Forthcoming: Energy

Most of the catchwords associated with early 21st-century “green technologies” are tied to energy: biofuels, carbon neutrality, ecological footprints, microclimates, zero emissions, and so on. Despite the vagueness surrounding it, energy is no passing fad, and it cannot be taken lightly. We’ve seen Sydney turn red under billows of dust, ice caps melt, and entire cities drowned by storms in Southeast Asia and the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Droughts and

temperature variations are gradually (radically) affecting entire ecosystems––and human life–around the planet. If the current economic crisis seems like the most pressing issue for architects at the moment, the advancing energy and climate crisis might be the most serious one in the long term.

BIArch’s forthcoming “Energy” seminar will challenge the more superficial and reductive takes on issues surrounding the relationship between architecture and energy, going beyond the limits of the discipline, bringing together a variety of perspectives from fields as diverse as civil and structural engineering, urban design, R+D, and technological innovation, with the purpose of offering a broad, comprehensive view of the what is at stake. The choice of theme was no coincidence: one of the research strands of BIArch’s Masters program is precisely Energy and Building Technologies.

The program for “Energy” also reflects BIArch’s aim of bridging professional practice and academic knowledge. The event will open to the public and will offer valuable insights from active, authoritative figures dealing with the subject of Energy in their everyday professional experiences and environments from different points of view, including conceptual approaches and more tangible notions of policy formulation, construction, building materials and structural design. For further details on the sessions and participants, please download the program for the event here.

BIArch’s activities kicked off with the Advisory Council Meeting earlier this year, under the premise of change in the practice and teaching of architecture in face of continuing economic strife. With “Energy”, BIArch reafirms its determination in generating debate and knowledge around issues that are crucial for the redirection of the profession.