Fionn MacKillop

Urban Climatology Applied to Urban Planning: A Postwar Knowledge Circulation Failure

The article discusses an instance of knowledge that failed to circulate — the application of urban climatology in town planning. This field of applied science was systematized in German-speaking universities and cities and remains most firmly established in North-Central Europe. In the decades after the second world war successive commissions and study groups of the World Meteorological Organization, the International Federation of Housing and Planning, the Confederation Internationale du Bâtiment and the International Society for Biometeorology sought to spread awareness of climatological factors among planners and architects worldwide. The article examines the organizations and individuals involved in this campaign, describes their meetings, publications and outreach, and assesses the disappointing impact. The legacy of this failure is considered in the context of present-day interest in planning for carbon mitigation and climate-change adaptation.

The construction of ‘waste’ in the UK steel industry

The steel industry has undergone profound changes of late with high profile takeovers (Tata-Corus and Mittal-Arcelor) that are part of a shift of the industry from the global North to the global South. Steel is probably the material of the globalised world with its icons and power horses (the aeroplane, the cargo ship, the automobile), it is extremely flexible in its applications, and fits into the current discourse on ‘sustainability’ because it is ‘recyclable’. Indeed, the industry is keen to stress its ‘green’ credentials and efficient management of material flows in a context of rising costs, particularly of raw materials. Paradoxically, steel tends to be seen, not least by the social sciences, as an ‘old-fashioned’ and ‘dirty’ industry. This paper explores this apparent paradox through the issue of ‘waste’ management in the industry because it allows an analysis of the multi-dimensional relationships between materials, technologies and practices. Drawing on the resources of social as well as material sciences, the paper analyses to what extent ‘waste’ management is an issue of objective material properties, in contrast to social and organisational perceptions and practices around materials.

Sustainable as a basis of affordable? Understanding the affordability ‘crisis’ in Australian housing

There is much talk of a housing affordability crisis in Australia, accompanied by a sense of a lack of sustainability of the current stock and new buildings. I discuss the notions of housing affordability and sustainability in the current Australian context, to explain why indeed there is an affordability problem and how it is connected to that of sustainability. I then consider how this situation has come about, and what directions could be taken in addressing it. It emerges that the crucial point is the need for a cultural change in terms of expectations and approaches in achieving affordability and sustainability.