Dezeen Magazine

Watch the Architecture of Emergency climate summit

Extinction Rebellion, Waugh Thistleton, Maria Smith, Adrian Lahoud and more delivered presentations on climate change at the Architecture of Emergency summit in London's Barbican Centre.

Organised by the Barbican and the Architecture Foundation, the summit brought together activist, academics and practitioners from a range of disciplines connected to the built environment, to examine how the industry can take action on climate change. Dezeen was media partners for the event.

The evening was hosted by Dezeen columnist Phineas Harper and kicked off with a stand-up routine about global heating by environmental economist and comedian Matt Winning.

This was followed by a series of "micro lectures" given by Extinction Rebellion's Mariam Aslam and Farhana Yamin, Andrew Waugh of Waugh Thistleton Architects, Greenpeace activist Danielle Paffard, Friends of the Earth campaigner Guy Shrubsole and the Royal College of Art's Adrian Lahoud.

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Extinction Rebellion have been named amongst as speakers at the Architecture of Emergency summit

After this there was a panel discussion chaired by Architecture Foundation's deputy director and Dezeen columnist Phineas Harper.

The panel featured Monica von Schmalensee from White Arkitekter, University of Cambridge academic Michael Ramage, Renaud Haerlingen of Belgian design and research co-operative Rotor, and BC Architects & Studies founder Ken De Cooman.

Architect and engineer Maria Smith delivered a keynote to close the event.

Extinction Rebellion are a non-violent activist group, whose campaigns have helped to bring about a paradigm shift in attitudes towards the climate crisis. In addition to organising a mass protest on Waterloo bridge earlier this year, Extinction Rebellion members also staged a "die-in" at a Royal College of Art fashion show to confront the fashion industry's contribution to global heating.

Waugh played a fundamental role in launching Architects Declare, a campaign calling for collective action from UK architects to combat runaway climate change. Award-winning practices such as Foster + Partners, Zaha Hadid Architects and David Chipperfield Architects.

In addition to campaigning for Greenpeace, Paffard is a former member of the anti-aviation activist group Heathrow 13. In 2015, the group narrowly avoided jail for blockading a runway at Heathrow airport to protest its expansion.

Shrubsole is a campaigner for Friends of the Earth, with bylines in the Guardian and New Statesman. His first book Who Owns England?: How We Lost Our Green and Pleasant Land, and How to Take It Back exposes the multi-million pound corporations and complex structures tying up private property in the UK.

Adrian Lahoud heads the Royal College of Art's architecture department. He is also the curator of Sharjah Architecture Triennial, a brand new festival launching in November that aims to platform architecture and urbanism in the Middle East, North and East Africa, and South and Southeast Asia. The festival will explore the rights of future generations.

Alongside her position as senior partner at Swedish architecture studio White Arkitekter, Von Schmalensee is also a strategic advisor for the Swedish government as Deputy National Architect and President at the Council of  Sustainable Cities.

Michael Ramage is a professor of structural engineering at the University of Cambridge, whose research focusses on developing low-energy structural materials and systems in masonry.

Belgian design and research co-operative Rotor was founded by Renaud Haerlingen. In 2016, it launched Rotor Deconstruction, an online site that sells salvaged building parts.

Maria Smith is the founder of trans-disciplinary practice Interrobang and one of the curators of the Oslo Architecture Triennale. The forthcoming festival will explore the possibility of de-growth as a way to mitigate climate change.

Dezeen hosts and livestreams talks and panel discussions from around the world. Recent examples include the annual architecture lecture given by Jean-Philippe Vassal at the Royal Academy in London and a conversation with Arthur Mamou Mani about his bioplastic installation for COS.