Norman Foster, founder of Foster + Partners, and Patrick Schumacher, former partner of Zaha Hadid and current sole CEO of Zaha Hadid Architects, have released their bureaux from Architects Declare for ideological reasons.
Architects Declare is by far the most visible alliance of architects for the environment. It was created in late 2019 from a manifesto signed by 17 Sterling Prize winning bureaus, including Foster + Partners and ZHA. Now this list includes more than 1000 British firms (5000 architects), which are also part of a broader international "union" - Construction Declares, uniting all participants in the construction industry (about 6000 companies).
An airport project in Saudi Arabia that drew criticism of Norman Foster and Architects Declare
But good intentions, as always happens, did not save the initiative from problems. Foster + Partners were criticized this summer for their luxury airport projects for the Middle East, targeting primarily private jets (we detail
wrote about it here). At the same time, 1% of the world's population, the wealthiest, is responsible for half of the "aviation" CO2 emissions in 2018, that is, these airports are indeed associated with an "unsustainable" approach to the environment. Then Architects Declare was demanded to "take action", but the central committee (CC) of the association refused to "name and dishonor" the misbehaving participants.
Last month, a new scandal emerged over Schumacher's claim that too radical an approach to the fight against climate change could result in political instability, and that economic growth and prosperity are more important than green measures. In this case, the Central Committee of Architects Declare had to react by comparing the statement of the head of the ZHA with the propagandists of the unrestrained growth of the economy of the middle of the 20th century, who did not take into account the finite resources. Those signatories of the manifesto, who ignore its main provisions in their professional activities, were asked to either change their approach to work, or leave the association.
The first to respond to this proposal was not Patrick Schumacher, but Norman Foster: on December 2, he published a statement that his bureau was withdrawing its signature from the Architects Declare and a similar document Engineers Declare. At the same time, he recalled that his workshop has been on the "green" positions since 1967 and is almost as much engaged in the transformation of aviation into a more efficient mode of transport. It will not be possible to ban flying on airplanes, Foster believes, and therefore it is better to work on the problem of CO2 emissions from airplanes and their infrastructure (which he considers not so great, 2% of the planetary volume, while other types of transport account for 14%) rather than abandoning the design of more efficient airports and letting the industry grow without the support of architects.
Architects Declare responded by expressing its disappointment, emphasizing that it was not a "protest" movement, but said that it remains the same.
LEED Platinum-certified Milan skyscraper designed by ZHA
On December 3, Patrick Schumacher also spoke, also announcing the withdrawal of his bureau from the Architects Declare association. He stressed that ZHA strives for the "sustainability" of its projects at all stages of their creation, implementation and operation, and this is confirmed by the "platinum" and "gold" LEED certificates, that is, there is no "deep" disagreement with Architects Declare. Schumacher is outraged by the approach of this organization to the choice of a scheme of actions: he and his bureau expected discussion and cooperation, not censure, diversity of views, and not unilateral "absolute" decisions. This approach, the architect believes, directs the profession to failure. No response has yet been received from CC Architects Declare.
