Viewpoints

3 Building Industry Takeaways from the UN Climate Change Conference

The built environment was a key focus at COP28, the world’s largest event dedicated to mobilizing against climate change.

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5 Must-Read Articles for Earth Day 2021

Metropolis contributors put forward thought-provoking perspectives for a new era of climate-conscious design.

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Fresh Perspectives on Air, Water, and Carbon from Metropolis‘s 2020 Sustainability Issue

From HVAC to interior renovations, the November/December 2020 issue of Metropolis suggests meaningful areas of action for architects and designers.

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Why Interior Designers Must Fight Climate Change

New studies show that interior designers can have a much bigger impact on climate change than they ever imagined.

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A City’s Surface Reflects Its Inequities

With the multiplying risks of urban heat and the pandemic, a city's streets and sidewalks tend to highlight vulnerabilities in urban communities.

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Design Before Air Conditioning Surveys Early Experiments in Climate Control

In a new book, Daniel A. Barber details a climate-focused account of Modernism, one defined by increasingly blunt measures used to combat heat and humidity.

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Architects and Designers Urge Action on Healthier Policy Priorities

Three recent initiatives outline how experts in the built environment are advocating for policy changes for public health and climate change.

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Low Cost, High Impact: The Drawdown Review Suggests That Architects Move Toward Scalable Climate Solutions

Climate change expert Jesse M. Keenan analyzes the The Drawdown Review's recommendations for architects and designers.

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Brooklyn Museum Presents a “Hemispheric” Survey of Indigenous Responses to Climate Change

Climate in Crisis: Environmental Change in the Indigenous Americas explores how global warming has affected the visual culture of indigenous communities.

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Long-Term Plans: To Build for Resilience, We’ll Need to Design With—Not Against—Nature

Moving away from its early exclusive focus on natural disasters, resilient architecture and design tackles the much tougher challenge of helping ecosystems regenerate.

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Why the Building Sector May Be Humanity’s Best Hope for Averting Catastrophic Climate Change

Architects have enormous sway in specifying building materials and modes of operation; they also understand the political, budget, and client-education barriers to executing zero-carbon designs better than anyone.

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5 Leading Experts and Advocates on How Architects Can Fight Climate Change

Metropolis speaks with Michael Sorkin, The Architecture Lobby, Kate Orff, Jesse M. Keenan, and Tom Jacobs on the Green New Deal, Architecture 2030, political activism, and more.

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Can We Build a Safer World? Bill Gates and the World Bank Call for More Rapid Climate Adaptation

The Gates Foundation, the World Bank, and other global development influencers launch a Commission to address ecological disasters already at hand.

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This Book Imagines How Cities Let Humanity Survive Cataclysmic Climate Change

2100: A Dystopian Utopia, written by architect Vanessa Keith and her firm StudioTEKA Design, depicts a world where humanity has dramatically adapted to risen seas and extreme weather.

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“Resiliency” Has Lost Its Meaning: Why We Need a More Radical Approach

Sometimes it’s better to adapt and retreat before the waters rise again.

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Kate Orff on Her New Project in Israel, What’s in Store for the Venice Biennale, and Activism in Landscape Architecture

Orff's New York practice SCAPE develops broad-based coalitions that can advocate for the firm's projects.

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Studio Roosegaarde’s Sublime “Waterlicht” Installation is Coming to Madrid

"Waterlicht," a "dream landscape about the power and poetry of water," is also an ominous warning of sea level rise.