Action on Climate Change hasn’t ever been quick. The idea of a possible cataclysmic event out there in the future makes it difficult for the world to come to terms with the changes they must make to transform trillions of dollars’ worth of infrastructure within a very short span of time.

While in the midst of the global coronavirus crisis, it is heartening to see how people and governments across the world are willing to come together when faced with an imminent threat. With the economic engines groaning and sputtering as the world tries to stop the threat of an invisible enemy, pollution levels have plummeted to surprising levels and the skies and water channels have cleared up even in the most polluted cities of the world. As we share stories online of the return of wildlife to the most unimaginable urban areas we are immediately confronted with two opposing wishes – for the economic activity to resume and expand as soon as possible; and for the earth to keep healing and renewing itself like we see is possible.

Is it possible to imagine a world where these wishes weren’t opposing? Can we use this window of worldwide quarantine and lockdowns as a possibility to create a different future – a thriving planet?

The Energy of Building

With buildings consuming almost 40% of energy produced and with no immediate switch to turn from fossil fuels to renewables or other reliable clean technologies, how we design, build, source and run our buildings all require to change drastically for any considerable effect to take place. It will require architects to relook at the way they design and spec., contractors to rethink the way they manage, construct and dispose and suppliers to reorganize their sources, packaging and transportation models.

While all this has been discussed endlessly among forums with various well-meaning green councils and accreditation methods already in place all over the world, what we have lost is time and the chance to take drastic action at a scale that could actually create any meaningful impact.

The way we produce almost all our energy is by making fire. This pre-historic tendency has served us very well until recently when we suddenly found ourselves increasing by the billions. With product-centric lives everything around is manufactured and a whole lot of them require energy to run themselves.

Almost 80% of the world’s energy is still being produced by fossil fuels. With the world’s energy demand set to increase by a whopping 50% from current levels by 2050, fossil fuels will still play a major role to cater to this energy demand.  Though renewables are ramping up at a massive scale, when looked at in percentages, their contribution remains minimal with market challenges acting as regular deterrents in their scalability.

In the building industry energy is consumed broadly in three distinct ways:-

1. Manufacturing of building material
2. Transportation of materials and construction.
3. Energizing Buildings throughout their lifespan.

Localisation – The window of possibility

Globalization in the modern context has not only brought the world closer, it has made international sourcing of goods and services cheaper and more viable. An outcome of this global supply chain is a true global marketplace; but this also comes with a considerably large carbon footprint both in terms of energy usage, for shipping and surface transportation, and emissions.

With supply chains blocked due to the staggered lockdowns all over the world and with uncertainties in otherwise resilient global systems which developed over decades, the industry must quickly adapt to sourcing locally. If not seen from a lens of a limitation but as a possibility to turn the tide on the climate crisis, this can potentially boost the manufacturing sectors, reinforce morale in the markets and not only sustain but increase employment and skill sets in each country. It might require ingenuity and innovation, right from governments, architects to manufacturers and contractors – but we already have car makers, vacuum cleaner producers and young start-ups among a host of other companies making ventilators; a process that usually takes a year, fast-tracked to weeks, even days. We can already see that when people work together, rather than against, they can surmount great obstacles with relative ease. Is now the time to be on the creative edge?

Manufacturing – Turning down the Fire

Manufacturing companies with existing product lines will have to use raw material if they are to continue in the post Covid – 19 environment. Locally sourced and reclaimed material can often come at different prices and with different properties, opening up challenges as well as newer possibilities. Re-imagining products with the machinery, materials and skills available by maximizing learning can create surprising results.

One of the key components of manufacturing is energy. Energy input costs are a major component of the overall cost of the product. There is a plethora of research available on the compositions and benefits of making products with low embodied energy. It not only reduces emissions but can significantly reduce the cost of manufacturing. Manufactures would require to cash in on this disruption to kick start their transition towards a net zero future.

This shift is not only imminent but will be mandated very soon by governments across the world. We can already see it in the auto-industry with emission norms getting more and more stringent every year. With a possibility of cities across the world shifting surface mobility from fossil fuels to electric, to bring down pollution within urban areas, the demand for electrical energy is going to shoot up exponentially. Renewables and clean sources will not be able to match up to the energy requirement as soon, given their current trend. This can create major disruptions in supply and shoot up energy costs.

