Commentaries

The Data Politics of Tech Corporations

Have civil society and governments ceded too much power and influence to a few tech corporations? Why analysis of the smart city needs to include private sector data.

Dillon Mahmoudi (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) and Alan Wiig (University of Florida) comment on the contributions of the Buildings & Cities special issue Data Politics in the Built Environment. This commentary considers how tech corporates such as Amazon are changing urban life and creating new forms of automated surveillance.

Phronesis and Epistemic Justice in Data-Driven Built Environments

Why more just and democratic ways are needed for living in smart built environments.

Miguel Valdez (Open University) comments on the contributions of the Buildings & Cities special issue Data Politics in the Built Environment. This commentary considers an additional perspective and provides an additional foundation to support more progressive data politics in the built environment. The three Aristotelian virtues of ‘techne’, ‘episteme’ and ‘phronesis’ and epistemic justice provide suitable lenses to critique smart city politics.

COP28: Bridging Technical & Cultural Climate Solutions

Both technical advancements AND human- and nature-centred solutions of culture & heritage are needed.

Lori Ferriss (Architecture 2030) reflects on her attendance at COP28. Although COP28 included many wins for the built environment, it also marked a moment of missed opportunity to include valuable indigenous and heritage knowledge and culture-based climate solutions in the built environment agenda. Recommendations are made for improving policy pathways and the role of research.

The Debate around Low-Carbon Heating Systems

Will space heating use hydrogen or electric heat pumps? The solution may not be that simple.

Jon Saltmarsh (Energy Systems Catapult; previously at UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero) reflects on the polarised debate around how best to decarbonise homes in the UK. Lessons from the UK may have resonance for other nations in their own journey towards low carbon heating in homes.

Daylight: A Basic Human Right?

Daylight: A Basic Human Right?

The rationale and implications of ensuring adequate daylight provision are considered for designing cities and buildings.

The World Health Organization lists universal access to clean air, clean water, nutritious food and safe shelter as key components of public health, Lisa Heschong (author, architectural researcher & a fellow of the Illuminating Engineering Society), argues that access to ample daylight, both outdoors and indoors, should be added to that list. Evidence from many different scientific fields1 reveal that humans live healthier, happier, more productive lives with daily exposure to the natural patterns of sunlight.

The Gendered City

The Gendered City

Why urban spaces need to be reimagined from an intersectional perspective, incorporating the voices and experiences of women

Cities are hubs of economic activity and cultural vibrancy, however, urban growth policies and city governance that fail to consider gender and poverty have exacerbated socio-economic disparities, exclusion, and segregation. Nourhan Bassan (GamingX) discusses some of key themes from her forthcoming book “The Gendered City”. She argues that it is imperative to understand the historical context of urban design, to critically examine gender disparities in cities, and to advocate for women's rights in shaping and accessing urban spaces.

Climate Regulations for Buildings: International Policy Collaborations

by Matti Kuittinen (Aalto University & the Nordic authority group working for climate declarations for buildings 2020–2023)

For mitigating the built environment's large carbon footprint, regulation within the next 10 years is needed in all countries. The Nordic countries have been co-developing climate policies for buildings since 2018 and are already seeing the positive outcomes from joint efforts. COP28 can apply these principles and lessons elsewhere. To prevent duplication of effort in each country, international collaboration with climatically and culturally similar countries can be beneficial.

COP28: Set GHG Budgets for the Built Environment

By Alexander Passer, Thomas Lützkendorf, Rolf Frischknecht (representing IEA EBC Annex 89)

The built environment contributes 40% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, is massively affected by the consequences of climate change and can itself be part of the solution. It is a cause, a victim and a solution at the same time and therefore urgently requires actions by COP28 and national governments. A specific GHG budget for national building stocks including a clearly defined reduction pathway towards net zero GHG emissions is needed, in parallel with a legal binding requirement to limit GHG emissions in the life cycle of individual buildings.

