Hammarby Sjöstad is a district with low environmental impact in Stockholm developed from a former industrial area. The project, initiated in the 1990s, follows a holistic approach towards systems stewardship, including solid waste, water, transportation and energy systems. Hammarby Sjöstad serves as an international model for sustainable neighbourhood design. 

Maggie’s Yorkshire is a cancer care centre at St James’s University Hospital in Leeds, designed as a group of large planters rising out of the hospital’s last remaining green plot and using the restorative effect of contact with nature.

The Sanya Mangrove Park project exemplifies a holistic approach to climate change adaptation, addressing the intersection of ENVIRONMENTAL degradation, urban development, and green and blue INFRASTRUCTURE. Situated in Sanya, China’s Hainan Province, the project transforms a former landfill enclosed by concrete flood walls into a thriving mangrove ecosystem and public park. Through innovative design strategies such as interlocking finger-like landforms and terraced landscapes, the project attempts to mitigate the impact of annual tropical monsoon storms and pollution while enhancing biodiversity and ecosystem services. Moreover, its emphasis on public accessibility and community engagement fosters a sense of environmental stewardship and resilience among residents,

The Mellor School extension demonstrates an exemplary approach to almost all of the climate emergency design themes. Firstly, with the use of MATERIALS such as timber in many forms, from the glulam “portal frames” to the red cedar shingles on the roof. It also uses strawbale for the insulation to external walls. This palette of materials ties into the school’s forest school teaching and learning ethos.

The Climate City is a project that uses climate adaptation strategies (specifically rainwater management) as the backbone for the urban development and regeneration of Middelfart. The project provides different rainwater management solutions for three different areas of the town, ranging from changing existing street paving permeability to the design of a new landscape park.

The aim of Solrødgård Climate and Environmental Park is to combine nature and technology. The park is perceived as a coherent landscape, with pockets for the individual functions. The Park houses a new headquarters for Hillerød Utility Company, a wastewater treatment plant and a recycling centre. The future plan is to expand with a geothermal system, water plant, photovoltaic power station and a number of demonstration plots. Visitors to the Climate and Environmental Park are invited to explore close-up the various utility functions and processes, such as water treatment and the generation of green energy – energy cycles which are fundamental to daily life.

Air pollution has become a major issue in urban areas, driven by factors such as fossil-fuelled transport and wood-burning. Air pollution is worst in urban areas due to high concentrations of vehicles and industries. The urban heat island effect, along with wildfires, contributes to poor air quality. In Europe, millions of urban dwellers are exposed to unhealthy air levels, posing severe health risks. But it also harms ecosystems as it damages vegetation and reduces biodiversity. Hence a restorative approach is necessary to protect air quality to safeguard human health, ecosystems, and the planet, and it includes reducing pollution sources, green infrastructure and vegetation in cities but also cleaner vehicles, sustainable mobility and land-use models. Measures like speed limits and well designed streets, car-free zones, and safe walking and cycling routes can contribute to cleaner but also safer, and more equitable urban environments.

Carefully considering land-use and where to develop is a crucial aspect of a climate emergency design approach as it affects biodiversity, permeability of land, air pollution and accessibility and how much infrastructure is needed. Greenfields are essential for biodiversity and have little existing infrastructure and should be avoided for development as they often have better uses. Instead greyfields and brownfields can be restored because they have infrastructures and often existing buildings that can be reused. They are often contaminated so ecological site surveys and bio-remediation are crucial before development. Greyfield development often contributes to urban sprawl, where low density, residential only development ‘locks-in’ car reliance, leading to energy use, pollution alongside habitat loss and fragmentation. Instead you should create mixed-use neighbourhoods (e.g. 15 minute city principles), and strategies such as reuse and adapting existing structures, infill development, backyard filling, attic exchange and roof stacking to help densify cities while preserving green areas. Sustainable densities, walkable neighbourhoods, and shared resources can counteract the negative aspects of densification. For your site selection, ecological value (and protecting existing ecology) and future impact on the community, air, water, and soil should be assessed and key drivers in your site selection and your project design.

