Seniors Housing & Healthcare Trends

NEW YORK: Self-righteous architects with grandiose views have taken it upon themselves to preach to boomers from their blinkered pulpit.

Architects have called for action on climate change as their number one priority in the Federal election, and for homeowners to stop building oversized homes.

An Australian Institute of Architects survey of members shows nearly three quarters (72 per cent) cite climate change as an absolutely critical issue and 13.5 per cent said it was quite important.

AIA WA president Sandy Anghie said political parties need to accelerate the transition to a net zero economy, while homeowners — responsible for about a fifth of global emissions — had to take greater personal responsibility for their carbon footprint.

A 2020 UN global status report shows 28 per cent of emissions come from the operation of buildings, including 17 per cent that directly and indirectly come from the operation of residential homes.

A further ten per cent of global emissions come from the construction of residential and commercial buildings.

“With the built environment accounting for 38 per cent of global emissions, if we fix this sector, we are over a third of the way there,” she said.

Ms Anghie said many people were unnecessarily building homes to the fence line, knocking down trees and destroying all green spaces, while insisting on the inclusion of unnecessary rooms and ignoring basic sustainable design principles. She said all of these matters contributed to operating emissions.

A gathering of architects was told a recent example of the prevailing mindset included a couple of empty-nesters who built a five storey river-side home, about 12 times the size of the average home, just for themselves to live in.

Leading WA architects Finn Pedersen and Simon Pendal threw their weight behind the growing chorus for change.

Dr Pendal said there should be greater emphasis on the renovation and restoration of existing homes, rather than bowling them over and building a bigger replacement.

“We dump so much of our wealth in our property, so it is understandable that people want to maximise the potential, but the problem of oversizing our homes has become ingrained in our culture that people think that is just how we have to do it,” he said.

Mr Pedersen called on the Department of Communities, as the largest provider of public housing stock, to lead the way by ensuring environmentally-sensitive design.

But he said architects were usually overlooked in the creation of public housing stock, with design and construct contracts given to building companies that generally had less focus on sustainability.

National AIA president Tony Giannone said a national survey showed architects wanted more ambitious carbon reduction initiatives to support the Paris Agreement goal to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C above pre-Industrial levels.

“This is our decisive decade when our choices will determine the fate of future societies,” he said.

The Institute wants the government to encourage private investment in climate change initiatives through Australian Renewable Energy Agency and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.

He re-iterated calls for $1 billion in additional funding to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to help find ways to decarbonise the built environment and infrastructure.

The Institute also wants increased funding and support for the construction industry to implement the Trajectory for Low Energy Buildings, and stricter sustainability requirements in the National Construction Code.

“With government support, the Institute believes we can build a net-zero construction industry by the end of this decade,” Mr Giannone said. “This will provide nationally significant carbon reductions.

“Architects recognise we’re facing a harsher, more extreme environment with more frequent disasters. We need courageous national leadership to confront these challenges and ensure our built environment is designed properly for the future.”