Architecture and climate change

22 February 2008

ROYAL INSTITUTE OF BRITISH ARCHITECTS: 22 February 2008

International Dialogues: Architecture and Climate Change lecture series

The Royal Institute of British Architect's (RIBA) third major international programme of talks on climate change and the role of the built environment.

The series began in February 2006 with a talk by Wangari Maathai and has continued to give a platform to leading visionary thinkers, practitioners and policy-makers from disciplines such as environmentalism, architecture, urbanism and art. This series invites contributors to consider and debate the issues of globalisation and the socio-economic, cultural and environmental role that cities and our urban landscape must embrace to enable the transformation towards a low carbon world. Further information for all events is available at www.architecture.com/programmes

All talks take place at 6.30pm at the RIBA, 66 Portland Place, London, W1. Tickets are £8 (£5 concession) available at www.architecture.com or tel: 020 7307 3699 (recorded booking line) or from the RIBA Bookshop, 66 Portland Place.

This season's speakers are:

Tuesday 4 March - Satish Kumar with Tony Juniper, Architecture and Freedom
Satish Kumar, Resurgence Editor and Director of the Schumacher College will be in conversation with Tony Juniper, Director of Friends of the Earth. They will discuss architectural visions for the 21st century based upon nature, simplicity and the fulfilment of the human spirit.

Wed 5 March - Cesare Peeren and Andreas Lang, From Recyclicity to Superuse
Cesare Peeren is the founder of 2012 architects (with Jan Jongert), a network of architects who consider 'reuse' to be an integral design strategy. In this joint talk architect Andreas Lang from the art/architecture collective, Public Works, will address questions of how users of public space are engaging with their environment and how design and programmatic strategies can support and facilitate physical, economical and social infrastructures in the public realm, both in urban and rural settings.

Tuesday 18 March - Mark Lynas
Author and broadcaster Mark Lynas will discuss the dramatic impact of climate change around the world following his latest book: Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet

Wed 26 March - Mathis Wackernagel and Sue Riddlestone - Slow Things First
Mathis Wackernagel is the co-creator of the Ecological Footprint concept. Sue Riddlestone will talk about how this concept was is used in developing solutions for sustainability in urban communities, notably the London 2012 Olympics, and also the Sonama Mountain Village project in San Francisco. She will describe the One Planet Living concept and our need to change the way we approach things.

Tuesday 22 April - Hermann Scheer, Towards Energy Autonomy
Dr Hermann Scheer, German MP, is dedicated to a broad shift in the energy basis of modern civilization: from fossil and nuclear resources to renewable energies. He has written about the necessity and feasibility of this in his five books: The Stored Sun (1987), The Solar Age (1989), A Solar Manifesto (1993), Solar Economy (1999) and Climate Change: From Fossil to Solar Culture (2002). He will be talking about the integration of renewable energies - decentralised, emission-free production, supply and use - as a central challenge and huge opportunity for creating and ecological future.

Ton Matton, Installation - Surviving the Suburb: The Climate Machine. Plus a series of musical, cookery and family events

Dutch urban designer Ton Matton will be exhibiting his quirky domestic designs or a more self-sufficient future. Please contact me for photographs and further
information.