Commentaries

Artificial Intelligence and Decarbonisation

How building research can harness AI for mass decarbonisation

Ten years ago, it was rare to read building science papers referencing learning algorithms, sensor networks, cloud computing or digital twins. Now, data-driven techniques are at the core of building decarbonisation research, generating both new opportunities and new risks. Jenn McArthur (Toronto Metropolitan University) reflects on how the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming building decarbonisation research.

Cities-Scale Research to Address Climate Change

Understanding the interactions between urban form, outdoor and indoor spaces, and local climate requIres interdisciplinary interaction

Gerald Mills (University College Dublin) considers the big challenges for cities amid global climate change (GCC) and discusses the need for an inter-disciplinary approach among urban climate sciences to overcome obstacles. A distinction is made between global climate science, which focusses on Earth-scale outcomes, and urban climate science, which refers to processes and impacts at city-scales, including buildings, streets and neighbourhoods.

Climate Change, Overshoot and the Demise of Large Cities

Why large cities will need to contract or be abandoned altogether

William E. Rees (University of British Columbia) explains why urbanisation has been a significant contributor to ecological overshoot (when human consumption and waste generation exceeds the regenerative capacity of supporting ecosystems) and climate change.¹ Civil society needs to begin designing a truly viable future involving a 'Plan B' for orderly local degrowth of large cities.

The Sixth Industrial Revolution Should be Ecological

Why the next industrial revolution needs to be based on nature and not "technology"

Over the past 50 years the world has seen countless summits and agreements to reduce carbon emissions and prevent ecological overshoot. We have seen widespread adoption of the SDGs, a rapid shift to renewable energy, and numerous urban planning strategies to create biodiversity corridors, rewild rivers, and enable public and non-motorised transport options. However, appearances are deceiving. Chrisna du Plessis (University of Pretoria) considers the challenge of how to foster an ecological civilization in a world obsessed with technological innovation.

Harnessing Design Research to Encourage Alternative Futures

Both research and practice have a key role in developing positive, shared visions for the built environment

Doina Petrescu (University of Sheffield) explains how design research and architectural practice can respond to multiple crises (resource depletion, overconsumption, climate change, biodiversity loss, etc). By developing new shared visions of how to live it is possible to create a future built environment that is just and equitable.

Systems Thinking is Needed to Achieve Sustainable Cities

Why a just transition to sustainable cities depends on quality, affordable housing

As city populations grow, a critical current and future challenge for urban researchers is to provide compelling evidence of the medium- and long-term co-benefits of quality, low-carbon affordable housing and compact urban design. Philippa Howden-Chapman (University of Otago) and Ralph Chapman (Victoria University of Wellington) explain why systems-based, transition-oriented research on housing and associated systemic benefits is needed now more than ever.

Unmaking Cities Can Catalyse Sustainable Transformations

Why urban innovation is not enough to create sustainable cities

Andrew Karvonen (Lund University) explains why innovation has limitations for achieving systemic change. What is also needed is a process of unmaking (i.e. phasing out existing harmful technologies, processes and practices) whilst ensuring inequalities, vulnerabilities and economic hazards are avoided. Researchers have an important role to identify what needs dismantling, identify advantageous and negative impacts and work with stakeholders and local governments.

Is Gentrification a Crime?

The destruction of cultural heritage is a war crime. Should peacetime destruction or displacement be a crime too?

Civil society is understandably horrified by catastrophic loss of cultural, societal and historically important architecture and communities during wartime. But when this happens more piecemeal or by less visibly aggressive means in peacetime, we seem able to ignore it, even where it occurs at scale. Ian Cooper argues that greater protection needs to be provided to built environment and to the people who live there to avoid their displacement.

Overcoming Regime Resistance to the Circularity Transition

Observations from 15 years of built environment reuse research about how change occurs

Satu Huuhka (Tampere University) reflects on why the needed changes in practice are often slow and difficult in the building sector even when proved beneficial. Overcoming this inertia and accelerating widespread change requires a coordinated multi-level approach. The research agenda must not only be to produce new technology and practices but also to facilitate its uptake. This calls for understanding and addressing societal structures and collective behaviours: regulation and policy, market and industry structures and infrastructures, as well as education and culture.

Rethinking Energy Research in the Global South

Partnering with NGOs and integrating local knowledge can enable researchers to develop effective and context-specific solutions

In rapidly urbanising countries across the Global South, the demand for more adequate housing and sustainable energy solutions has never been more urgent. Minna Sunikka-Blank (University of Cambridge) explains why new partnerships and local knowledge integration of research in the Global South are needed. Specifically, there is a need for non-traditional partners to engage in research, such as non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Mainstreaming Research Agendas from Global South Countries

Why research funders, institutions and academics need to frame research agendas that are locally responsive

Samuel Laryea (University of the Witwatersrand) considers the contribution of researchers in developing countries to the discourse in Q1 journals. Common themes are evident in both developed and developing regions. However, publications from African countries appear to only partially address prevalent issues in the region, with limited publications that explore local contexts.

