The Role of Responsible Design in Architecture

Why responsible design is necessary

9.4.21

By Anya Low

Construction site, Berlin, 2021

Introduction

Today more than ever,  human activities have a dominant influence on climate change and the environment. We have arrived at a point where global warming is becoming a bigger reality as years go on. Looking into the main challenges the world faces, we often forget who the main players are. In design management, we have looked into another perspective of the way we see design where: everything is design, since everything is created as a means to fulfil a purpose. With this acknowledgement, we look into the role of an architect in global challenges and how architects should adopt more responsibility in their designs. 

Responsible Architecture 

 It is currently still believed that governments and large enterprises are held responsible for the biggest means of influencing the way we live, yet one of the biggest influences on how lifestyles are built is by Architectural Design. It is seen as a profession with the means to create better places, and it can even have a role in making a community liveable. 

The big influence architecture can have in terms of responsibility became even more apartment after listening to a lecture from an architect from the Netherlands, Peter van Assche who combined the concept of circular economy and architecture. I researched more about this topic and came to the conclusion that architecture is transforming its purpose and need in becoming more responsible. We hereby talk about the new role that architects need to adopt and taking responsibility for sustainable building in a social matter as an ecological matter. The term eco-house is already a recognised concept, where architects build eco-friendly and self-sustaining buildings for inhabitants. While many projects are working towards this ideal concept, much is still being developed and still until this date remains as an ideal. For example the Urban Farming House – EcoHouse by James Wines.

Responsible design is also already a term, which is also known as ‘design for good’ or ‘design for need’. It has become more popular over the years and it focuses on a more holistic and responsible approach since many global challenges are complex and interconnected. Responsible Architecture, or RE, has become a term from the EU in 2001 for Architectural Institutes. It is yet being developed as a discipline and has not undertaken a lot of research or practice yet. Regarding the responsibility aspect of architecture, the architects would have to work in a multidisciplinary field and tackle large-scale and interconnected challenges. Yet with this acknowledgement, tackling societal and environmental issues are difficult to grasp, due to ever-changing circumstances. Also due to this complexity, a foundation of multiple expertise must be formed, which may include scientists, engineers and sociologists apart from architectural designers. Examples of the upcoming key challenges are:

• Environmental friendly cities
• Affordability of housing 
• Environmental refugees
• Urban Space planning
• Food & water resource shortages

Still to this date architects have limited possibilities to take their own decisions into hand since they rely on contracts, which require them to meet the client’s needs within budget and on schedule. This often conflicts with human resource issues and implementation issues of circularity models and finances. Still, it is vital for an architect to be prepared to act in an international environment and to deal with the growing global challenges of climate change, resource management and social inequality. Today there is an urgent need for improvement of the moral and ethical standards in the global construction industry, and this must also involve the architect. 

Social Responsibility

Socially responsible design is not new to the design world. It can be traced back at least as far as the Industrial Revolution when designers and theorists such as William Morris and John Ruskin were responding to the various social conditions of the industrial workers they had witnessed.  Historians have recorded a number of socio-spatial alternatives that were developed in the 19th and early 20th centuries. 

Today there is not a strong theoretical orientation to socially responsible design. Rather it develops through trying to solve everyday problems or address local needs. Socially responsible design addresses social well-being and co-existence gaps and emphasizes on the cultural value and meaning of places. This takes democratic civic engagement into action and adopts visions of alternative socio-spatial futures. Today’s pace of migration increases the diversity in cities which causes challenges for urbanisation as well as its threat to planetary sustainability. One estimates that by 2050 there would be 2.5 billion urban inhabitants, which poses an integration challenge into cities.

We also need to take the way buildings are designed into consideration, and not only the finished product. This is also a field where not much research has been done yet and not much action has been taken to address the human rights of construction workers in terms of safety and income. There have been cases of major accidents during the construction of buildings, which have not been addressed in the right terms. For example, over 974 Indian and Nepalese migrant workers have died of sudden cardiac arrests ‘or an accident at work’ in Qatar since January 2010. The construction workers are usually from a lower class, and often have to face unsafe environments. The architects usually only have contact with the clients and contractors, and normally do not engage with the building sites.

Sustainable Responsibility

The building boom of the early 21st century has led to the important issue of responsible design in terms of sustainability and environmental friendliness. It is a breathtaking fact that one of the most wasteful industries is in fact the building industry. In New Zealand, the construction industry is known to be responsible for up to 50% of all waste produced. and in Germany 70% of the yearly waste comes from building and infrastructure productions. 

The use of the material in architecture is focused on the economic aspect of the construction. It has to lead to architects using materials in a classic linear way, where materials are not out of recycled material but newly manufactured materials, whether it may be steel, aluminium etc. There is still no reuse value in these materials as they do not suit the building codes and principles and usually are damaged in the removal processes, even though the materials may be adaptable and still very durable. It leads architects and building policies to adopt a circular economy approach, which also looks into waste management. 

Houses built partly underground (in order to reduce the impact on the landscape and improve insulation). Today more than ever,  human activities have a dominant influence on climate and the environment and we have arrived at a point where global warming is becoming a bigger reality as years go on.

Conclusion

The way we design today drifts from successful design to responsible design. Responsible design adopts more value, as it is now critical for the future development of cities to become more sustainable and inclusive when meaning to solve the current challenges. We need to recognise our responsibility to change and learn from already existing examples of architectural projects which adopt circular economy and socially responsible design. It is also necessary to add the principles of responsible design into practice and into the building industry to achieve solutions that are regenerative in nature. Architectural Design with responsibility in consideration can also eventually lead to a society that adapts the living standards in the most inclusive and environmentally friendly way. The challenge is yet to find a balance between market demands and environmental responsibility in architecture.

Sources:

Lecture by Peter Van Assche,Architecture & Circular Economy (2020), Retrieved 07.03.21 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BMb1xUSTYM&t=2035s

Urban Design Methods by Undine Giseke, Martina Löw, Angela Million, Philipp Misselwitz and Jörg Stollmann, 2017

James Wines, n.d., Retrieved 07.03.21 from https://baubible.ch/news/how-james-wines-drawings-changed-architecture/

Stadt der Zukunft by Friedrich von Borries, Benjamin Kasten, 2019

European Commission (EU) (2011). Corporate social responsibility: a new definition, a new agenda for action. Retrieved 03.04.21, from http://europa.eu/rapid/press- release_MEMO-11-730_en.htm 

Gunder, M. & Hillier, J. (2007). Problematising responsibility. Planning theory and practice: On seeing the middle of the string? Progress in Planning, 68(1), 57–96. doi: 10.1016/j.progress.2007.07.002 

Gunder, M. & Hillier, J. (2009). Planning in ten words or less: A Lacanian entanglement with spatial planning. New York, NY: Routledge.