Dr. Daniel K. Irurah
Humanity's search for one-planet living in the 21st century has been characterised by a variety of disconnects, misalignments, coupling, uncoupling and decoupling challenges. Evolving the required new alignments and couplings while decoupling the misaligned legacy-couplings is calling for dedicated, strong and sustained foresight/leadership in a variety of fields.
While leadership in the socio-political and business worlds has been systematically acknowledged and celebrated (even though not always in eco-leadership terms), similar interrogations and aspirations in architecture and built environment practices seem to be on the decline. Possibly, arising out of the past failures in translating utopian/visionary thinking and pronouncements of pioneers like Buckminster Fuller into reality, we have "trained" ourselves "not-to-dare" again. We have settled for the more expedient "fit-to-circumstances" approach to architecture. Consequently, as humanity grapples with the dilemma of sustainable city livelihoods or settlements, architects are still shy of demonstrating integrated contributions or roles which go beyond the piece-meal approach of site-by-site and project-by-project approach dictated by historical and current philosophies/paradigms of the profession.
In recognition of the fact that humanity's search for one-planet living pathways is inhibited by a diverse range of historical disconnects, misalignments, neo-coupling and decoupling challenges which are closely associated with the built environment (and hence major practice/role-vacuums), this paper explores the opportunity of eco-architecture as a challenge to architectural leadership in the one-planet living pathways.
The paper opens up with an elaboration of the one-planet living paradigm, its imperatives and pathways as well as associated status quo of couplings and missing couplings related to the built environment. The paper then expands on leadership on the critical neo-couplings and decouplings required and the role of eco-architecture in this regard. Although the paper will be strongly based on the bio-physical pathways (site/land as resource, energy, materials, waste, water) from a South African perspective, couplings and decouplings through socio-economic and socio-cultural pathways (industry/entrepreneurship, inequality, skills/jobs, identity/cultural affirmations etc) will also be covered. This is finally consolidated into a conclusion on a more empowering view of eco-architecture which provokes a leadership role rather than the passive and expedient role which architecture has evolved and defaulted into so far.