Days may be numbered for showcases such as Foster\u2019s Gherkin, warns Cambridge expert.<\/p>\n
Glazed buildings including the Gherkin could become \u201cpariahs\u201d by 2050 because of their inability to cope with climate change and dwindling resources such as power and water, it was claimed this week.<\/p>\n
As BD celebrates its 40th anniversary, the head of architecture at Cambridge University said the next 40 years would see many of today\u2019s architectural landmarks increasingly dismissed as energy-guzzling relics of a bygone age. Alan Short said global warming and other factors including the ageing population would result in a huge programme of retrofitting as well as radically different forms of architectural expression.<\/p>\n
Many of Short\u2019s predictions were echoed by Oxford University professor Steve Rayner, who this week announced details of a major research project into how cities can be adapted over the coming decades.<\/p>\n
Short said: \u201cThere is a huge challenge for the construction industry and designers\u2026 the idea of making buildings out of glass is going to become a historical phenomenon. Buildings that use huge amounts of energy, and big glass office buildings, will be pariah buildings. People won\u2019t want to rent them. Will the Gherkin still be standing? Well, no names, but I do think that is going to be a big issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rayner, the head of the Institute for Science, Innovation & Society at Oxford\u2019s Sa\u00efd Business School, is leading research into how urban areas can meet the \u201cintense pressures\u201d of climate change and other factors. He agreed that current commercial buildings would become increasingly sidelined.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople have been disastrously wrong before in predicting ways of working but the need to have large office buildings will change,\u201d he said. \u201cThese kinds of buildings will become less desirable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rohit Talwar, chief executive of forecasting consultancy Fast Future, which recently examined the future of professions including architecture for the government, agreed. \u201cThe big glass testaments to wealth and power in the eighties, nineties and noughties will come under pressure,\u201d he said. \u201cIcons will become so expensive that it hurts the bottom line. By 2050, energy demand will have grown by between 70% and 100%.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, architects defended the use of glazing in their buildings and said they will still continue to use more efficient forms of glass. Ken Shuttleworth, one of the designers of the Gherkin while at Foster & Partners and a previous critic of \u201cglass box\u201d architecture, said glass manufacture was evolving all the time. \u201cGlass lets in far too much heat but [manufacturers] are reinventing what they can do with glass,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Foster\u2019s declined to comment.<\/p>\n
Link to bdonline news article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Days may be numbered for showcases such as Foster\u2019s Gherkin, warns Cambridge expert. Glazed buildings including the Gherkin could become \u201cpariahs\u201d by 2050 because of their inability to cope with climate change and dwindling resources such as power and water, … Continue reading