Architects Declare

The Fulcrum.Agency is proud to be a founding signatory on a declaration acknowledging the twin crisis of climate breakdown and biodiversity loss as the most serious issue of our time.

Architects Declare was launched in the UK in May 2019 and has quickly gathered momentum on a global scale. As signatories, The Fulcrum.Agency commits to the following eleven actions:

1. Raise awareness of the climate and biodiversity emergencies and the urgent need for action amongst our clients and supply change.
2. Advocate for faster change in our industry towards regenerative design practices and a higher Governmental funding priority to support this.
3. Establish climate and biodiversity mitigation principles as the key measure of our industry’s success: demonstration through awards, prizes and listings.
4. Share knowledge and research to that end on an open source basis.
5. Evaluate all new projects against the aspiration to contribute positively to mitigating climate breakdown, and encourage our clients to adopt this approach.
6. Upgrade existing buildings for extended use as a more carbon efficient alternative to demolition and new build whenever there is a viable choice.
7. Include life cycle costing, whole life carbon modelling and post occupancy evaluation as part of our basic scope of work, to reduce both embodied and operational resource use.
8. Adopt more regenerative design principles in our studios, with the aim of designing architecture and urbanism that goes beyond the standard of net zero carbon in use.
9. Collaborate with engineers, contractors and clients to further reduce construction waste.
10. Accelerate the shift to low embodied carbon materials in all our work.
11. Minimise wasteful use of resources in architecture and urban planning, both in quantum and in detail.

Importantly for us as a practice, the Australian declaration aims to achieve these actions by meaningfully addressing the interdependent and reciprocal relationship between our land and its Indigenous people.

We congratulate each founding signatory for taking this bold step – ARM, Alec Tzannes, Bates Smart, Breathe Architecture, Brit Anderson, BVN, Circa Morris Nunn, Clare Design, Design 5, DWP, FJMT, The Fulcrum.Agency, Glenn Murcott, Greenaway Architects, Gregory Burgess Architects, Hassell, Iredale Pedersen Hook, JCB, John Wardle Architects, Ken Maher, Kerstin Thompson Architects, Koning Eizenberg, Liminal, Partners Hill, Peter Elliot Architecture, Peter Stutchbury, Rick Leplastrier, Six Degrees, Taylor and Hinds, TKDA, Troppo and Woods Bagot.

If you’re an architect, we encourage you to make your own declaration here: ARCHITECTS DECLARE.