From good intentions to sustainable action!
September 16. JJW Architects launched their ”Little green – A book on sustainable practice at JJW Architects.” The event took place at JJW's scenic germinating ‘greenhouse’ in the area of Frederiksberg, Copenhagen, where the owner Ole Hornbek made a warm welcome and invited the guests to open debate on sustainable practice.
All seats were occupied this Thursday afternoon at JJW. The guests exchanged viewpoints and frustrations – they discussed green ideals; good intentions; transformations; experiences, best practice examples, action and lack of same.
According to Ole Hornbek, the 'little green' is neither a load manifest nor a strategic lead, but a pick up for the latest 3 years of work in JJW, who aims to transform visions and experiences into concrete sustainable action. The little green book presents the process resulting in what JJW calls an "architectural behavior”. And what Ole Hornbek himself explains as a ”tiny bleep” to promote the debate on sustainable action.
The message is clear at JJW. Their profile and architectural practice drives from three main points: approach, knowledge, and action. Approach; because sustainable architectural behavior ranges just as high as new technologies. Knowledge; because innovative thoughts and knowledge sharing are essentials in order to implement sustainable architecture. Action; because good intentions belong to the past - and sustainable actions to the present.
”We are little fish in a big sea” points Ole Hornbek and continues underlining that sustainable practices imply for increased connectivity and corporation across related partners in the field of architecture and urban planning. Action is essential and action is what defines the work of JJW Architects. The 'little green' and the event last Thursday demonstrate that JJW is preparing for action.
In order to feed the debate, three guest speakers were invited to present three perspectives on sustainable behavior from a visionary state, to best practice and concrete architectural action. The first speaker of the day was Member of Folketinget and Chairman of Folketingets Environment – and Planning Committee, Ida Auken (SF). The next speaker to present examples on best practice, was project leader for Sustainable Cities™, (DAC) Anna Esbjørn Hess. Finally, Tina Saabye, City Architect of Copenhagen outlined one of the key challenge that every pratician is facing prior to sustainable action. Using a “mindmap”, Tina Saabye illustarted the fact that sustainable actions implies for everything and everyone, which is one of reason why people find sustainability so complicated.
Sustainability is complex, the field is enormous, and multiple partners are connected, interrelated, and constantly overlapping each other’s spaces when it comes to architectural and urban sustainability. However, initiatives like the ‘little green’ underlines that JJW Architects have the drive, the cooperativeness, and the will to act.
DAC and Sustainable Cities™ thank JJW Architects for the event, your approach and will to act when it comes to architectural sustainability. The debate on sustainable action has begun – let us all make sure that it continues and grows from here.
Comments
If the complexity of sustainability were to be divided into smaller fields and these fields into even smaller groups, the ordinary person would have a better chance of understanding it. The key to resolving large challenges is to divide it into smaller challenges so it will not seem so complex, then more people would understand it and thereby act and more hands would make the challenge a bit easier. People in general tend to ignore problems if they do not understand them. So making people understand must be essential, to making sustainability grow.
Dear Justin,
We totally agree - which is why we write our cases from a 'social', 'traffic' or 'green' perspective even though a lot of cases contain both a social, environmental and econonomic dimension.
We believe that showing people best practice examples of how things can be - and are - done in cities and communities around the world is one way to enlighten people. So please spread the word about our site!
Best regards, Anna
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