Re-Assessing Our Values – The New Imperatives

Architects often see ‘design’ as relating to function and form only. These concerns could be said to include: is the building elegant, does it say something about the client, about the architect, about the time we live in, does it take account of immediate physical context and of course does it serve its purpose? In a cultural context where up till recently 95% of Irish buildings were built without architects, often from pattern books, architects as a whole have worked hard ‘to raise the bar’.

The Royal Institute of Irish Architects (RIAI) has set itself the great ongoing task of raising the level of public awareness of the built environment, and working with the Government to create a legislative context that protects architect and client and puts design quality first. It has achieved significant successes in this over the last decade.

However in all of this hard work the energy and environmental impact of architects’ design decisions have often been unacknowledged. It is still usual for architects in general practice to leave U-value calculations to the services engineer or the insulation supplier and many prestigious firms are still designing huge amounts of glazing on north elevations or other elegant, but energy-guzzling, design features. Among environmentalists it is a well-known (and partly unwarranted) joke that buildings would become more efficient if architects could figure out where North is.

Perhaps this is simply a reflection of the lack of concern society at large has had for these issues till recently. In the usual context of a tight budget, signature details and fine claddings or finishes are fought for, while considerations such as airtightness, breathability, a bioregional focus, and CO2 or VOC emissions of the building are left unconsidered. The revised Building Regulations introduced in July 2008 will force a correction but we must do more than even this new minimum standard.

Post the publication of the Stern Report, the Fourth Report from the IPCC, ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ and the increasing number of climatic disasters it is becoming clearer and clearer that architects (and their clients) need to take their fair share of responsibility for their part in the vast emissions of greenhouse gases that are causing the climate instability and change. All of our society needs to. The climate crisis is being compounded by resource depletion (the most obvious being fossil fuels), and the food crisis that is already following these two. These are not easy or pleasant subjects and each makes the other harder to combat. Examples of this are growing biofuels for export with resulting local food shortages, burning coal to avoid nuclear or oil use that results in even more carbon release. We need integrated responses.

Every aspect of the design and specification must be examined for its carbon emitting or sequestrating potential. We need to design buildings so that their construction materials lock in carbon. A low-carbon,
low-energy design solution that serves form and function must be seen as desirable, even if this means thicker walls or less ‘signature’ features. Masterplans of new sites and renovation of old streets and neighbourhoods need to incorporate green spaces (e.g. green roofs, lines of trees) for local carbon sequestration and future localised food growth, etc.

In our promotion of the ‘Passiv Haus’ standard, timber frame construction, and even more so timber frame with a hemp-lime biocomposite, green roofs and low OPC cement constructions (where possible) we at Joseph Little Architects are promoting some appropriate solutions. We need more. Exciting times.


Joseph Little BArch, MRIAI, MSc Archit. Advanced Environmental & Energy Studies