Globally, governments agreed to limit global heating to a maximum of 1.5°C rise but we are on track for 2.8°C global heating by 2100 because of insufficiently ambitious policy commitments (or not meeting them). But each fraction of a degree reduced, matters to reduce the severity of the impacts. The effects of climate change include hotter temperatures, the warming and acidification of the oceans, severe storms, increased drought, and a loss of species. Northern Europe is projected to face stronger winter warming, while Southern Europe will experience more severe summer warming. Urban areas face specific risks, with urban heat islands exacerbating extreme temperatures, impermeable ground surfaces increasing flood risk, and a loss of urban green space contributing to the degradation of land and biodiversity. To minimise the impact of climate change on the environment, actions should prioritise:

• protecting and enhancing ecosystems and biodiversity.

• careful land-use decisions that avoid destruction of forests, greenfields and other areas of biodiversity.

• rewilding cities and increasing green and blue infrastructures.

• ensuring a just transition.

All our actions should aim for the best climate future. Even if it is (still) legal to do less than that, we have a moral obligation and responsibility to do better.

Climate change affects water sources and they in turn affect the natural and built environment, for example we already face more frequent and severe drought-related water shortages, with wild-fires and biodiversity loss during periods of drought. We also see aea-level rise and increased flooding from extreme rainfall. Sources of flooding can be tidal, fluvial, pluvial, sewers or from infrastructures. We clearly must work with water rather than against it, and it will become even more important in a changing climate. Strategies include: flood prevention (e.g. retaining and enhancing existing forests and tree cover upland and in urban areas); using suitable site selection (i.e. avoiding building in flood plains or near coastal areas; flood risk management plans and promoting sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) at different scales that catch, retain and cleanse water run-off – e.g. Sponge Cities principles. This also includes restoring sealed surfaces to become permeable, nature based green and blue infrastructures. All of this must be co-developed together with local communities.

Eco-Viikki is the first ecological neighbourhood built in Finland between 1994, the year of the first competition, and 2004. The aim was to build a sustainable neighbourhood, capable of answering and addressing FUTURE crises while providing HEALTH AND WELLBEING to its inhabitants. Two competitions were held. The first competition aimed to establish the town plan, which was won by architect Petri Laaksonen with a vision linking the built environment and nature together. Then a second competition at building scale was held where every submitted project was evaluated based on their ecological qualities and ability to meet this wider vision. A completely new and innovative set of ecological criteria (PIMWAG) was created to evaluate the ecological potential and commitment of the submitted projects. In addition to its value as an ecological living environment, Eco-Viikki acts as a prototype, testing theoretical ecological solutions in design and practice. Finally, providing empirical results of the neighbourhood and the way its PERFORMANCE has been evaluated and monitored is exemplary and enriching.

The building's carbon footprint is the total carbon emissions emitted over its lifetime and can be reduced by creating a carbon handprint. The carbon footprint includes emissions from energy use (operational carbon) and materials (embodied carbon); this talk focuses on operational carbon. When a handprint and footprint are equal, your project is carbon neutral. If the handprint surpasses the footprint, it becomes climate positive, going beyond neutrality to reduce past damage (i.e. restorative action).

As a student (and architect in practice) you can use simplified operational carbon estimation rules of thumb like those in this talk to understand the carbon impact of the energy needs. Make sure you use country-specific and up to date benchmarks and carbon intensity factors for different fuels.

Understanding the carbon implications of your design and the aimed for standards is crucial part of climate emergency design, as it enables you to refine your work and aim higher. This then allows you to review whether the energy needs can be reduced further through, for example passive resilience measures, such as increased airtightness and insulation, good daylight, solar (shading) design, purge ventilation etc.

But also ensure that you understand user needs, design user friendly systems, and if a real project to check that systems work as intended to ensure carbon emissions are reduced in reality and as expected (create a democratic design plan and Performance Risk Plan).

In the context of health and well-being, outdoor environment quality encompasses the design, planning, and management of exterior spaces and landscapes surrounding built structures. The goal is to create environments that optimise the physical and mental health of individuals. This approach includes various factors such as green spaces, landscaping, air quality, access to nature, and outdoor amenities that enhance overall well-being. Ac-cess to well-designed outdoor spaces encourages physical health through opportunities for physical activity, relaxation, and a connection with nature. Green areas, parks, and recreational facilities promote exercise and leisure, contributing to a healthier lifestyle. Moreover, these outdoor spaces play a vital role in mental and emotional well-being by providing opportunities for stress reduction, relaxation, and social interaction, which ultimately lead to improved mental health and reduced feelings of isolation.

