Daniel Barber Examines How Architecture Can Respond to the 1.5ºC Imperative on Archinect.com

In a recent editorial on Archinect.com, Associate Professor and Chair of the Graduate Group Daniel Barber discusses the role of professionals in keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, a critical benchmark.

The editorial comes after the International Panel on Climate Change's recent report, which asserts a 12-year timeline to limit the catastrophic effects of climate change. The U.N. has urged immediate and drastic action to curtail this trajectory.

Barber's article reframes this warning as a catalyst for exciting innovation. He writes, "Architecture is party to the culture of joyous urgency—we need to act now to build a different, and hopefully better, world. The 1.5ºC imperative is an opportunity to rebuild, reimagine, recode and rescript; it is a celebration of the possibilities embedded in our technological extravagance."

Barber is an architectural historian studying the relationship between the design fields and the emergence of global environmental culture across the 20th century. He recently co-edited, with PennDesign Professor of Architecture Bill Braham, and others, Energy Accounts: Architectural Representations of Energy, Climate, and the Future (Routledge, 2016).