Putting the environment at the heart of architecture
Architecture graduate Sarah Lee is an advocate for radical change in architecture and construction to confront the climate emergency
We all use buildings. We all live on this planet. We've all got influence, whether it's choices that we make about our own home, or where we shop, or where we work.
Sarah Lee, BA (Hons) Architecture and PgDip Architecture ARB RIBA
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Architect at Stride Treglown
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BA (Hons) Architecture
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PgDip Architecture
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Current RIBA SW Chair
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Creator of Future Plymouth 2030
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?Champion for sustainability in architecture
I decided to become an architect when I was only eight.
My dad had a friend who was an architect, and we went around to his house. They were actually building an extension on their own house at the back. And I remember stepping up into it and it being quite a large space. It had big windows to the rear connecting into the garden and I remember experiencing that 'wow' sensation. That triggered, I think, my first interest in architecture, and when I found out that was what he did, I thought to myself, "Yeah, this is for me. This is what I want to do."
Industrial placements are essential
I did all my GCSEs and A levels geared up towards studying architecture. And I remember even when the school got us to do a careers survey, to look at different characteristics and different things that you think you like, and architecture was still firmly at the top of my list!
The more that I found out about architecture, the more I realised that I loved it. I love art. I love design. I love spaces and people.
While studying, I did an industrial placement at the local council in the Architects Department. I was enjoying working on real projects so much, I asked if I could stay for another year. I was in the middle of some projects, and I wanted to see them completed. I was allowed to stay for another year, so I had two years out, which I think is brilliant and I can't recommend that highly enough – industrial placement is essential to cement all that learning that you do at university.
Joining an architecture practice
When the time came to complete my studies and undertake my chartership, I chose to join Stride Treglown because it's a big national commercial company where I knew I would get plenty of experience across all stages of projects.
I knew that it was busy and had a great variety of projects that could see me through that final part of my training, and it did. I absolutely flew through my part three, smashed it. I was told I was the strongest candidate in my year, which was really nice to hear. In 2004, I could finally call myself an architect and I received my certificate of Chartership from the Royal Institute of British Architects.
I've been at Stride Treglown (designers of the University’s refurbished
InterCity Place
) for 22 years this summer, which I can't quite believe. It's just happened like that. I like a lot of how we do things as a company and what we do and how we support employees, and how we are encouraged to work with people externally. We're not dictated to by a single director; we have freedom to get on with our own projects and be authentic and produce bespoke designs. And I really like that. We are also a B Corp now and the climate emergency is starting to very much affect how we do things. The directors are really serious about embedding that in our company culture, and that is very exciting for me – I want to be part of that change.
Taking the climate emergency seriously
I got a Blue Peter badge probably when I was about eight for designing a poster encouraging people to recycle. So, looking after our planet has always been close to my heart.
When I first came to Stride Treglown, we were working on a project for a new library and business centre and, because of how it was funded, I had to undertake a Building Research Establishment’s Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) assessment, which acts as a design checklist of sorts. I was quite encouraged by this step. I thought, “Brilliant, this is how we assess ethical and environmental decisions about our building design as we go along.” As time went on, however, I realised these assessments were a bit hit-and-miss and inconsistent in their requirement, only happening if they were conditional for funding or the client requested them.
In 2019, the climate emergency declarations were made, and I was at that time Chair of the Plymouth branch of the RIBA. Through my position as Chair, I found myself in rooms with senior people from local councils, the NHS, the MOD and education establishments. They were talking about whether it was time to get out the big stick and tell people they had to do things better. Or whether it was time to dangle carrots and encourage people to want to do better.
I was horrified. I thought, surely if we've declared an emergency, we need to respond more urgently.
If you look up the definition of the word 'emergency,' it says that it's something that you didn't expect. It hits and you've got to respond to it urgently. And I thought, "We need a bit more education and leadership on this."
From that realisation, I set off on this journey of education and upskilling, to try and get to the bottom of what is it that we can and actually need to do. Quite soon after that, I heard about the
Sustainability Hub
at the University of Plymouth and met with
Dr Paul Hardman
, manager of the
Sustainable Earth Institute
. The Hub had recently been renovated to high retrofit standards – the building was a great showcase of using sustainable methods in architecture.
We held our first RIBA meeting of 2020 in the Hub and our connections blossomed from there. These connections led to a discussion around creating a conference focused on sustainability in the built environment and construction at the University – we could have different speakers and various topics and opportunity for networking and sharing ideas. With Paul's support, we set off.
