So much rests on the shoulders of architects. They can change our world and they know it. This might be why they are one of the most satisfying professions to interview. Always innovative and exciting, but sometimes extremely challenging.
A leading architect told us (several years ago) of a concept plan he had for a competition. It was to transform the ecology of Lake Eyre: feed in some salty water from the sea, wait for the moisture to build up a microclimate, and then watch the grasses and plants start to grow. Eventually, you get a great location for a flourishing new city on the edge of a lovely lake.
This might be shades of Gaza as a new Riviera in today’s trumped-up world but you get the drift. Challenging.
That’s how architects think.
Another wanted to build a fast connection around the entire coast of Australia. We were quietly horrified. No more outback, no more wilderness, no more off-grid anything, just fast humanoid connections.
But you get the drift
Architects can change in the way we interact with the physical world. The corollary is they can also prevent change. When it comes to climate we might be very happy for that resistance.
Climate is about to trample on all our most treasured notions of how and where we want to live.
It was with those thoughts in mind that we interviewed Jane Cassidy for a new episode of our podcast How to Build a Better World.
Transformation under way that’s on the scale of the Industrial Revolution. We are transforming the way that we think about the environment, the way we think about climate. We’re transforming how people work in their businesses, how organisations are structured, how we relate to one another. We’ve got digital transformation and the emergence of AI.”
Cassidy is the national president of the Australian Institute of Architects, so she heads up nearly 15,000 people who, in varying degrees, know the latent power they control. Latent because of course they can’t often do what they’d like; they have clients to deal with, regulations and occupants of their buildings.
Cassidy says the pressures are only growing.
Right now she says, there’s a “transformation underway that’s on the scale of the Industrial Revolution. We are transforming the way that we think about the environment, the way we think about climate. We’re transforming how people work in their businesses, how organisations are structured, how we relate to one another. We’ve got digital transformation and the emergence of AI.”
Climate change and sustainability are key to these challenges and the profession has a range of strategies and plans underway to help its members to undergo the transformation they need.
Decarbonisation
An industry decarbonisation plan for embodied and operational carbon in buildings is just the start. The institute is working with a range of stakeholder and organisations such as the Green Building Council of Australia, the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council, and the Property Council of Australia.
Then there are the commercial impacts of a warming climate to deal with.
Cassidy is candid in our chat. She talks about the increasing requirement for banks to require current certificates of insurance over property.
You don’t blame them. Property – real assets – are one of the most important underpinnings of bank loans. And if those assets go underwater, for instance –then the bank has little to no recourse.
Our conversations with key sources in the broader industry say it’s exercising the minds of banking leaders to no small end.
There’s no doubt the pressure on architects is growing to protect property so that it can be insured and thereby protect the vast financial assets involved.
We ask how the attacks on the National Construction Code play into that scenario.
As we’ve reported in recent times South Australia was first with a 10-year freeze on the NCC announced last year. This was followed by opposition leader Peter Dutton saying he will likely follow suit if he’s elected at this year’s federal election. Tasmania also recently halted its NCC upgrades and Queensland it’s feared will do the same.
Insurers might be the regulators by default
This is a shame, Cassidy says but in some ways of less concern than some people think, when it’s insurers that are increasingly important and can decide whether a development is funded or not.
A kind of regulator by default? Maybe.
“Australians are better off when we have regular updates to our National Construction Code – those regular updates are helping reduce risks for consumers and make sure that the product that they’re buying is fit for purpose over the long haul.”
There have been delays in the past to implementing the NCC in various states and territories – which have the ultimate say in what level of code they want, Cassidy says, but that’s been when the updates have been huge and creating challenges to an update “all at once”.
She’s convinced smaller and more regular updates are needed to ensure housing remains affordable, that is in terms of operating costs such as heating and cooling.
Lower quality homes will perform progressively worse, she says as both the temperature and weather conditions become “far more extreme”.
“So we should be looking to improve energy efficiency and performance of these homes, in terms of structure and extreme storms.
“And that’s what the NCC updates will help to do.”
It’s the thing that in essence architects do on a daily basis, she says.
“We are all about mitigating risk for our clients – optimising their budget, creating sensible buildability and constructability approaches that create longevity in their buildings, work and health and safety, and creating really great outcomes for biodiversity and our communities.”
This also moves the focus for architects away from“aesthetics” to mitigating risks.
Maybe feeling safe and comfortable will start to acquire a particular and acute form of beauty in the future we muse as we talk to Cassidy.
It doesn’t cost that much
She says it’s not so hard to do economically.
And the value that good design brings does not need to be at a huge cost.
Cassidy points to architect Andrew Noonan, whose 39S House project – which adapted a Victorian-era workers cottage to net zero housing – achieved “fantastic sustainability results” at “20 per cent less than the average construction cost in Brisbane”.
Another was a design competition in Canberra, with “one of the most complex climate zones” in Australia, which saw a 50 to 100 per cent reduction in carbon emissions across 50 architect-submitted entries of 90 houses – while also meeting ACT’s affordability criteria – at 7 to 8 star NatHERS ratings.
Cassidy’s background makes her ideally placed for these multifaceted challenges.
Based in Canberra, she’s currently GHD Design’s APAC service line leader for architecture and design and sits on the company board. She’s also worked on a huge range of projects from hospitals to defence projects in the Asia Pacific as well her own small practice and a university architecture teaching role for several years.
“We’ve got this opportunity to not only shift the way that the world sees architects and the respect for architects, but also the commercial value that our businesses operate in. And so for me, that’s massive.”
The background means she’s well versed in the commercial underpinnings that drive whether a project can be resolved, as the architect intended.
A new way of thinking can help all sides, she says.
Instead of thinking about capex and opex – or capital and operational expenditure – we need to start thinking about the “whole of life of a building”. This would make it possible to “connect all of those buckets of money” making it possible to think about providing “incredible opportunities for the end users of those facilities, the longevity of those facilities.”
If only government departments could kick off this oh-so-radical way of thinking and show the rest of us how to do it. Imagine homes that would not make people sick or obese or deprived of social contact.
Imagine the savings to the health consequences of poor isolated, siloed and short-term decision-making.
Cassidy says that there are massive changes that now offer incredible opportunities.
“The world is changing, and if we get in front of that change, and if we take that opportunity up to really lean into the opportunities of climate change, to lean into the opportunities of digital transformation, and really become a part of that new system, I think we’ve got this opportunity to not only shift the way that the world sees architects and the respect for architects but also the commercial value that our businesses operate in. And so for me, that’s massive.”