Installationsföreläsning – Charlie Gullström

Välkommen till Charlie Gullström installationsföreläsning som adjungerad professor vid avdelningen för byggnadsdesign, institutionen för arkitektur och samhällsbyggnadsteknik.

Abstract

Since antiquity the identity of the architect was founded on the conception that we bring new buildings to the world. The sudden awakening that climate change has imposed on our profession arguably generates an identity crisis, and possibly the need for a revised curriculum in many architecture schools. The systemic and resource-based approach that characterises circular economy, regenerative design and adaptive reuse invites architects to take greater interest in the existing built environment and urban heritage, not least to demonstrate that our designs are carbon efficient. Beyond designing an actual building or master plan, we must account for its life-cycle performance and contribution as part of a larger system. This is a new economy in which values are traded in unfamiliar currencies for architects, such as kgCO2e/m2 and kWh, but it also recognizes intangible and human resources for cultural value creation and participation. The lecture addresses a fundamental change in the concept and experimental practice of architecture that follows from a circular economy framework. Examples from related disciplines, equally concerned with value mapping and analysis, will be used to discuss how design methodologies in architecture and planning may be informed by circular economy.

Bio

Charlie Gullström (Architect SAR/MSA, PhD) is Research and Innovation Strategist at Sweco and recently appointed adjunct Professor at Chalmers ACE on the topic of circular economy in architecture and planning. Gullström is an experienced research leader of quadruple helix initiatives to accelerate sustainable urban development, digitalisation and the transition to a circular urban economy. Following an extensive academic career, she currently coordinates Sweco Architects’ research and innovation through a multidisciplinary effort that leverages on experts in a broad range of technical fields. Earlier research includes participatory methodologies for citizen-driven climate transition with a particular interest on social and spatial connectedness in real and virtual space (digital twins and interactive architecture).