Yep, Treehugger time again. This time, Lloyd asks the “hoisted on his own architecture petard” question (reformatted, emphasis mine):
Can Architects Survive in a World Where We Have to Build Less?
The key to green building is to use less stuff. In a recent post on the subject, I quoted engineer Scott Brookes’ answer when asked how to promote using less stuff and still make a living: “By supporting a reduction in development, we reinforce the value of our consultant’s thinking time, innovation, and design creativity.”
But using less stuff often means making less money, and engineer Will Arnold’s hierarchy of net zero design has serious implications for the architectural and design communities. How do you make a living when your best advice is to build nothing, and your livelihood depends on clients who build something? It’s a fundamental contradiction of a capitalist system based on constant growth, with many asking questions and discussing degrowth without many good answers.
I call it “working yourself out of a profession” as he can’t seem to balance his own calls for “build less”/degrowth and “how do I make a living??”. The “degrowth” movement is all about doing with far less and (as the World Economic Forum puts it), being happy about it. Lloyd and other THers are ALL about living with less to the point of not just doing it voluntarily (which I keep telling them is commendable for THEM) but keep kvetching that we ALL should do the same. Of course, they won’t answer my demands of “Other than using Government Force, how are you going to do that?”. THAT, my friends, is letting the cat out of the bag.
And it’s a problem they are making from two opposing spectrum points – architects who HAVE to build stuff to eat and architects who prize “sustainability” such that their clients go tell them to pound sand. Do, or not do – and the Lloyds are starting to realize that for their industry, it’s a short circuit for an endpoint (“crash and burn”). If your business is to create things, then you cannot NOT make things. Simple, from my standpoint. Go learn to code (snicker).
Or at least for a Jennifer Crawford out of Australia. The post talks about her story and ends up with:
She tells Treehugger: “I just want a good sustainable business that pays the bills. I’m not looking to build an empire.” Words to live by.
Which, necessarily, means building stuff. And if it is SMALL stuff, you need to be doing a lot of small stuff – and realize there is no economy of scale. And in building little, so is your career and money-making opportunities. I thought that was simple to understand: do, or not do. Pick one because you can’t have both unless you want to lie to yourself and others.
I left this comment that was NOT well received (three downvotes) – emphasis now but not when I wrote it:
A perfect example of the unintended consequences of the exalted no-growth / build nothing economy.
If a limit to the economy is foisted upon us all, what will all of those “extra” people do to earn their livings? Or will everyone be forced to earn less and less until it is no longer enough – or worth doing?
Be careful for what you wish for – and we may ALL be on the cusp of what the faculty lounge / Command economy mavens have theorized for decades – without understanding (or caring) what will happen in the steps from “heah” to that “theah” end stage of Utopia.
EVs were looked at as “The Answer” for gas powered vehicles for everyone. And as the steps start coming into view, they are getting more and more expensive, can’t do the job they were intended to do (can”t haul a load worth crap, range goes down 50% in the cold (like here in the US – New Hampshire is doing 10 degrees F and halving the range), and the cost of replacing battery packs are 3-5 times the cost of a new crate engine).
And as the world “marches to renewables”, coal production and use is at an all time high. Yet, Switzerland just told its citizens to NOT charge those EVs now just like CA did during the summer?
Yeah, life is gonna be wonderful under this new “Energy Justice” regime where “Justice” isn’t about Justice but merely making everyone no better than anyone else in the end…unless it is about making them equally miserable.
Ho, Ho, Ho! if you’re one of the nomenklatura!
When you are mandated to live with less, there will be less to do. These Eco-Socialist Commies have a single problem – they have no idea how economics really work. Oh sure, they can spew what they want and do the woulda/coulda/shoulda two-step, but in the end, they can’t lay out a cogent path to their “utopia”. They start “here”, point to “there”, and everything in the middle is a lot of arm/handwaving, smoke billowing out between their ears if you challenge them, but can’t logically go from point A to B to C and so forth. They NEVER look around and do the “what if” at each and every waypoint. They can’t – they never learned that everything is a tradeoff…
…and they aren’t willing to do any trading until they get to their Clean Energy Dystopia. They don’t CARE about what their ideas can and will do to others. THey don’t CARE what the hardships will be on Society – they only want to impose their will onto others.
Thus, I continue to be their very own PIA.