COP29: Flop for Climate, Recognition of the Built Environment

Highlights from the 2024 COP29 conference in Baku

Matti Kuittinen (Aalto University) reflects on the UN's 29th Climate COP, leaving a sense of disappointment and frustration among delegates and observers. The event yielded a commitment of only $0.3 trillion for climate funding, falling drastically short of the $1.3 trillion requested by developing nations. COP29 saw the broader recognition of the role of the built environment - including the launch of the International Council for Buildings and Climate (ICBC).

Addressing Building Failures in Flat Developments

Why developers and professionals need to take more responsibility.

The discovery, after the Grenfell Tower fire disaster in 2017, that hundreds of blocks of flats in the UK  had been clad in flammable cladding raises serious questions about the competency of the developers of flats and the legal and regulatory environment in which they operate. Bernard Rimmer (formerly a director of engineering companies and also University of Reading) explains the conditions that allowed developers to create unsafe buildings, and proposals are made to require developers to design and construct to higher standards and to take full responsibility for the safety, durability and performance of the buildings they produce.

5th Anniversary Essays

It's B&C's 5th year of publication. Celebrate with us by reading these thought-provoking essays.

These commissioned essays from Buildings & Cities' authors and readers explore how the research landscape is changing. New essays are continuously being added to the collection during 2024 as part of B&C's anniversary.

Collectively, these essays offer fresh insights into the processes and issues that are currently inadequate or missing in the built environment research landscape. A wide perspective from different disciplines and geographies creates a positive, collective vision for shaping the research agenda. Recommendations are made for what needs to change.

We hope this will provoke and inspire research funders, researchers and other stakeholders to discuss, reflect and act. Ideas range from systemic change to key research questions to improving engagement to change of focus.

The Challenges of Evidence-Based Design

Challenges ahead: why urban planning and urban design need robust quantitative evidence for decision making.

While some progress has been made, particularly in areas like healing architecture where the impact of design on human well-being is more directly observable, much work remains to be done to extend evidence-based design to broader fields of architecture, urban planning and design. Meta Berghauser Pont (Chalmers University of Technology) explains the challenges and pathways needed for a shift toward evidence-based design in urban planning and urban design.

Rethinking Construction Product Regulations

Challenges ahead: why robust research and education can help drive the necessary changes in regulating construction products to meet society's demands

Mustafa Selçuk Çıdık (University College London) considers the crucial role that research and higher education need to play in generating evidence and knowledge to shape the complex landscape of construction product regulations, particularly in relation to innovation, safety and performance. Independent, robust research and clear guidance are needed to ensure public safety, technological progress and sustainability. In addition, higher education must prepare future professionals to work within, and critically challenge, these regulatory frameworks.

Integrating Feedback into Research and Practice

Challenges ahead: collecting, managing, integrating and sharing comprehensible findings on actual performance from cradle to grave

Adrian Leaman (Usable Buildings) reflects on the Probe research project, drawing lessons for the architectural and building research challenges ahead. He advocates practice-based, real-world, case-study research with a positive commitment of all concerned to qualitative improvement for the public and private good using a more engaged professional support system. 

A World in Emergency and Emergence

Challenges ahead: how the recent past is shaping the research agenda

Over the last five years, the word 'emergency' has been a recurrent term in different domains of human culture and activities. However, this is more than a grim picture on the many critical issues that our societies nowadays need to face. Sergio Altomonte (Université catholique de Louvain) offers a positive interpretation of this state of 'emergency', moving forward from its common understanding as 'an unexpected and difficult or dangerous situation […] which requires quick action.'

Overhaul the Building Regulations: The Role of Research

Challenges ahead: research has a role to protect the public interest and inhabitants

Susan Roaf (Heriot-Watt University) explains why the building regulatory system is not fit for purpose. Regulations fail to protect the safety, well-being and financial health of inhabitants from both regular occurrences and extreme events. Evidence from research about the safety and performance of buildings needs to form the basis for new regulations.

Creating Circular Built Environments

Challenges ahead: Making the UN's Building Breakthrough a reality

Usha Iyer-Raniga (RMIT University) explains why a systemic and systematic approach is urgently needed to put the built environment on the right path to decarbonization, whilst recognizing countries are at different levels of progress. The UN's Building Breakthrough agenda for a whole life cycle approach to the built environment and decarbonization is a game changer. This can place buildings and construction in a critical pathway towards decarbonisation and align with the long-term impact of decisions made today.