April 2011, 1370. VOLUME CCXXIX

Architects should be leading the debate about energy use and buildings

Cataclysmic events in Japan and the ongoing conflict in Libya have thrown the precarious nature of energy dependence into sharp relief. In the developed world, buildings are still responsible for half of all energy consumed, so clearly architects have a crucial part to play in shaping the discussion about the relationship between energy use and the built environment.

Over the last decade, notions of sustainability have gained genuine political and cultural traction, but also thrown up the distracting spectre of greenwash, which pays lip service to green ideas without really changing the game. With their generalist perspective across a wide range of disciplines, architects are well placed to lead a world changing debate rather than being supine followers or obliging purveyors of luxury icons.

Away from the global energy apocalypse, this issue renews some old acquaintances – first with Peter Cook, the inaugural contributor to our new Opinion column and secondly with James Stirling, whose remarkable legacy is revaluated in depth by an array of critics and thinkers. Big Jim’s premature death in 1992 was an immense loss to architecture and nearly 20 years later his absence is still felt.