The Nordic Carbon Neutral Bauhaus project rightfully places carbon emissions at its core. Various states, cities, and organizations have set goals for achieving net-zero carbon emissions during the coming decades. However, emissions are only one facet of the complex challenge of environmental degradation. Problems such as the depletion of virgin resources, biodiversity loss, eutrophication, chemical loads, and a socially just transition are all intertwined. In addition to causing 40% of all climate emissions, the built environment consumes up to half of all virgin resources and produces about a third of all waste. Aiming for low-carbon construction is therefore a step in the right direction, but if it is viewed as separate from – or as the sole solution to – addressing the wider environmental crisis, the conversation around emissions cannot achieve the systemic change the crisis truly demands. Architecture and other art forms have been recognized as significant media for achieving and making palatable the holistic disruption that is at hand.
To understand how architecture’s environmental impacts arise and where its potential for improving environmental conditions lies, we must focus on the processes through which the built environment is produced. Architecture should not be understood merely as pieces of art conceived at the designer’s desk, culminating in the completion of buildings, but as ongoing processes that both build and maintain humanity’s largest physical objects.
This exhibition dives deeper into these architectural processes, approaching them from six different perspectives. To illustrate the viewpoints, the exhibition showcases 17 projects from the Nordic countries and Estonia, each offering its own ambitious perspective on the transition towards sustainable practices in the building industry.
INCLUDING PROJECTS BY
Arhitekt Must, Arkkitehtitoimisto Sipinen & BST-Arkkitehdit, Anna María Bogadóttir, Collaboratorio, Djernes & Bell Architecture, EFFEKT Architects, Helen & Hard, Kaminsky Arkitektur & Hans Eek, Lendager, Mad Arkitekter, Erik Mårtensson, Narva Art Residency, Pihlmann Architects, Kati Salonen & Mona Schalin Architects, Studio Granda, Tengbom, Visit Faroe Islands
