COP15 through an architect’s eye
Photo by Kristina Saleström
As one of the “observatories” at the COP1515 I quickly experienced the need to screen what is happening around carefully. Unfortunately a lot of the hoo-haa presented is by people who don’t really have anything proper/new to say and mainly seem interested in the attention and hearing their own voice.
The distinguished mr. de Boer is of course always to be trusted in creating relevant meetings, and as a student with a clear interest and aim at COP, I was lucky enough to be part of a presentation around universities and ESD (see previous entry) and also to stumble over the side event “Building green in Denmark”. Both these presentations, as different as they where, did come with practical examples of actions. This I like! (because it s just so many winging idealists you can take in one sitting).
Sad to say though, the building green in Denmark couldn’t deliver any new ideas apart from the “groundbreaking” stuff I have come across in my own studies and by listening to their presentation it became clear how little the self proclaimed “saviours of our time”(the architects, I m an architect student) have little or no clue to what to do with the big north-south issue we have. even in the well organized, democratically functioning north, a lot hangs on the ethical stand taken by the company and the ethics of the company, in its turn, relies on the good ethics of its employers/board (and in several example cases “green” is just an empty facade living up to its perceived trend…this infuriates me more that I could explain). The likeness of our time with the “dark” middle ages becomes more and more striking. As been stated in the ft (Dec 5th, p 13) “the period is as international in outlook, subject to multiple influences, and slippery of definition as our own”. During this time cities expanded, together with an evolving manufacturing industry supporting the creation of a new leisure class, freed by the loosened feudal rules. These guys sought to heighten their status and create an identity through the purchasing of luxury items. At the same time this was a culture that never ceased to look back to the past.
What we have today is the forced return to the past to redress the situation caused by our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents (it s a very Lutheran/Christian standpoint “he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”-Ex 34:6-7). However, another way is hard to see.
