Our open letter to architects and building designers

This is one of our Instagram posts from earlier on in 2024, with part of it making it an extract for a sustainable building book. So we thought we would reshare it to try encourage everyone in our industry to be better.

An open letter to architects and building designers.

Be better!

Too many people are shouting from the rooftop, and more people should be walking the walk when talking about sustainable buildings.

Sustainability is often lauded merely for achieving a 6-7star rating, but all this is doing is meeting the code requirements, which is a basic necessity for construction rather than a noteworthy achievement to boast about.

Why is performance-based architecture forever being overlooked or not prioritised? Why do we have to have a "sustainable building award" to showcase this, and why can't every award have to meet a high level of sustainability criteria?

Why must we designate them as sustainable homes instead of simply referring to them as standard homes?

If you look at Architects Declare, just over 1400 architects and building designers have signed up to be better. The question I have is, how many of you are actually following through with what they signed up to do? How many are doing more than being carbon-neutral to run your business or using a bit of recycled timber and red bricks? How many of you are designing buildings to manage water and moisture correctly to ensure they are durable?

Hot tip: very few!

There are some of you who have fully embraced this commitment to creating environmentally conscious and durable structures, setting a high standard for the entire industry.

Let's call it what it is; for most people, signing up for something like this is a bit of a feel-good thing, so you can say, "ohh, we are members", but what are you actually doing about it?

This is a classic case of slacktivism.

You then do the passive house course to upskill but don't implement anything you learnt. You then have a sustainability page on your website listing all the fantastic characteristics of designing this way, yet you fail to implement these practices. You say, "Oh, we used some passive solar design." But you know what? That's just doing your job correctly; that's nothing to boast about.

But then you constantly use the "budget" excuse for not building a home to a higher standard, yet the client has a $2m budget and a $300k joinery package. There needs to be fewer words and more action - start putting your money where your mouth is!

We continue to reside in a society that places significant emphasis on the aesthetic appeal of homes. Don't get me wrong, you're here to design impressive buildings, which you do an incredible job of, but you need to start designing homes that cost very little to run.

Homes that are healthy and comfortable.

Homes that are there to completely protect the clients from the outside environment and stand the test of time.

Homes that need to be durable because there's nothing more unsustainable than building a home twice.

What confuses me the most is that we already have the answers to all our problems, yet you ignore them.

I know as a business, we are not perfect, and I know we too can be better. In the past, we labelled ourselves as a sustainable builder; however, the reality couldn't have been further from the truth. A decade ago, there was nothing sustainable about our practices, but we didn't wait for change. We decided to actually do something about it.

I hope this pisses you off if you're an architect or building designer. I hope it demands you to be better. I hope that as you're doing your annual strategy or looking at ways to improve this year, you start implementing what you have learned and not look the other way. I hope you have the balls to tell clients no, this is the standard we need to design to, and you won't compromise, understanding that you might lose the job. I hope you have the courage to cut the joinery or cladding budget to prioritise health and comfort.

At the end of the day, the change starts with you. Clients are demanding it, the planet is demanding it, and builders are demanding it.

So, architects and designers, this one is on you. If you don't design better homes, then we can't build them. Period.

So I ask you to be better.

Kind regards

Matthew