Building Green: Environmental Architects and the Struggle for Sustainability in Mumbai

Thinking Like a Climate

“…In place of discussions about climate change as I had originally conceived them, what occupied people instead was buildings, which received a huge amount of attention. This was not the sustainable version of ecobuilding and green planning pursued by those involved in green urban planning or environmental architects like those described by Anne Rademacher (2017) in her work on sustainable architecture in Mumbai, or the earthship models of future living pursued by Californians and Scots keen to live a low-carbon lifestyle (Harkness 2009), nor were these buildings like the spaceship model of smart sustainable cities such as that pursued in Masdar City and described so evocatively by Gökçe Günel (2019). Instead, the buildings that occupied conversations were the already existing houses, municipal buildings, and offices that constituted the urban landscape on which climate change was now being overlaid.…”

“…This newfound attention to nature and sustainability has in turn fueled new directions in urban planning and design. Future cities, it now seems, are green and sustainable cities Lovell 2004;Miller 2005;Rademacher 2017;While, Jonas, and Gibbs 2004).…”

“…When I first began my ethnography on climate change in Manchester, an engineer working for Arup showed me this digital model that imagined a potential green future for the city (Harvey 2009;Knox 2013). The model deployed many familiar tropes used in descriptions of global ecocities: expanses of green space, clear water, blue skies, and images of people happily enjoying nature-infused urban public spaces (see May 2008;Rademacher 2017;Sze 2015). 1 With these kinds of images informing my sense of what a study of climate change in the city might look like, I was therefore, perhaps naively, taken aback by the way in which work to tackle climate change in Manchester appeared to have very little to do with "nature" thus conceived.…”

Pengaruh Desain Berbasis Masyarakat Untuk Keberlanjutan Bangunan Hijau Menuju Arsitektur Sadar Energi

“…Salah satu peran desain hijau pada arsitektur sadar energi disampaikan oleh Anne Rademacher (Rademacher, 2017) menyatakan bahwa desain hijau mempunyai peranan startegis untuk melestarikan lingkungan mendatang karena konsep lingkungan yang dipertahankan oleh arsitek tidak hanya untuk keperluan pada saat ini, namun juga mempertimbangkan ke masa depan. Perencana dan perancang desain hijau merupakan penentu keberlanjutan lingkungan.…”

New Perspectives on Energy

“…Most of the scholarship on energy focuses on oil (Appel 2012, Apter 2005, Barry 2013, Black 2000, Breglia 2013, Ferguson 2005, Guyer 2004, Huber 2013, Kirsch 2010, LeMenager 2014, Limbert 2010, McDermott‐Hughes 2017, Mitchell 2011, Negarestani 2008, Reed 2009, Rogers 2015, Shever 2012, Vitalis 2006, Watts 2008, Wenzel 2006, Weszkalnys 2015, Zalik 2010) while also touching upon coal and gas production and consumption (Barak 2015, Scott 2010, Mason 2005, 2007, Mason and Stoilkova 2012, McNeish and Logan 2012) and nuclear experimentation (Masco 2006, Masco 2010). Yet the intensification of conversations around many different aspects and consequences of energy use have led to a proliferation of scholarship on the concept the energy (Coopersmith 2010, Gold 2010, Smith 1998), green design (Anker 2010, Günel 2019, Halpern 2015, Höhler 2015, May 2008, Myers 2015, Rademacher 2017), renewable energy and clean technology (Akrich 1994, Barber 2016, Boyer and Howe 2016, Cross 2013, Henning 2005, 2008, Howe and Boyer 2016, Jacobson 2007, Krauss 2010, Love and Garwood 2011, Verdeil 2014), electricity infrastructures and blackouts (Cohn 2017, Degani 2013, Hughes 1983, Kumar 2015, Mains 2012, Nye…”