It's Our World - Now What Can We Do? (Part 3 of 3)

PLEASE NOTE, THE AUTHOR INTENDS TO PUBLISH THIS ARTICLE IN THE NEAR FUTURE. ALL DISCUSSION, COMMENTS, AND CRITICISM WILL BE CAREFULLY CONSIDERED BEFORE THE WRITING GOES INTO PRINT. IDEALLY, THE GOAL IS TO REACH OUT TO THE LARGER COMMUNITY OF STUDENTS AND SPARK INSIGHTFUL, INTELLECTUAL DEBATE.                                                                                                                                                                                                       -KUHLEKTIV 

Now,

what can we do?

My dear architecture student, you are in the most powerful position of all! For you see, buildings (the objects of our all-nighters and caffeine addictions) consume nearly three quarters of all electricity produced in the United States! Embarrassingly, 76% of all the coal, oil and gas burned is used simply for the operation of our country’s buildings; globally, this number is even bigger.

The USA is the world's largest producer of CO₂ emissions (per capita). In our country, buildings produce nearly half of all CO₂ emissions surpassing both the transportation and industry sectors.[1]

We are buried in financial debt and fearful of the day when we emerge from the protective shell of our educational institutions to claw tooth and nail up the walls of our nation's deep economic chasm. Because the building sector touches nearly every industry across all realms of the American economy, it is architecture, which will be the pegs we use to scale the walls of this chasm.

My plea is this: do not ignore the fact that architecture is in crisis, do not forget how it got that way and under whose reign it fell.

 We are the only ones who can fix this meltdown, make no mistake about it. There is no time to waste before we make architecture relevant again. We need to create change TODAY. By designing buildings and cities that utilize renewable resources at every level and by using the sun, wind, water, and soil to our respectful advantage, we will work to mimic the epic machine that is the global ecosystem. This means we will find ways to create closed circuits within our designs in order to construct systems that minimize waste and reduce reliance on foreign inputs including fossil fuels and remotely produced electricity or water. There is little new research for us to do; the techniques for this kind of design are everywhere, we just have to find and disseminate them: in UC San Diego, a microgrid electricity network; in Brazil, the jequitiba tree's pump-less water circulation; in Barcelona, shared bikes as public transportation. We will solve the climate and economic crises together because we are the only ones who have the tools with which to act.

The math is there and the time is NOW.

Where to read more:

Excerpt from The Party’s Over:

http://books.google.it/books?id=necqmudixhcC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ViewAPI&output=embed&redir_esc=y#%257B%2522showLinkChrome%2522%253Afalse%257D

Bill McKibben’s call to action:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/global-warmings-terrifying-new-math-20120719

A program of goals for architecture’s future endorsed by the AIA and many other organizations:

http://www.architecture2030.org

---

[1] Mazria, Edward . "Architecture 2030: Why?." Architecture 2030. http://architecture2030.org/the_problem/buildings_problem_why (accessed July 21, 2012).