Commentaries

The Case for Relational Research

Challenges ahead: why relational research is vital for society and reduces dysfunction and disaster

Sarah Darby (University of Oxford) reflects on relationality and why it matters, urgently. This is based on insights from two events from the same day, in September 2024. One was a family rite of passage; the other, publication of a report into the causes of a wholly avoidable disaster, the destruction by fire of a block of social housing. The case for researchers working with practitioners and developing a common language has never been stronger.

Bridging the Climate Change Research and Education Gap

Challenges ahead: the curriculum in many US built environment courses needs to change

Jesse M. Keenan (Tulane University) comments on the growing disconnect between climate change research and education in the built environment in the United States. Changes to the curriculum and pedagogy have been slow and students lack appropriate knowledge and skills in several key areas for both mitigation and adaptation. The launch of the Climate Syllabus Bank and the Tulane Prize in Climate Change Curriculum in the Built Environment by the Center on Climate Change and Urbanism at Tulane University are steps intended to foster the needed changes to the delivery of a curriculum for built environment students that integrates climate issues.

Net-Zero Requires Improved Collaboration between Researchers and Policymakers

Message to COP29: more effective collaboration is essential

The GHG emissions reduction efforts of governments, industries and societies continue to fall short of what is needed. Responsible researchers recognise the critical role of the built environment  to meet this challenge and  the consequences  of climate change. We need to partner with those at the forefront of decision making affecting the building, construction and real estate sector. Interdisciplinary research and transdisciplinary innovation are needed more than ever to support the decision making and practical action of every stakeholder in the sector, especially those shaping the policy landscape.

When is Demolition Justified?

Demolition has far-reaching consequences for people, nature and the climate. When is demolition and rebuilding appropriate?

Colin Rose (University College London) reflects on the recent Buildings & Cities special issue 'Understanding Demolition'. The answer depends on better understandings of the circumstances for demolition versus refurbishment.  A more transparent, public approach is needed that involves wider environmental, social and cultural costs and benefits.

Populist Dissent and Digital Urbanism

How should the research community engage with populist narratives that undermine social justice?

Robert Cowley (King's College London) reflects the Buildings & Cities special issue Data Politics in the Built Environment and considers a contemporary form of resistance to datafication: the (right-wing) populist, and often conspiratorial, rejection of digital technologies as instruments of oppression. Populism has a potential to distort public discourse and undermine the hopes for progressive alternative approaches. How might built environment academics shape more informed and balanced debates? Social justice will be better served if critical perspectives are supplemented by work that counters the misplaced fears about emerging digital urban technologies.

Why Convergence Research is Needed

Challenges ahead: addressing the complex issues of building performance, public safety, climate change and socio-ecological value

Several systemic failures have occurred across multiple aspects of the built environment in many parts of the world. Brian Meacham (Crux Consulting) explores what can be done to improve this situation. A need to reframe buildings and the built environment as a socio-ecological-technical system means applying systemic thinking and integration across disciplinary boundaries in research, design, construction and regulation.

A Practitioner's Introduction to LCA Databases: EPiC and ICE

By Amalka Nawarathna, Ghada Karaki, Francisco Sierra, Alireza Moghayedi & Alice Moncaster (all at University of the West of England)

This short comparative review of two construction material databases explains their potential use for assessing embodied carbon to designers and practitioners not yet expert in the field. It introduces and examines the Australian Environmental Performance in Construction (EPiC) database (updated in 2024) and the UK Inventory of Carbon and Energy (ICE) which was significantly updated in 2019.

Community-based Monitoring of Urban Environmental Data

Looking forward: citizen science is changing the research landscape

Environmental data measured by the general public on their immediate local surroundings are providing new sources of fine-grained data in cities. Jonathon Taylor, Anna-Kaisa Viitanen & Alonso Espinosa (Tampere University) explain how this recent phenomenon can lead to a richer understanding of urban form, microclimates and environmental exposures.

Why Research Must Now Prioritise Inhabitants

Challenges ahead: understanding and protecting the end-users of the built environment

The recent flammable cladding crisis has highlighted that inhabitants are not receiving the attention they deserve for better outcomes. Trivess Moore and David Oswald (both at RMIT University) explain why the research community needs to create a research agenda that focuses on the end-users of the built environment: their health, wellbeing, social value and lifestyle needs as well as the avoidance of risks, defects, natural hazards and stranded assets. This will give researchers greater influence on policy, practice and outcomes.

Construction Management Research: The Challenge of Consequences

Challenges ahead: why research must focus on potential problematic consequences and provide proactive built-in fail-safes

Everything has consequences. Indeed, a fundamental goal of much construction management (CM) research is precisely to create consequences and bring about positive change. However, exactly how such consequences will manifest is not always predictable, which also makes them highly challenging. Fred Sherratt (University of Colorado, Boulder) explains why CM research needs to shift its focus from questions of 'if we can' to 'if we should' in order to embrace consequential consideration.