Architecture and Design will require to lead the change. Demand for building materials are consistent with what designers specify. Informing clients and users on the benefits of using materials and products with low-embodied energy will be critical to the success of this shift.

Design – Shift of focus

What we can learn from evolution is that nature is constantly tweaking and optimizing based on the surrounding conditions. While we might not have enough time for natural evolution to help us out of the climate crisis, we can definitely shift our focus and optimize from a space of connection with the earth.

Architecture can significantly reduce the energy requirements in buildings by employing simple passive design techniques. Shading devices, insulated walls, natural ventilation and usage of thermal mass have been used traditionally for hundreds of years. Traditional building design evolved out of centuries of communion with the earth and nature.

With the technology available today architects can design, model and calculate exact energy requirements of buildings throughout the year at any given location. This is an extremely powerful tool to help design and modulate buildings employing passive design techniques. We have achieved energy demand reductions of upto 35% only with passive design in mixed climate zones. Adding mixed modes of natural ventilation, cooling and air-conditioning, we have achieved upto 70% reduction in overall energy demands throughout the year with negligible escalations to capital cost. Reduced energy demand translates to reduced running costs, which is an undeniable motivation for any end-user. Adding renewable generation in projects which has the area and the capacity available for such installations can further reduce the overall energy requirement from fossil fuels. Adaptive re-use and retro-fitting existing buildings to perform better can also open up new revenue streams.

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The effects of climate change will not be marked by a singular event. Some theorists have linked the Syrian civil war crisis to a climate change induced drought which triggered mass migration, while others have denied it citing lack of evidence to such a claim. While we might intellectualize away our time, climate change events are already occurring all around us. We can clearly see how chain reactions of a singular event can explode all around the globe, bringing the world to a standstill. We have also seen how resilient the earth is and the power of its own rejuvenation. Is now the time to take action?

The effects of COVID 19 are yet to be fully understood. As countries grapple in the midst of something unseen in the last hundred years, we are in a time of the most populous and most globally connected world. Though phenomenal advances in medicine and health has ensured that we now enjoy the highest life expectancy, we clearly haven’t been prepared for the curve ball of the coronavirus.

Architecture is part of a larger ecosystem of users, governments, market forces, industry, education, culture, the civil society and the environment. Projects take months of design and planning, years on site and pumping of phenomenal resources to come to fruition. Architects are often one of the first teams to get engaged and are involved right till the end of the process. This might take anywhere from one year to a decade of involvement based on the scale and intent of the project. Though design and construction teams are always geared to be on the edge of creation, such long gestation times often puts the whole system on ‘maintenance mode’ being taken care of by workflow structures built into the system.

The COVID 19 experience has just jolted the whole system awake. Is it time to throw away the rule book and ask completely new questions?

Physical Offices – Virtual Offices

In a quick two-month period a majority of the offices around the world has quickly adapted to working from home. Though the technology has been present for almost a decade and has been used on and off, it is now that it is being seen as a reliable, robust mechanism that with a few tweaks can become a viable model of working in the future. While people may miss ‘high-five’ing their colleagues with every design resolution, concerns about physical proximity and workplace standards might change drastically in the months to come.

Virtual pop-up offices, online – cut off travel time, pollution and exhaustion and opens up a whole new model of working in the fight against the climate crisis. The questions to ask here are –

What would the future of architectural practices be like?
How can this experience be used advantageously in the future?
What technologies would stitch the online working experience into a seamless working environment?
What are the key areas that require a brick and mortar office and how can they be dovetailed with the online work environment?
How can working online be used to create a global environment?

Sites

Though sites have largely been shut or are operating at minimal levels, measures of hygiene and safety require tremendous upgradation. In countries like India where a considerable part of the labor force is often unskilled and are comprised of migrant workers, living conditions often pose tremendous risks of outbreaks. Safety on sites would now have to go well beyond the loosely implemented – hard hat-harness-safety shoe – measures to strict logistics planning, housekeeping and sanitization. There is much to learn in construction from well-managed manufacturing industries and planning, implementation and compliance of such measures would have to be taken up immediately by architectural practices along with project managers as leaders of the project.

