The Journal of Architecture

Research in practice: a call to arms | Tim Sharpe, Deljana Iossifova & Doreen Bernath
To say that we live in a time of change is something of an understatement. Many of the drivers for change are well known and have existed for many years, indeed decades. There have always been good reasons for reducing energy consumption in buildings, but the increasing impacts of climate change, and more recently the energy crisis, have made these immediate and critical issues. Similarly, the need to make buildings healthy has always been a desirable objective, but the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, in which most transmissions occurred in buildings, also raised the profile of the role of design for health; this has been further highlighted by the recent tragic case of Awaab Ishak.1 Prior to this, the Grenfell tragedy heightened awareness of the imperative to design safe buildings, which has led to rapid changes in British regulation that further impact on professional standards, education, and accreditation.2 All these elements have raised serious questions about the role of the profession. It is clear that we are not yet delivering buildings at scale that meet these objectives. The failure to innovate when being confronted by early signals means that we need to innovate rapidly now. CONTINUE READING