Climate-conscious architects in the United Kingdom are speaking out against British architect Norman Foster as efforts to have architects disengage from air transport projects intensify.
Last week, Archinect reported news of a high profile airport commission taken on by Foster + Partners for a privatized luxury resort in Saudi Arabia. News of the firm's latest airport project, there are over a dozen listed on the firm's website, was met by climate activists with derision, however.
In a recently published blog post, the Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN), one of the main backers behind the Architects Declare movement, calls out Foster's ongoing engagement with airport projects as part of a larger effort geared toward forcing signatories of the Architects Declare pledge, of which Foster + Partners is one, to adhere to the commitments of the agreement. Among a lengthy list of climate commitments signatories make in taking up the pledge is the notion that they "evaluate all new projects against the aspiration to contribute positively to mitigating climate breakdown, and encourage our clients to adopt this approach," a metric that airport projects are unlikely to adhere to due to their carbon-intensive nature. Many in the climate activism community are calling for a complete halt to work on carbon-intensive projects, including airports, highway expansions, and other similar efforts.
The ACAN blog post states that "the ACAN co-ordinators were alarmed at the practice’s continued participation in the expansion of an industry reliant on the extraction and burning of fossil fuels – seemingly in direct contravention of their commitments as an Architects Declare signatory."
The Architect's Journal reports that a recent internal ACAN survey found wide support within the organization for drawing a "red line" with regards to airport projects.
The blog post continues, "Our immediate action will be to write an open letter to Foster + Partners to express ACAN’s position and concerns with this project and the practice’s continuing involvement in aviation expansion […] we will look at options for how we can best begin to advocate for no further aviation expansion industry by UK architecture practices, and aviation expansion in the UK in general."
9 Comments
If they don't want it (one of the greener firms) I'll take it!
"Draws Heat" for a project in Saudi - lol
"Our approach
Sustainability is at the heart of everything we undertake. We audit all projects against global standards, while developing bespoke strategies that drive our environmental agenda. To build sustainably requires us to design holistically, and our unique integrated design approach enables us to develop innovative strategies that have a firm focus on the future of the environment." source: foster and partners
Not to mention the Saudi treatment of dissidents, gays, women, and...they have slaves there, slaves being traded in slave markets in 2020...https://www.bbc.com/news/techn...
The Foster organization really has no ethics. And perhaps they never had any. All of their sustainability claims are greenwash for their true mission of servicing the wealthy and powerful clients that Norman Foster seems to crave.
probably ACAN would sing a different tune if they were in an area that has no airport
Antarctica is nowhere near an airport. Dunno what the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names has to do with it, though.
Once again you didn't even bother to read the article when replying to a post Petey.
ACAN = idiocy; typical do-gooder crap deliberately designed to destroy; slogans substituting for sense; if I do not accept the commission, how can I possibly effect the outcomes? — or pay my people their incomes? Architecture always makes the environment better if we did not have to deal with mobs brandishing slogans (ACAN) or rules substituting for reason (zoning)....T H I M K ! ... duh....
Yeah. THIMK!
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