Articles Recognitions

#05 Save the present or think about the future?

In a time when we talk about crises (several) but also about the urgency of taking measures to ensure more sustainable, dignified futures, what should our priorities be? How can we, in our practice, help achieve a balance? In this fifth article of the Twelve Months, Twelve Themes series, David Ferreira and Rita Azevedo talk about the impact of buildings and strategies to improve the quality of our constructions and our cities.

 

Thinking about the future or solving present problems?

We always have to think about the future. Everything is part of a process that begins with what we learned in the past, to the implementation we make in the present, and to what is reflected in the future. Architecture has this great characteristic of shaping people's lives. It creates worlds, communities, and creates over several generations. A building can persist for 100, 200, 300 years, which has a significant impact, so when we think about it, when we execute it, we have that responsibility and that power, in some way, to shape, to intervene in the daily life and in the lives of people. And so we always have to think from a future perspective, how what we do now will reflect in the future. In our building design formula, due to the weight it has at various levels, it is essential to take into account the three pillars of sustainability: social, natural, and economic. We always have to achieve this balance so as not to compromise the future in terms of natural and human resources. (Rita Azevedo)

I believe that we cannot focus on one without the other. And taking what Rita said, buildings have this ability to persist and also to transform. I think this flexibility should be taken into account when designing - how will this building serve in the future? There are problems in the present, and some that come from the past. We must learn from these problems, from these mistakes, but when we design we always have to think about the future, about doing better, more efficient, more sustainable. Because ultimately, we are designing a building for a client, thinking about the most effective technical solutions for this client, but what we are really doing is creating a building that will, above all, serve the city, it will not only serve that client. We cannot fail to look to the future, also because we are already a bit late, this effective global concern is relatively recent. Sustainability, accessibility, and mobility are concepts that were not heard 20 years ago, today we are all, both in architecture and engineering, but also the client, sensitized to these issues. (David Ferreira)

 

What solutions are within our reach?

Currently, we are going through a major crisis in terms of housing, it is something that is talked about a lot, but that I consider to be more of a political problem than a technical problem, it is effectively, at its origin, something that surpasses us. But we, as technicians, have the obligation to find solutions to minimize the impact it is having. I would say that, on a first analysis, it is important to think in terms of reuse, of looking at what we have and thinking about how we can bring that building to life and adapt it to contemporary needs. In fact, if in a construction emergency as it happened for example in the 80s we build recklessly and poorly, because it had to be quick and cheap, we end up with a series of buildings that remain today but that make no sense. The future was not considered, this idea of heritage, of what we will leave here, it was just about covering the wounds of the present. I think it can go that way, through the rehabilitation of existing buildings and also by creating solutions that are more adaptable, flexible, linked, for example, to modular architecture. (Rita Azevedo)

The focus should not be on building more but on building better and building flexibly, with the future in mind. Today we have buildings that are 50, 60 years old, without great conditions, but which have been adapted in a more or less informal way to the needs of their new owners and inhabitants - balconies transformed into sunrooms are a clear example of a construction that did not take the future into account. Rehabilitation, I agree that it also goes through there, is more sustainable than making anew, we no longer need so much concrete, so many materials. But I underline very much this idea of flexibility, today's needs are no longer tomorrow's. One thing that is talked about a lot today is modular construction, and I believe that the future also goes through there. Modularity reduces waste of resources and makes us look at the construction process critically, where did a certain material come from, how was it produced, how many kilometers did it make, all these are questions that must be taken into account. (David Ferreira)

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Rita Azevedo, Architect
David Ferreira, Partner, Engineer

In a time when we talk about crises (several) but also about the urgency of taking measures to ensure more sustainable, dignified futures, what should our priorities be? How can we, in our practice, help achieve a balance? In this fifth article of the Twelve Months, Twelve Themes series, David Ferreira and Rita Azevedo talk about the impact of buildings and strategies to improve the quality of our constructions and our cities.

 

Thinking about the future or solving present problems?

We always have to think about the future. Everything is part of a process that begins with what we learned in the past, to the implementation we make in the present, and to what is reflected in the future. Architecture has this great characteristic of shaping people's lives. It creates worlds, communities, and creates over several generations. A building can persist for 100, 200, 300 years, which has a significant impact, so when we think about it, when we execute it, we have that responsibility and that power, in some way, to shape, to intervene in the daily life and in the lives of people. And so we always have to think from a future perspective, how what we do now will reflect in the future. In our building design formula, due to the weight it has at various levels, it is essential to take into account the three pillars of sustainability: social, natural, and economic. We always have to achieve this balance so as not to compromise the future in terms of natural and human resources. (Rita Azevedo)

I believe that we cannot focus on one without the other. And taking what Rita said, buildings have this ability to persist and also to transform. I think this flexibility should be taken into account when designing - how will this building serve in the future? There are problems in the present, and some that come from the past. We must learn from these problems, from these mistakes, but when we design we always have to think about the future, about doing better, more efficient, more sustainable. Because ultimately, we are designing a building for a client, thinking about the most effective technical solutions for this client, but what we are really doing is creating a building that will, above all, serve the city, it will not only serve that client. We cannot fail to look to the future, also because we are already a bit late, this effective global concern is relatively recent. Sustainability, accessibility, and mobility are concepts that were not heard 20 years ago, today we are all, both in architecture and engineering, but also the client, sensitized to these issues. (David Ferreira)

 

What solutions are within our reach?

Currently, we are going through a major crisis in terms of housing, it is something that is talked about a lot, but that I consider to be more of a political problem than a technical problem, it is effectively, at its origin, something that surpasses us. But we, as technicians, have the obligation to find solutions to minimize the impact it is having. I would say that, on a first analysis, it is important to think in terms of reuse, of looking at what we have and thinking about how we can bring that building to life and adapt it to contemporary needs. In fact, if in a construction emergency as it happened for example in the 80s we build recklessly and poorly, because it had to be quick and cheap, we end up with a series of buildings that remain today but that make no sense. The future was not considered, this idea of heritage, of what we will leave here, it was just about covering the wounds of the present. I think it can go that way, through the rehabilitation of existing buildings and also by creating solutions that are more adaptable, flexible, linked, for example, to modular architecture. (Rita Azevedo)

The focus should not be on building more but on building better and building flexibly, with the future in mind. Today we have buildings that are 50, 60 years old, without great conditions, but which have been adapted in a more or less informal way to the needs of their new owners and inhabitants - balconies transformed into sunrooms are a clear example of a construction that did not take the future into account. Rehabilitation, I agree that it also goes through there, is more sustainable than making anew, we no longer need so much concrete, so many materials. But I underline very much this idea of flexibility, today's needs are no longer tomorrow's. One thing that is talked about a lot today is modular construction, and I believe that the future also goes through there. Modularity reduces waste of resources and makes us look at the construction process critically, where did a certain material come from, how was it produced, how many kilometers did it make, all these are questions that must be taken into account. (David Ferreira)

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