David Pilling (photo by Jonathan Ring)
Super insulation. PV arrays and wind turbines. Ground-source heat pumps. LED lights and efficient appliances. These are the tools architects deploy to fight climate change.
What if, though, more and better buildings are not the answer? What if Smart Growth is wrong, and what we really need is de-growth?
A number of recent books have questioned our society’s fixation on Gross Domestic (GDP) and the corresponding fixation on endless economic growth. We have been led to believe that the economy is growing (an expansion, which is good) or not growing (a recession, which is bad).
One of the books questioning the dominance of GDP is David Pilling’s The Growth Delusion: Wealth, Poverty, and the Well-Being of Nations. A reporter from the Financial Times in London, Pilling approaches the subject from the lens of an economist, while recognizing the ecological impact of economic activity.
Long story short, an economic model based on endless growth is asinine, as the resources of the planet are finite.
As professionals, architects are contributing to the problem when we pretend otherwise, offering ersatz solutions for a problem that is fundamentally social and political.
(To be clear, we should design the best technological solutions possible, while recognizing the limitations of those solutions.)