From COP28 to SDGs: Bridging the Gender Gaps

By Rihab Khalid (University of Cambridge)

COP28 must create transformative change to ensure gender equality and align with the framework of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Gender equality, a cornerstone of this agenda, holds a critical lens to examine and address the intersecting crises of climate change and social inequity. Climate change has differential impacts on men and women, with the latter often bearing the disproportionate burden of climate-related impacts and vulnerabilities. Although women play a critical and transformative role in both climate adaptation and mitigation, they continue to face substantial challenges and disparities in terms of sustainable development.

Planning Toolkits for Gender-Sensitive Cities

Specialist toolkits can help the built environment professions to design urban spaces with gender equality

In the past, planning and design decisions have resulted in creating places that make the lives of women harder than men. Karen Horwood and Charlotte Morphet (Leeds Beckett University) discuss the use of toolkits that address gender equality in town planning.  They propose that toolkits could help to achieve change and inclusivity in processes across all the built environment professions.

Towards a Gender-Inclusive Urban Future

Cities are beginning to address gender inequality and successful examples show what can be achieved

Jua Cilliers (University of Technology Sydney & the Commonwealth Association of Planners) explores how addressing gender disparities can create cities that are inclusive, safe and functional for all their inhabitants. Gender inequity intersects with access, mobility, safety, health, climate resilience and security of tenure. Women and other marginalized gender groups face barriers in accessing public services, navigating through cities and staying safe.

Can Modern Cities Learn from the Collapse of Pre-Modern Cities?

Is managed retreat or abandonment an appropriate alternative if investment in building resilience is no longer possible?

When thinking about the future of our cities in the context of the ongoing climate crisis, what insights arise from the collapse and abandonment of pre-modern cities?  Dan Penny (University of Sydney) considers what lessons these historical events have for modern societies, for our policies and planning.

Building Lessons from the Vernacular Past

Why lessons from vernacular buildings need to be rediscovered and transferred into better practice.

Robyn Pender (Whethergauge Ltd) argues that to reduce our dependence on energy to deliver resilient, comfortable and healthy buildings, we must recover vernacular knowledge of ‘pre-carbon’ buildings, i.e. buildings that existed before widespread fossil fuel exploitation.

Designing Cities with and for Girls

Involving women in urban development processes and decisions will make cities better for everyone.

Elin Andersdotter Fabre (UN Habitat) and Tove Levonen (Shared City Foundation) explain why cities need to be more inclusive for women. The UN Habitat ‘Her City’ project provides a participatory toolkit and process to include women in urban planning, design and development.

Disrupting Narratives to Challenge Inequalities in Climate Adaptation

A forthcoming Buildings & Cities special issue will examine ways to identify and disrupt ill-suited approaches to urban adaptation. Societies need a more pluralistic, inclusive approach to make adaptation work.

Urgent climate adaptation action is needed in cities all around the world, but progress is slow, and responses tend to be technocratic. Vanesa Castán Broto (University of Sheffield), Marta Olazabal (Basque Centre for Climate Change & Ikerbasque) & Gina Ziervogel (University of Cape Town) explain why disruptive adaptation narratives are needed to align the interests of multiple actors and achieve meaningful change.

Using Procurement to Promote Workforce Diversity

Government legislation and procurement are being used to influence the private sector's diversity and equality practices.

Tessa Wright (Queen Mary University of London) describes how public procurement can be used to create a more diverse construction workforce. Initial findings from a Buying Social Justice research project help explain how countries can improve the diversity of their construction industries.

Governments' Role in Providing Thermal Adequacy

How can governments advance adaptive solutions for keeping cool during hot weather?

Brian Dean and Elizabeth Wangeci Chege (Sustainable Energy for All) respond to the Buildings & Cities special issue Alternatives to Air Conditioning and explain why thermal comfort is not only a construction industry problem to solve but needs to be placed in the policy agenda on global warming. Thermal adequacy is still not understood as an essential need for human survival and that governments have an essential role.

Developing an Intersectional Approach to Emerging Energy Technologies in Homes

What would an energy transition research agenda embracing intersectionality, equality and equity look like?

