Why architects need to tell new and different stories now

A major transition is happening in the architecture profession, specifically, and the built environment sector more broadly.

This shift means that the biggest trends shaping architecture are no longer primarily related to form and function; they are environmental and social. The triple threat – of climate change, the housing crisis and the need for renewed focus on equity and justice – means mean the design approaches and stories that worked for 20^th century architects are no longer relevant or applicable today.

The good news is that this shift enables architects to take advantage of new “persuasion windows” to promote the value of good design to a much wider audience.

The community is looking for answers and clarity about a range of complex and competing issues. And architects – thanks to their extensive training and unique way of thinking and approaching and solving problems – can navigate and respond to these big questions.

Questions such as:

• How will our homes protect us from extreme heat and storm events?
• How can we reduce energy bills and reliance on mechanical heating and cooling?
• How can we create communities that are safe and accessible for everyone?

These circumstances present the architecture profession with new opportunities to reframe its relationship with the essential building block of urban habitats – housing.

While the value of architectural expertise is undisputed in the education, healthcare, aged care, and commercial building sectors, in the residential sector, architecturally designed homes account for only around six per cent of all housing (noting that these figures are estimates, because actual data is not yet available).

The good news is that this shift enables architects to take advantage of new “persuasion windows” to promote the value of good design to a much wider audience.

Traditionally, architects have been closed out of the volume builder market, and consequently, many consumers perceive architects as expensive, producing designs mainly for luxury homes and/or apartment developments.

This means that the profession has been boxed into a small proportion of the residential market, which fails to harness their considerable skills, knowledge and experience where it’s most needed.

Architects integrate design thinking, building science, building code requirements and materiality knowledge to deliver robust, affordable, comfortable and environmentally safe homes.

The confluence of events that is reshaping our cities and homes, suburbs and towns provides architects with a chance to widen their remit and to serve the entire community.

And this shift requires new and different stories that speak to everyone.

Particularly in housing, architects are being called upon to explain the value of good design to a wider audience, so that it’s better understood by consumers and policymakers alike. Architects have a huge contribution to make, not only for the roughly 100,000 new homes needed every year, but also for the approximately eight million existing dwellings that need upgrades.

Designing for retrofit, refurbishment, improved resilience, and electrification can provide new business streams in the residential sector, for architects who are willing to embrace these new services and business models.

There is a deeper question at play here too, which revolves around better understanding what climate change asks of us. Not only do we need to reduce emissions; we also need to address the reality that people are going to become increasingly uncomfortable in their homes.

Older people, children, people with disability, people from diverse cultural backgrounds, First Nations people, pregnant people and those with lower household incomes are among the most vulnerable as the climate changes – which means these are also the people that forward-thinking architects must aim to serve.

So, this call to tell different stories about architecture – who it’s for, who should benefit from good design (in short, everyone!) – invites architects to respond to new demands, at a time when they are already being stretched and challenged in myriad directions and ways.

To make architecture more accessible to more people – so that vulnerable people are not left behind in this unavoidable transition – the profession needs to upskill on multiple fronts: around designing for carbon, designing for Country, and designing for everyone.

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Rachael Bernstone is a former journalist and now a comms and business advisor to architecture practices. She will run a CPD workshop called Get Published on Thursday, 29 May, which will share insights from 20+ years of architecture journalism.