We have all seen the plight of migrant labor in the days immediately after the lockdown. With no means of transport or ways to receive money, they have been evicted by their landlords and have been either walking hundreds of kilometers home without food or water or travelling in overcrowded buses provided by the state governments greatly increasing the risk of the outbreak.

Emergency funds deposited at the time of mobilization for such unprecedented events with a two to three month buffer for sustenance of the labor force requires to be built into contracts for every contracting agency to make sure such situations can be handled better off in the future. In this way contracting companies will not be forced to make hard choices during such trying times.
The questions to ask here are:-

What are the means of remote round-the-clock monitoring of sites?
What systems can be set up towards streamlining the workflow?
What are the effective means to implement hygienic conditions on sites at all times?
What are the health and safety systems that require to be built into the contracts?
How can contractors and vendors take ownership of the health and safety of their workforce?

Touch and Breathe

Users as of now have been either quarantined or locked down, but when this all blows over, the basic understanding of how we move about and use shared environments like public places, healthcare facilities and offices will require to be completely overhauled. With hundreds of shared surfaces to be touched on a daily basis and breathing the common air of air-conditioned environments with high level of pollutants in cities, public place design requires to change drastically and that would also mean the architectural practices themselves.

While we are unknowingly damaging the microbiome in our bodies at a great cost in an increasingly sanitized world, balancing the possibilities of a breakout while trying to improve probiotic health might seem like staring down a rabbit-hole. Architectural and interior design practices require to take the lead in designing all-through touch-free access to users without compromising on security measures and designing and monitoring air quality for indoor air without having to regularly spray chemical disinfectants that might further jeopardize public health in the long run. The questions to ask here are: –

What is it like to have seamless, touch-free, secure circulation systems?
What technologies can be integrated to create such systems?
What are the new parameters for air quality?
How can round the clock monitoring of such environments be set up?
Who are the experts who can help create such systems with ease?

Government & Action

While government mechanisms are generally attributed to being rigid and wrapped in miles of red-tape, the COVID 19 responses by most governments around the world has shown that in times of unprecedented crises, they can become exceptionally agile and responsive. Though there may be many shortcomings in their decisions, the willingness to change on a day to day basis based on the situation at hand gives us a window into the possibilities of how governance can really be.

Architects and educational institutions already stare at a host of problems while practicing and imparting education. Construction is bound by archaic bye-laws in places which demand immediate change and is completely free to exploit endangered ecological and historical environments which require total protection. The profession of architecture in India is itself in self-doubt after the Supreme Court ruling on March 17, 2020 that opens up fundamental questions about the practice and education.

Now with the COVID 19 lockdown, practices are juggling around resources while liabilities keep stacking up on the other end with no relief measures in sight. While no one can predict what the outcome of this pandemic will be, it does have the potential to seriously threaten the profession and the livelihood of many. The relevant questions to be asked are:-

How can architects, the council and institutes engage with the government?
Who are the experts who can help change public opinion?
How can the media help in highlighting these issues?
How can architects come together to create a resounding voice that cannot be drowned?
Who can be elected as leaders to help steer through these uncertain times?

Market Forces

With markets in free fall around the globe, this downturn is different than other financial crises the world has seen before. While they were created by reckless financial institutions, we are now staring possibly at months of halted production, stalled services and choked up supply lines all across the globe.

Architecture practices being boot-strapped due the legalities of practice in India, have worked though ups and downs and thrived in hostile market conditions before. Now with the current pandemic they require to be more resilient than ever. ‘Business-as-usual’ will not work if the effects of the crisis perpetuate for months after the lockdown is over. With sites stopped all across and uncertainties over labor mobilization after the lockdown, billing of stage payments and their realizations can take longer than expected. Large projects with long gestation periods can get extended and some projects might even stall. Practices will require to be agile and make quick choices if the conditions may present themselves. The questions to be asked are:-

What are the changes that require to be instituted in the practice?
What are the priorities for today and what are the priorities for tomorrow?
Where else does our expertise lie and how can we use them?
Which projects shall we be working on right now?
Who or what can help expand the practice?