Tom Hargreaves and Nickhil Sharma (University of East Anglia) comment on contributions of the Buildings & Cities special issue Energy, Emerging Technology and Gender in Homes on the role of gender in technology development and the energy transition. This must be broadened further to social justice issues. A failure to do so risks fuelling resistance and pushback to new and emerging energy technologies. Three key avenues for future research and practices for a just energy transition and emerging technologies are set out.

Practical Approaches to Cooling: A UK Perspective

Reducing the need for air conditioning is necessary and feasible. Passive measures for cooling are advantageous.

Julie Godefroy (CIBSE and Julie Godefroy Sustainability) and Anastasia Mylona (CIBSE) respond to the Buildings & Cities special issue 'Alternatives to Air Conditioning: Policies, Design, Technologies, Behaviours'. Proactive options already exist to adapt buildings to hotter summers and extreme events. A balanced approach to risk, complexity and detail is called for.

Collapse and Catastrophe: The Need to Protect Inhabitants

Radical changes are needed in how the construction industry operates and is regulated in order to create safe, healthy homes.

In light of the recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, David Oswald and Trivess Moore (RMIT University) reflect on the rights that inhabitants have for buildings to be safe, healthy, comfortable and robust. However, serial and various failings in the construction supply side and its oversight by governments mean greater accountability is needed.

Latest Peer-Reviewed Journal Content

Journal Content

Suburban climate adaptation governance: assumptions and imaginaries affecting peripheral municipalities
L Cerrada Morato

Urban shrinkage as a catalyst for transformative adaptation
L Mabon, M Sato & N Mabon

Maintaining a city against nature: climate adaptation in Beira
J Schubert

Ventilation regulations and occupant practices: undetectable pollution and invisible extraction
J Few, M Shipworth & C Elwell

Nature for resilience reconfigured: global- to-local translation of frames in Africa
K Rochell, H Bulkeley & H Runhaar

How hegemonic discourses of sustainability influence urban climate action
V Castán Broto, L Westman & P Huang

Fabric first: is it still the right approach?
N Eyre, T Fawcett, M Topouzi, G Killip, T Oreszczyn, K Jenkinson & J Rosenow

Gender and the heat pump transition
J Crawley, F Wade & M de Wilde

Social value of the built environment [editorial]
F Samuel & K Watson

Understanding demolition [editorial]
S Huuhka

Data politics in the built environment [editorial]
A Karvonen & T Hargreaves

European building passports: developments, challenges and future roles
M Buchholz & T Lützkendorf

Decision-support for selecting demolition waste management strategies
M van den Berg, L Hulsbeek & H Voordijk

Assessing social value in housing design: contributions of the capability approach
J-C Dissart & L Ricaurte

Electricity consumption in commercial buildings during Covid-19
G P Duggan, P Bauleo, M Authier, P A Aloise-Young, J Care & D Zimmerle

Disruptive data: historicising the platformisation of Dublin’s taxi industry
J White & S Larsson

Impact of 2050 tree shading strategies on building cooling demands
A Czekajlo, J Alva, J Szeto, C Girling & R Kellett

Social values and social infrastructures: a multi-perspective approach to place
A Legeby & C Pech

Resilience of racialized segregation is an ecological factor: Baltimore case study
S T A Pickett, J M Grove, C G Boone & G L Buckley

See all

Latest Commentaries

Amazon Prime trailers lined up outside an Amazon Fulfillment Centre in Baltimore, US. Image: © Google Maps 2023. Data from AirbusData SIO, NOAA, U.S. Navy, NGA, GEBCO.

Dillon Mahmoudi (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) and Alan Wiig (University of Florida) comment on the contributions of the Buildings & Cities special issue Data Politics in the Built Environment. This commentary considers how tech corporates such as Amazon are changing urban life and creating new forms of automated surveillance.

Phronesis and Epistemic Justice in Data-Driven Built Environments

Miguel Valdez (Open University) comments on the contributions of the Buildings & Cities special issue Data Politics in the Built Environment. This commentary considers an additional perspective and provides an additional foundation to support more progressive data politics in the built environment. The three Aristotelian virtues of ‘techne’, ‘episteme’ and ‘phronesis’ and epistemic justice provide suitable lenses to critique smart city politics.

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