond what you class as architecture, and learn from activism, building performance evaluation, ecology, engineering, landscape architecture, permaculture, post-occupancy evaluation, systems theory, traditional ecological knowledge, urbanism and further afield. Sustainability requires collaborative, intersectional, transdisciplinary responses: we can no longer limit ourselves to what has been traditionally accepted as architecture; to focus on aesthetics, styles and theory during this time of planetary crisis would be to waste our potential for positive contribution. During an academic exchange at the University of Dalhousie, I took an opportunity to take an additional class on International Sustainable Development: opening my eyes to global efforts to improve quality of life and historical efforts to tackle climate change. Now, I apply this broader awareness – cultivated further by learning from activist spaces - to personal decisions and the tailoring of responses to the task at hand.

“we should all take a moment to consider what we can personally pass onward as we set out to upskill architecture for the Climate Crisis”

If architecture is to respond to the Climate Emergency positively, with the necessary urgency, a lot of learning must be done by those educating future practitioners, their students and those actively practising. Far from a criticism, this is an invitation to an unprecedented opportunity for architecture to meaningfully reconnect with the world out with its award ceremonies, lecture theatres, offices and studios. At the perfect moment, to contribute to restoratively redesigning society, so it begins to sustainably meet the needs of all whilst regenerating the planet that sustains us. Emergencies necessitate emergency responses after all, and realistically: admitting that we do not personally have all the answers before setting out to collectively learn shall be the least radical thing that need be done to reach Carbon Neutrality as a society.

Scott McAulay

Coordinator of the Anthropocene Architecture School; GIA Sustainability Committee

Further Resources

Getting Stuck into Action on Climate Change

Continuing on the Earth Day theme, there are numerous ways to take action on climate change in an architectural and personal capacity - and not all involve the kind of activism covered in newspapers. This could be as simple as bringing your architectural knowledge and skillsets into a community group in your local area, suggesting a client uses a less carbon-intensive structural system or lobbying the government on Building Regulations, as the Architects Climate Action Network organised en mass for the recently held Part-L Consultation. An assortment of different groups to get involved with are listed below and all can be found through the usual social media channels.

Left to Right: Extinction Rebellion, Ende Geleande, Green Peace, the Scottish Youth Climate Strike (SYCS), the Anthropocene Architecture School (AAS), the Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN), Friends of the Earth, Straw Bale UK (SBUK), the Tran…

Left to Right: Extinction Rebellion, Ende Geleande, Green Peace, the Scottish Youth Climate Strike (SYCS), the Anthropocene Architecture School (AAS), the Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN), Friends of the Earth, Straw Bale UK (SBUK), the Transition Network, the Scottish Ecological Design Association (SEDA), the Passivhaus Trust (PHT), Architects Declare (AD), Architecture Education Declares (AED).

Education Committee