Wanting to take a firmer stance on acknowledging the climate impacts of our projects and profession, OLIN Labs used the anchor of Climate Week 2023 to curate a series of internal discussions, with invited guest speakers, to help us take stock of the state of our practice, current trends, and define and discuss our research, practice, and operational objectives for the future.
The Climate Week program was organized around four main topics: Carbon Accounting, Carbon + Communities, Carbon + Biodiversity, and Carbon + Operations. Guest speakers included landscape architects, engineers, and ecologists from academia and practice, coming together in short informal conversations with representatives from OLIN and Labs leadership, and studio members. Following the talks, OLINites were asked to think critically about opportunities for advancing climate goals through our work. Prompts included: What feels possible? What feels impossible? Where can we learn? Where can we advocate? Each evening, select films from the Environmental Film Festival, offered for free through Climate Week NYC, were screened, framing even broader implications of the climate crisis on a national and global scale.
OLIN’s Dan Krall, Rebecca Popowsky and Josh Leaskey discuss Carbon + Operations with Rob Kuper, from Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture on September 21 during Climate Week.
Climate Week at OLIN also featured a preview of OLIN Lab’s internal Carbon Audit. Through this initiative, OLIN studio members Moya Sun, RLA, Hangxing Liu, Emily Bunker, Yingfan Jia, and Marzia Micali evaluated four OLIN projects, past and present, through the carbon accounting applications Carbon Conscience and Pathfinder. Their research was presented during Climate Week, presenting specific metrics regarding the climate implications of our work. Their ongoing research will evolve into a “carbon curriculum” for OLINites that will broaden our collective knowledge of the carbon impacts of design decisions at every phase.
OLIN is grateful to current and past Landscape Architecture Foundation fellows Chris Hardy, of Sasaki, Erin Kelly, RLA, and Deb Guenther, of Mithun, in addition to Chris Streb, of Biohabitats, Erik Kiviat, of Hudsonia, Ltd., and Rob Kuper, of Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture for sharing their time and expertise with us, and generating fruitful conversation.
OLIN Labs will carry the energy of this inspiring week forward into future Labs initiatives and research projects. Stay tuned for future updates to follow!