Understanding Soil explores into the intricate composition and properties of soil, emphasising its significance in architecture. Soil, a complex blend of minerals, organic matter, water, and air, undergoes formation through rock weathering and organic material accumulation. The composition, influenced by factors like climate and topography, includes mineral particles and organic matter, determining soil texture, structure, and fertility. Physical properties such as texture, porosity, and permeability, along with chemical properties like pH and nutrient content, are crucial considerations.

Architectural concerns regarding soil encompass contamination risks, erosion, compaction, poor quality, settlement, and subsidence. Sustainable soil practices, remediation techniques, and innovative approaches like bioremediation, mycoremediation and phytoremediation are explored.

The talk underscores the role of soil in ecological restoration and brownfield redevelopment, presenting opportunities for architecture projects that integrate bioremediation for soil improvement and landscape revitalisation.

This lecture gives a brief overview of the climate emergency and how we got here, how it relates to architecture and what a radical sustainable transition means. In 2022, the IPCC report stated that Architecture and planning is lagging behind all other sectors in climate action. Urgent action is needed before 2030 – the long lifespan of buildings / urban and land-use policies ‘lock in’ emissions and polluting development and behaviours for decades. Technology alone will not be enough: you need to go from exploitative values, mindsets and practices to new restorative values and be part of creating a new culture that rethinks what we do and the way we work. We have a collective responsibility to protect our planet and architecture - you are part of the solution, and no longer be part of the problem!

Here the ugliness of unsustainability is discussed and framed through the lens of a cognitive approach to beauty and how, in doing so, we cannot frame our architecture as beautiful when it is based on extractive and exploitative processes. After all, there is no life, no architecture, no ‘beauty’ in a 4C° world. Nothing less than a radical change of our values, culture and practices in architecture (and society) is required to avoid 4°C warming. It takes us outside our comfort zone because we need to change how we design spaces and places. But our architecture cannot be exploitative or permitted to transgress other’s rights (human and non-human). To do this, we as architects need new values and a new, restorative aesthetic that ‘de-centres’ ourselves as architects and centres the planet, other people, other communities and non-humans in our design process and decision-making.

This lecture unfolds more specifically the impact of the built environment on the climate and gives a brief overview of the most important international and EU policies, and voluntary actions and standards and obstacles to their implementation. Each building that is not transformed or constructed to high standards will ‘lock in’ high CO2 emissions for the next decades and will require expensive and disruptive low carbon retrofits in the near future. Hence you need to be ambitious and go beyond minimum regulatory standards to respond to the urgency of the climate crisis. We do not only need high standards in CO2 reductions, but similarly ambitious and high standards in all other aspects of sustainability, i.e. a holistic and restorative sustainable architecture approach. Carbon savings must be achieved for real, not just on paper. Post-occupancy evaluation (POE) and feedback processes are crucial.

There are 10 climate emergency design themes around which the ARCH4CHANGE content is structured. These 10 themes reflect the different aspects to be considered in holistic sustainable architecture approaches. In practice, all of these themes must be met to high standards to create truly sustainable architecture in reality. However, as a student you do not need to know all the 10 themes in-depth from year 1. Instead, future and global responsibility, environment and people and community themes should always be included in each design project in each year of study. Each year, each student then works progressively towards including additional themes until all ten are included in your design project by the end of the studies

The 5 step iterative process and 10 climate emergency design themes will help you in the design-decision making process and in justification of your approach. To centre sustainability at the start of your project and refine it throughout you need to undertake integrated design and iterative design processes. Exploring your project’s context helps to make design decisions based on knowledge (Step 1) and helps to define project values and your climate emergency design approach (Step 2). This then sets a good foundation for imagining and testing (Steps 3, 4), and refining your architecture approach based on feedback loops (Step 5). Make sure you communicate your values and climate emergency design approach clearly and explicitly – this helps in the testing and feedback phase