Giving Thanks

Make it stand out

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I’m departing from my usual content and format with this post, inspired by the American holiday of Thanksgiving, which is a week away and is giving me a lot to think about.

I’m in the US to spend 3 weeks with my family. My father, 89, is suffering from ill health after a robustly active and wide-ranging life. Four siblings, their spouses, and children, are all gathering round with the usual mix of big personalities, and differing agendas, but with some extra anxiety thrown in. 

I used to dismiss anxiety—'not my problem’—and stress—‘a necessary evil’ but I’ve started to query this stiff upper-lip attitude, and turn instead to ways of addressing it in a healthier manner. I am sincerely thankful for this. Tai chi has changed my understanding of my potential physical and mental strength; Pilates has been a healing constant, talk therapy has slowly replaced bravado with something a little more grounded, and a dash of reiki has given me space to freely ponder connectivity. 

I started out my career as an architect in the mid-80’s. I wanted to re-use buildings, and the UK provided the perfect place to lean my trade. Even after I moved to Vietnam, in 1998, I worked on some of the only renovation and re-use projects in the southern capital, Saigon. The benefits of adaptation and re-use were starkly obvious to me from the outset. Now the UK architectural press is focused on a debate about how much to prioritize re-use vs re-build/new-build and I wonder why it has taken everyone so long—and how crazy it is that small wins, such as the decision not to knock down Oxford Street’s Marks and Spencer-- are lauded as landmark decisions. 

The construction sector is a remarkably slow-moving, conservative beast, perhaps for obvious reasons –buildings take a lot of money and time and involve a lot of people—but right now the conversation is moving slowly enough to make me fairly anxious. I spent 20 years as a specialist project consultant, putting sustainability into big projects in Asia, and when I came back to London, I was shocked to find that some of the projects I’d worked on were much more advanced in these terms than similar projects in the UK. Sustainable materials were only just starting to hit mainstream discussion and my colleagues weren’t that interested in the science or data underpinning the ways to build more responsibly. That’s not to dismiss the excellent work going on by some practices, but to be brutally frank, most others seemed to cherry-pick things that they found easiest to associate with their normal design strategies. I reached peak frustration with the Architects Declare! Campaign which to me was a list of architectural practices wanting to be associated with sustainability without any proof they were walking the walk.  

I started hearth with both a push and a pull—the ambition to get to work and get things done in this sector and the frustration of seeing the empty posturing around me, as well as what seemed like endless backtracking and watering down of public policy, regulations and standards. In fact, the past couple of years has seen backtracking, but also some quiet gains. Councils—at least those in London, though there are enlightened bodies scattered around the UK-- are finally putting retrofit into the spotlight. There is a long, long way to go, in terms of crafting planning law that puts future-proofing our historic buildings on an equal footing with preservation of historic detail (however else are we going to be able to hang on to them, maintain and manage these fine buildings?), as well as providing meaningful incentives and if needed, penalties, for developers and owners, consistently and equitably. At the moment we have a hodge-podge of near-meaningless incentives and back-pedaling on standards that is confusing and destructive for the marketplace, as well as deeply inequitable to private renters and less affluent home-owners. But stepping back to look at the big picture, there are signs that this has simply been a particularly daft year of unnecessary roadblocks placed on a long, grinding ride up the hill to progress. 

I have faith in localism, having seen the interest and commitment of home-owners, local councilors and people working throughout the building industry trying to get things done despite the challenges. Networking and connectivity is key. There are studies that show that progress can be made towards sustainability provided we make change at the right scale, and for domestic properties, this probably means very local indeed. A great example of this is taking place in Herne Hill, where a mix of people have focused on strengthening the retrofit movement in their area, sharing knowledge and taking action. Other groups have started in Kentish Town, Islington, Queen’s Park and many other places. It isn’t easy--local councils don’t have nearly enough funding to do what they need to do, but they are trying for the most part to respond to a new emphasis on retrofit from home-owners. 

On a personal basis, having decided to put aside my interest in working on large buildings, I have been re-energized by working in the domestic sector. My clients are fantastic. They care about being sustainable, and they are doing their best to try to make meaningful change. They’re not getting much help. They could do with removal of VAT on all retrofit contracts. They could do with small, flexible, technology-agnostic  grants for any meaningful upgrades, whether for better windows, insulation, heat pumps or solar or whatever else their home needs to improve to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels.  Some of them won’t get far if they can’t get a very soft loan or otherwise figure out how to finance the work. But most will do what they can; they are a determined and energetic community. 

I feel privileged to be working in this field, and for my clients. I fervently hope we can get something done together, but for the moment, I’m just going to pause and give thanks that we’re on this journey.