This lecture will be conducted in-person in the Frederick P. Rose Auditorium and through Zoom.

For Zoom attendance, please register in advance here.
For In-Person attendance, please register in advance here.

Like the energy sector, the building sector operates at the heart of the fossil fuel economy. We - architects, engineers, and designers - are fossil fuel workers, and the basic functioning of our industry is ecologically untenable. Architectural projects entail the mobilization and consumption of enormous quantities of material, land, and energy. The entire economy of the building sector needs to be reoriented to achieve a racially, socially, and ecologically just future.

In response, The Architecture Lobby’s Green New Deal Working Group will be joined in conversation by the Cooper Climate Coalition to discuss the need to build collective power, engage with policy and policymakers, and advocate for a Just Transition for architecture. The conversation will be moderated by Elisa Iturbe.

The Architecture Lobby (TAL) is a grassroots organization of architectural workers that advocates for just labor practices and an equitable built environment. Founded in the United States and international in membership, we bring experience and expertise from many design fields—architecture, construction, planning, landscape, engineering, academia—to protect the rights and livelihoods of all workers.

‍In 2019 members of TAL formed a Green New Deal Working Group to focus on organizing for ecological justice as it relates to architectural labor, the built environment, and sustainable futures for all. Members of the Working Group reflect many different parts of the architecture, engineering and design industry employed in public, private, and university sectors, ranging from designers and engineers, to educators and researchers. We share a commitment to social and racial justice and a motivation to act urgently in response to the climate crisis. As a working group within the larger Architecture Lobby organization, we do not represent the interests of any single market, industry, or mode of building. We are motivated by the urgency of climate action and committed to long-term collaboration with allied people and groups across policy, practice, and advocacy.

The Cooper Climate Coalition is an open body of students, faculty, and staff at The Cooper Union, facilitates conversations, events, and student projects within the institution that center the climate crisis and its intersections with races, classes, genders, sexualities, histories, economies, political structures and more. Along with organizing Cooper Union’s Climate Week programs and events in the fall, the Climate Coalition takes responsibility for fostering interdisciplinarity throughout The Cooper Union in support of environmental action.

This event is free and open to the public. Registration is required.

View the full Fall 2022 Lectures and Events List.