Collapsing Gracefully: Making a Built Environment that is Fit for the Future

Emilio Garcia is an architect and urban designer. Since 2013, he has been working as a lecturer in sustainability and resilience at the School of Architecture and Planning at The University of Auckland, New Zealand. He has also practised and taught in Mexico and Argentina and won a Holcim Award for Sustainable Construction in 2008.  His latest book (with Brenda Vale) “Unravelling sustainability and resilience in the built environment” (Routledge, 2017) explores the meaning of applications of these terms and why they are still important for designers.Brenda Vale and Robert Vale are architects and academics. They wrote their first book on sustainable design, “The Autonomous House”, in 1975. Following their design of several award winning sustainable commercial buildings in the UK, they went on to design and build the UK’s first autonomous house in 1993 and the first zero-emissions settlement in 1998. They have received international recognition, including awards from theUnited Nations and the European Solar Energy Society. More recently, they developed the Australian government’s National Australian Built Environment Rating System (NABERS) which has now been put into operation. Recent environmental books include “Time to Eat the Dog? The real guide to sustainable living”, which analysed the impact on the environment of a western lifestyle and things people do every day, and “Living within a Fair Share Ecological Footprint” which has chapters written by many of their former and existing postgraduate students. Their most recent book is “Architecture on the Carpet” which explores the links over the last hundred years between architecture and construction toys such as Meccano and Lego.

• What Do We Mean by Collapsing Gracefully?.- Current Ideas for Future Built Environments.- What Can We Learn From the Collapse of Societies in the Past?.- The Modern Built Environment and its Relationship to Collapse.- Technology and Collapse.- A Case Study of Technology and Climate Change.- Inequality, Collapse and the Built Environment.- Inequality in the Urban Landscape of New Zealand: From the Country to the Plot.- Growth and Collapse.- Growth and Resources.- Epidemics, Pandemics, and Collapse.- The Architecture of Wealth.- What Should We Do?

“The authors take their readers on a journey … a well-rounded exploration of the issues, both past and present … . Collapsing Gracefully encourages architects, designers and those in the construction industry to reflect on what we consider to be best for the built environment … . I thoroughly enjoyed Collapsing Gracefully. Regardless of your background, the book offers a great opportunity in which to stop and reflect on your work and consider its wider impacts.” (James McLean, Architecture New Zealand, March - April, 2022)