Designing Beyond Climate Change

Challenges ahead: sustainable design is much more than addressing climate change

Humanity is changing the Earth's climate quickly and substantially. Huge impacts are now evident on the weather, oceans, ecosystems and certainly on buildings and cities. So much remains to be done around the world to reshape our infrastructure for the ongoing and coming impacts from human-caused climate change. Ilan Kelman (University College London) explains why the challenge is doing so without losing sight of other minor and major dangers.

Future Urban Research: Focus on the Commons

Challenges ahead: framing urban research as a commons activity and as a research agenda

The focus of urban research has shifted in recent years.While the traditional focus was on aspects of urban provision (e.g. mass transit, housing, other infrastructure), the recent emphasis has shifted to the 'end goals' of urbanisation - e.g. sustainability, resilience, well-being, etc. In all these, a constant underlying theme has been the emphasis on creating and managing places. Rohinton Emmanuel (Glasgow Caledonian University) explains why future research needs to focus on the urban commons.

Research in a Rapidly Changing and Increasingly Uncertain World

Challenges ahead: how the conduct of research needs to change

How might the conduct of research need to change in the future? What are the lessons for built environment research from the Covid pandemic? Raymond J Cole (University of British Columbia) considers whether and why knowledge production outside the purview of disciplinary-based research is increasing needed. Addressing rapid change and the complex multi-faceted consequences of a warming climate will challenge existing research methodologies and is likely to require increased interdisciplinarity. New ways of working will also require overcoming organisational barriers and a deeper understanding of the needs of decisionmakers.

Disruptive Technologies and the Regulator's Dilemma

Why regulatory interfaces should be re-opened and re-experimentalised to produce more socially just data-driven cities.

Andrea Pollio (Polytechnic of Turin and University of Cape Town) comments on a paper in the Buildings & Cities special issue Data Politics in the Built Environment: 'Disruptive data: historicising the platformisation of Dublin's taxi industry'. This commentary considers the broader political economy logics that underlie the datafication of cities. There is an important (often missing) role for the state to have an active role in creating planning, regulation and state entrepreneurialism in relation to the private sector.

Assessing Political Manifestos for Climate Change

A new process for evaluating political parties' manifestos for climate mitigation

Many voters in many countries accept that climate change is more important and more urgent than other political drivers - yet governments all around the world have consistently failed to act forcefully and quickly enough to turn the tide. The imminent elections could be an opportunity to change this - but only if voters have the information they need to rank political parties coherently with regard to climate-change policies. Jason Palmer (Cambridge Architectural Research Ltd, Cambridge Energy, University College London) describes a process for assessing political parties' manifestos for action on climate mitigation.

Decolonialising Urban Planning

Applying lessons from indigenous urban planning can make Nigerian cities more sustainable

Mokọ́ládé Johnson (University of Lagos) explains why Nigerian cities have lost their vernacular approaches to urban planning and the resulting negative impacts that arise. Could former indigenous urban design principles be adapted to inform contemporary urban planning practices?

Climate Resilient Vernacular Architecture in Turkey

Lessons on how vernacular design is informed by the local climate.

One of the characteristics of vernacular architecture is that it is a process involving continuous adaptation as a response to social and environmental constraints (ICOMOS 1999).  C. Irem Gencer (Yıldız Technical University) considers how modern architecture in Turkey can embrace principles from vernacular designs to become more climate resilient.

Stone: An Ecological Construction Material

Could stone help to lower the ecological footprint of buildings?

Summarising a recent research paper, Timothée de Toldi (Bouygues Immobilier SAS) makes a case for the increased use of stone as a building material. In the transition to a low-carbon economy, stone has attractive qualities in terms of durability, low embodied energy, a robust life cycle assessment, and can assist with passive cooling thereby lessening the need for operational energy.

Time to Question Demolition!

Demolition has far-reaching consequences for people, nature and the climate. What can be done to slow its rate?

André Thomsen (Delft University of Technology) comments on the recent Buildings & Cities special issue 'Understanding Demolition' and explains why this phenomenon is only beginning to be understood more fully as a social and behavioural set of issues. Do we need an epidemiology of different demolition rates?

Where are Women of Colour in Urban Planning?

Why urban planning needs to become more diverse and inclusive.

Safaa Charafi asks: is it possible to decolonialise the planning profession to create more inclusive and egalitarian urban settings? It is widely accepted that cities are built by men for other men. This male domination in urban planning results in cities that often do not adequately address challenges encountered by women or ethnic and social minorities. Although efforts are being taken to include women in urban planning, women of colour are still under-represented in many countries, resulting in cities that often overlook their needs.