Starting Future Plymouth 2030
It was important to me that this conference was for everybody. We all use buildings. We all live on this planet. We've all got influence, whether it's choices that we make about our own home, or where we shop, or where we work. So that was where the idea to call it Future Plymouth 2030 came from – a conference that provides independent and autonomous access to knowledge and experience that everybody can be part of and learn from.
We started planning the event and then COVID-19 hit, so that was a bit of a blow. We went home to work and realised we were going to be stuck at home for quite some time, so the plans for the conference went out the window.
While stuck at home, I started to realise that webinars seemed to be the way that people were communicating, and I thought, "Why don't we just try and deliver this as a webinar series instead?" My boss thought I was mad. I said it was just going be just six webinars and I remember him rolling his eyes and saying that's quite a lot, but we ended up doing 30!
It became my lockdown project and a bit of a labour of love, really. If I say I'm going to do something, I do it. I'll make sure it happens.
I was at home coordinating this webinar series that we were delivering almost fortnightly for two years. The University gave me great support with access to the academics and research fellows, support with some of the event logistics and initial funding towards helping set up the initiative and website. Most of the talks were recorded and are accessible on the Future Plymouth 2030 YouTube channel so they're still being referred to and shared.
The environment as a key consideration in buildings
In architecture, we always talk about the Golden Triangle: cost, quality, and time. Actually, now it’s becoming a golden square: cost, quality, time, and carbon. Carbon has got to be something that's considered right from day one of a project and you almost have to set a carbon budget like you have a monetary budget – we try to get that message across to clients and the design team from the start of any project now.
We need a shift in our industry and for clients to be brave and bold. At the moment, I think we're just in these transitional times where people are on their individual journeys towards understanding what sustainability truly is and how they can help influence it or achieve it.
There are buildings being finished now that are already out of date in sustainability and futureproofing terms, and there are contractors rushing to start on site before these new regulations come in so they don't have to comply with them. I think that's a negative attitude and a bit of a head-in-the-sand response. The sooner the government dictates to the construction industry these new elevated standards, the better. We're readying ourselves in industry. We've been training our employees; we've been talking to everyone about it so they’re aware its going to happen and then the government says, “Actually we'll do that next year” – it's not good enough.
Future Plymouth 2030 had 2,000 people attend those 30 webinars over lockdown, including people from other countries, which just blew my mind. It was covering topics that are relevant everywhere and have a global impact. And because we ended up going digital with the virtual webinar series, it just made it all so much more accessible. We have morphed it into a physical event series now and, as a result, I've been invited to join various boards and steering groups. Everyone wants to hear my opinion on things, which is quite funny for me because I've always been quite reserved about speaking out, but suddenly I'm projected into this role where I'm being asked to give talks to students and at business and construction events and it's just something I wouldn't have ever envisaged myself doing.
It's changed my role within the company, it's changed my perception of what's possible and what should be done and what needs to be done. I'm on a slightly different career path now. It's all happened in quite a short period of time, but I like it. I feel like I'm doing good. I’m taking a more strategic high level influential role instead of being embroiled with the nitty gritty of project delivery, but I've done that for 20 years. So, maybe it's time for a change.
Staying open to change
During my time at Plymouth, I had some really lovely inspirational lecturers. They opened my eyes to what good design actually is what great designers there have been in the recent past. We had a brilliant history lecturer, Dirk Hansen. He was great fun and his lectures were always mind-blowing. The degree also gave us access to some amazing speakers such as Eva Jiřičná and Glenn Howells.
It’s so important to just get out there – in the early days, there were times when I was just crawling around on the floor folding up massive drawings that had to be sent out in the post. We have to ensure we're always listening and learning, hearing what's going on around you. It may not necessarily be information about a project you're directly working on, but you can still always learn so much. Every day's a school day!
To any new graduates I would say keep your eyes and ears always open. There's so much change happening in our industry with regulations such as the Building Safety Act following the Grenfell tragedy being introduced recently. There also needs to be immediate change to deal with the climate emergency. We have to start making regulatory changes more drastically, more radically and more urgently. There are some great architectural practises out there that have been on the environmental warpath for a long time.
I think we've all got to help make a difference. There are consultants I've worked with for many years locally who've always been a bit dismissive of sustainability and low-carbon design, and now even they're changing. They're waking up and realising we've got to take this seriously. Industries generally seem to be waking up, so we need to be ready and so do our graduates.
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