Prelims

Half Title Page

Architects, Sustainability and the Climate Emergency

Endorsements

Living in and with Nature is the single challenge for humanity as climate change rapidly propels us down the path of ecocide and extinction. New visions of ecological sustainability demand that we, literally, build the future in a different way. For this, we need to listen to the voices of intellectual innovation, learn the wisdom of the ancients, and draw energy from those who see, judge, and act as global calamity unfolds. This fascinating book provides vital insights and critiques at the interfaces of architectural theory and practice, in the process elaborating a contemporary policy ecology of the built form. For anyone concerned about the climate emergency, it is essential reading.

Rob White Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Criminology, University of Tasmania, Australia

Title Page

Architects, Sustainability and the Climate Emergency: A Political Ecology

By

Peter Raisbeck

University of Melbourne, Australia

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2023

Copyright © 2023 Peter Raisbeck.

Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

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ISBN: 978-1-80382-292-1 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-80382-291-4 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-80382-293-8 (Epub)

Epigraph

They saw the great fire advancing from the Macumba Maka-Wimpa ‘fire track’ and they got out quickly, traveling to the south-east still looking for more of their own people.

–Luise Hercus. (2009). Murkarra, a landscape nearly forgotten: The Arabana country of the noxious insects, north and northwest of Lake Eyre. In A. L. Hercus & H. J. Koch (Eds.), Aboriginal placenames: Naming and re-naming the Australian landscape aboriginal history (p. 257). Monograph 19. ANU E Press and Aboriginal History Incorporated.

List of Figures

About the Author

Dr Peter Raisbeck is Associate Professor of Architectural Practice at the Melbourne School of Design University of Melbourne. At MSD he teaches Architectural Practice, Design Activism, and Contemporary Architectural Archives. His research spans the fields of architectural history and the sociology of architectural design and practice. His book, Architecture as a System: Scavengers, Tribes, Warlords and Megafirms, (2019) considers architecture as a global system in crisis. His coauthored book with Dr Christine Phillips, Robin Boyd: Late Works 1960–1971, (2020) is an extensive survey of the notable Australian architect Robin Boyd's public commissions prior to his death in 1971.

Foreword

When I began writing this book, megafires were burning on the Australian continent I live on, and as I finished writing parts of this book, the land has been inundated with catastrophic floods. In between these events, there has been a global pandemic. These framings of time suggest a finite beginning, middle, and ending to these catastrophic events. However, what has motivated my writing is the intuition that this climate chaos cannot be so easily framed with a chronological ending. All endings suggest we might look beyond to a better time. But I fear that the climate imaginaries conjured by architects, and described in what follows, presume a definitive end to such things – an end to the climate emergency. These imaginaries dictate an enchanted future Anthropocene where human life can go on as usual. Yet, as the climate emergency unfolds, we begin to sense that there are no more neat endings; chaos begets chaos. As described in this book, the magic of architects is an illusion that is even now contributing to future chaos.

Melbourne, March 2022.

Acknowledgments

This book has been written on the lands of the Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung peoples. I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of this land I have been writing on and pay my respect to their Elders and families past and present.

I would like to thank my wife, Victoria Conners, for her ongoing support through much laughter and the trials of six Melbourne lockdowns. Without this support, this book would not have been possible. I would also like to acknowledge the help of my children, Rachel Raisbeck and Raphael Raisbeck, whose laughter at my humor I will always treasure. Of course, I must also thank those I regard as part of my family, my Christmas day crew: Eric Conners, Carmel Conners, Sarah Conners, and Andrew McIlroy. And of course, Jennifer Klempfner and her partner Rob Larkins, Yolande and George Klempfner. And the amazing Judith Raisbeck as well as my sister Vicky Marney and my brother David Gibson.

Katy Mathers, and her team at Emerald, was also most patient and amazingly encouraging. At Melbourne School of Design, a particular thanks to Dr Kirsten Day for her support in both teaching and research.

At MSD, I would like to thank Julie Willis, Alan Pert, and Paul Walker for their continuing support. Melbourne School of Design is one of the world's great architectural and built environment scholarship centers. This is reflected in the text, where many of my colleagues are great scholars whose ideas have inspired and provoked my thought. Among others: Michele Acuto, Alexei Trundle, Margaret Grose, Robert Crawford, and of course the amazing Helene Frichot – too often I read your work and then forget to chat outside our building's café. My PhD students, Dr Sharon Shafer and Puneeta Thakur.

As the book proceeded, I continued to teach Architectural Practice at Melbourne School of Design, and I am most thankful to Rob Polglase and supporting me in my teaching. I must also thank the beautiful architects who teach in this subject for many conversations: Rebecca Naughtin, Joanna Sych, Redmond Hamlett, Melany Hayes Camilla Tierney, Rowan Brown, Christopher Hewson, Isabelle Legge, Sonia Sarangi, and the indefatigable Dr Norman Day.

I would also like to thank Greg Burgess for entrusting us with their Archive, which in many ways has helped me to think about the final chapters of this book – I hope the next book I write will be about this archive. I would also like to thank Andy Jackson, whose critical comments on my feeble efforts at poetry has helped me prose writing enormously.

I would also like to thank my support team of health professionals, including Dr Katrina Reardon, Dr Sarah Lee, Dr Martyn Delatycki, Dr Ralph Audehm, Isabelle Aubrey, Rebecca James, Sam Stinson, Amanda Spillare, and Julie Wilson at MND Victoria. Many of whom have enabled me to be highly productive in one way or another.

Gratitude to the other Producers, Noelle Jones and Tanya Spencer. Many friends must also be acknowledged through this journey: Karen Burns and Dean Cass, Tava Darakamaran, Tania Davidge, Michaela Prunotto, Rosanna Verde, Alica Brown and Tamsin Maclean, Christine Canters, Simona Castricum, Kate Tregloan, Amanda Davis and Simon O'Brien, Kirsten Day, John Ting, Peter Hogg, and Helen Slonek. The Hinses’ including Karen Hines, Lee Hines and my favorite Hines: Ellyse and Olivia Hines. Susan Diggs and Paul Almond. Rochus Hinkel, Yvette Putra, Christine Phillips, Sue Dance, and Jason Pickford. My discussions with Jason Pickford over the last 20 years concerning climate politics are the bedrock of this book.

As remarked in the acknowledgment to my previous book, often, there are pressures nowadays on academics to avoid the longer and solitary forms of scholarship. Without the assistance of the above people, this contribution to that genre would not have been possible.