Will decarbonising buildings be enough? Constrain and redistribute growth in floor area

Abstract

While decarbonising the built environment is a dominant strategy in tackling climate change, centred on renewable energies and energy efficiency, it overlooks the role played by growth in built floor area in overconsumption of material and other natural resources. Shifting our frame of reference enables us to view this as the root cause of not only climate change, but also the destruction of biodiversity and increased global inequity. Recent recognition of embodied carbon has led to increased attention to ways of reducing and redistributing growth in global floor area – for both new builds and renovations – based upon carbon budgets with floor area projections and allocations for various building typologies. In reviewing growth projections, and employing creative systems thinking and ‘innovability’, the essay introduces the role of ‘sufficiency’ in avoiding, reducing and prioritising demand in the built environment, coupled with novel ways of meeting service needs enabled by digitalisation. While such a transformative change may dramatically reduce carbon consumption, biodiversity loss and global inequity, it also poses major challenges and opportunities for architects, designers and other industry stakeholders. Article info Received: 31/01/2024; Revised: 18/03/2024; Accepted: 13/04/2024

Keywords

• climate emergency
• sufficiency
• overconsumption of resources
• inequality
• innovability