Designers have always been problem solvers. Now they have a new set of problems. Scratch that. The problems aren’t exactly new, but they’ve become inescapable. Climate change became the climate crisis. Concrete and steel, two of the most used construction materials, were revealed as colossal carbon emitters, along with the entire construction industry. ‘Because the impact of the built environment can be considered ecocide,’ states architect, curator and writer Pedro Gadanho in his book Climax Change!, ‘there may come a time when people turn against architects and designers for their contribution to the issue.’
In a 2022 cabinet meeting, French president Emmanuel Macron spoke of the ‘end of abundance’. Indeed, as Siân Sutherland, cofounder and chief changemaker of PlasticFree, told FRAME in July: ‘In the last six years, we’ve extracted…
