HOW SOON IS NOW?

With no time to waste, architects must innovate quickly to respond to our changing environment.

- Beatrice Galilee

When the skies turned deep red over much of the Northeast this past summer, heavy and dangerous with smoke from Canadian wildfires, many of us felt a deep appreciation for the thick walls and tempered glass of our homes. Architecture is reassuring in part because it doesn't change, generally. Yet in these times of accelerated environmental flux, change it must.

The tension between the need to build more homes and the existential threat of climate change means there is an increasing urgency to reduce the impact of building on the environment. The idea of simply stopping construction entirely - perhaps even just for a time is no longer a fringe conversation. It's central to an exciting new movement in architecture that is being called radical resilience.

Indeed, architects and clients alike are taking the whole process into their own hands and rethinking nearly every aspect of construction. They are questioning the life cycle of each material used to clad, cover, and build their designs, as well as the landscapes and biomes that surround them. Pritzker Prize-winning architects Lacaton & Vassal, for example, advocate for a "reuse first" approach, seeking out opportunities to repurpose and adapt existing buildings. Instead of tearing down dated or dilapidated high-rises, they first analyze which materials can be saved and then design from there. Their extraordinary work in transforming a series of social housing projects in Paris that were scheduled for demolition into livable, light-filled homes has inspired many architects to follow their lead.