Through the Eye of a Needle: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Climate Action

Join this multi-disciplinary panel of design professionals as they discuss design in the time of climate change. Find out how human ingenuity, cross-disciplinary inquiry and simultaneous advocacy coalesce to supercharge our creative powers and lead us to the most sustainable, thoughtful and equitable design solutions.

With buildings accounting for 39% of global CO2 emissions, and humans consuming resources at a rate that is 1.7 times faster than what the Earth can regenerate, the architectural disciplines have an outsized role to play because, as noted recently by panelist Lindsay Baker, “architects are trained to imagine and design the future”. The goal for this panel is to discuss how cross-disciplinary inquiry and simultaneous advocacy can maximize our effectiveness as architects and engineers in addressing those most pressing and time sensitive issues of our time.

Inspired by Richard Neutra’s “Survival Through Design,” this session will begin with each panelist providing an overview of their unique approach to addressing the impacts of climate change. The panelists are recognized nationally and beyond as leaders in the transformation of the practice of architecture. Following a short lunch break, the panelists will gather in roundtable fashion to discuss the climate topic and to share the many unique, multi-disciplinary and positive ways that design professionals can approach design in a changing climate. What each panelist has in common is that they are all specialists with decades of experience in their fields, who also have multi-disciplinary expertise and activist tendencies. By thinking about architecture differently, they have expanded their influence beyond the boundaries of architecture to more rapidly and effectively bring about change.

Image credit: The Exploratorium at Piers 15 & 17 (Panelists Peter Rumsey & Gary Strang, with EHDD)

5:30pm - 6pm: Sign in & networking.

6pm - 6:30pm: Welcome, “Survival Through Design” by Richard Neutra.

6:30pm - 7pm: Panelist presentations providing unique overview of their approach to climate action.

7pm - 7:30pm: Roundtable conversation, with film excerpts from “The Ideas of Richard Neutra” 1968 Bavarian Radio interview.

7:30pm - 8pm: Q&A.

Dr. Raymond Richard Neutra, Professor Emeritus and Epidemiologist, will present the lesser-known ideas dating to the 1920s regarding human and environmental health that motivated his father’s groundbreaking architectural design, and Raymond’s own prolific career, most recently manifested as President of the Neutra Institute for Survival Through Design.
Peter Rumsey PE is the Founder of Point Energy Innovations and is internationally recognized for innovation and leadership in the sustainability and energy efficiency fields. He has designed more LEED Platinum, Zero Energy and radiant cooled buildings than any other engineer in the United States. He is also the designer of the Exploratorium’s Bay Water Cooling System at Pier 15 in San Francisco.
Francesca Oliveira, FAIA is the 2024 AIASF Board President and Technical Design Principal at SOM San Francisco where she blends vernacular architecture with innovations in building science. Francesca directs the firm’s West Coast Technical Designers on building types across the globe. Francesca will participate as panelist and moderator.
Gary Strang, FASLA/AIA will make introductory and concluding remarks. He is founding Principal of GLS Landscape/Architecture, an interdisciplinary firm recognized for collaborations focused on the integration of landscape, architecture and infrastructure. Gary serves as Vice-Chair for the BCDC Design Review Board and Stewardship Advisor for the Neutra Institute for Survival Through Design.

1 - Propose actionable procedures for both the design team and larger building industry that would result in a more wholistic, multi-disciplinary approach, more capable of effectively addressing environmental issues.

2 - Identify root causes of the climate crisis and strategies for architects to address those root causes in the public sphere outside the process of making buildings.

3 - Evaluate the practicality of sustainable design strategies used to achieve carbon neutrality in the design of the built environment due to affordability and operations realities.

4 - Understand where we are in terms of resolving operational carbon, embodied carbon, and other potentially hidden impacts to society or the environment.

GLS Landscape

Host or Publisher Center for A+D