The following publicly available resources have been assembled to help SAH members address topics related to climate change, the environment, and ecology in their teaching and scholarly activities. We welcome suggestions by members for additional, shareable content.
Bibliographic Resources
Current: Collective for Architecture History and Environment hosts a peer-submitted, critical bibliography on topics related to architecture and the environment. You can view the bibliography here.
“Footnotes on Climate” is a project by the Avery Review and Columbia Books on Architecture and the City. The project consists of a Reading List on Architecture and Climate Change compiled from footnotes in the essay collection: Climates: Architecture and the Planetary Imaginary (New York: Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, 2016). You can view the reading list here.
From 2017-18, the Canadian Centre for Architecture hosted a multidisciplinary research program around the theme Architecture and/for the Environment. You can view a summary of the project and a description of the resulting publication: Environmental Histories of Architecture (Montreal: CCA, 2022) here, including a reading list compiled by contributors.
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is an international body responsible for assessing and reporting on the science related to climate change, including its future implications for cities and coastal urban areas. The group published its sixth assessment report in 2022, which you can view here.
Teaching & Learning Materials
The Temple Hoyne Buell Centre for the Study of American Architecture at Columbia University offers an annual course development prize in Architecture, Climate Change, and Society. You can download descriptions of the current and previous winning submissions here.
The Global Architecture History Teaching Collective is a digital humanities project housed in the Department of Architecture at MIT. The collective provides free lecture materials and teaching resources, designed primarily for undergraduate students, including a six-part lecture series on “The Global History of Architecture and Climate,” co-created by Daniel A. Barber, Jiat-Hwee Chang, Rachel Lee, Ola Uduku, and Iain Jackson.
The Emilio Ambasz Institute for the Joint Study of the Built and the Natural Environment at MoMA is a platform for exploring interactions between architecture and ecology. The Institute sponsors an annual earth day keynote address, a discussion series, and other events, many of which are available online through the Institute’s website, which you can view here.
Advocacy Groups
Architects Climate Action Network is a network of individuals within architecture and related built environment professions taking action to address the twin crises of climate and ecological breakdown. The group hosts events and sponsors several working groups who promote urgent action in architectural practice and within the building industry, and with topics ranging from carbon literacy and professional standards, to the use of natural materials and preservation of biodiversity in built areas.
Architecture and Environment is an affiliate group of the European Architectural History Network that aims to (re)consider “environment” both as a central object of enquiry within architectural history and as a methodological framework that raises new questions about existing historiography.
The Climate Heritage Network works to reorient climate policy, planning, and action at all levels to account for dimensions of culture, from arts to heritage. The network’s website contains a resource and video library with presentation material on topics related to building reuse, climate resilient development strategies, sustainable tourism, indigenous land stewardship, and more. Additional videos can be found on the network’s YouTube channel.