The Urban Report Podcast
Our Co-CEO, Claus Mathiesen, joined Foresight's Climate and Energy podcast, "The Urban Report" for an intriguing discussion on the diverse approaches to decarbonizing the built environment in Europe and Japan. As we all know, reducing emissions is a global imperative. However, the methods employed to achieve this goal can vary significantly depending on the region. This podcast episode delves into the complexities of adapting climate mitigation measures to diverse contexts, where one-size-fits-all solutions simply won't cut it.
What Japan and Denmark can teach each other about the building sector
While reducing emissions is a global goal, the means of doing so inevitably varies by region. Climate mitigation measures must adapt to diverse contexts, making one-size-fits-all solutions difficult to apply.
The built environment provides a particularly salient example of how drastically approaches can differ across the globe.
In Europe, it is not uncommon for people to live and work in buildings constructed many decades, even centuries, ago. The continents’ built heritage has a cultural and historical value which translates to older buildings being restored rather than demolished (with some notable exceptions).
This means that much of Europe’s efforts to cut emissions from its building stock revolves around renovation—improving the energy efficiency of existing buildings.
In Japan, by contrast, homes are generally constructed to last for only 30 years before being demolished and rebuilt. This approach of tearing down and rebuilding is partly due to the ever-present threat of destructive natural disasters facing Japan, such as earthquakes, but it is also tied to the culturally-important concept of impermanence.
As a result, the European approach of widespread renovations is less important in the Japanese context, as many buildings are not intended to be standing in a century’s time.
So, given their diversity, what can Europe and Japan teach one another about decarbonising the built environment? This episode of The Urban Report features a roundtable discussion with built environment experts hailing from Denmark and Japan.
Claus Mathiesen of Urban Partners, Signe Kongebro of Henning Larsen Architects, Jakob Norman-Hansen of BLOXHUB and noted Japanese architect Jun Mitsui join the show to examine the cultural differences in the approach to sustainability in the Nordic countries and Japan, and what it will take individually and collectively to meet our climate goals in the built environment.
