{"id":119362,"date":"2025-08-14T15:41:04","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T19:41:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/?page_id=119362"},"modified":"2025-10-23T11:37:44","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T15:37:44","slug":"a-moratorium-on-new-construction","status":"publish","type":"metro_viewpoint","link":"https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/viewpoints\/a-moratorium-on-new-construction\/","title":{"rendered":"A Moratorium on New Construction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-sandow-article-header article-header\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-header\" style=\"object-fit:cover;object-position:50% 50%\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1245\" height=\"891\" src=https://metropolismag.com/"https:////metropolismag.com//wp-content//uploads//2025//10//Pages-from-241210_CSP14_Interior_CMB_Page_3-1.jpg/" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-119417\" srcset=\"https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Pages-from-241210_CSP14_Interior_CMB_Page_3-1.jpg 1245w, https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Pages-from-241210_CSP14_Interior_CMB_Page_3-1-300x215.jpg 300w, https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Pages-from-241210_CSP14_Interior_CMB_Page_3-1-1024x733.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Pages-from-241210_CSP14_Interior_CMB_Page_3-1-768x550.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1245px) 100vw, 1245px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Courtesy Charlotte Malterre-Barthes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group article-header_intro none\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><p class=\"article-date\" aria-label=\"Post Date\">August 14, 2025<\/p>\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-post-title\">A Moratorium on New Construction<\/h1><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column article-header_meta is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:50%\">\n<p class=\"summary size-regular\">A new book calls for a global halt on new construction\u2014reframing architecture\u2019s value and impact in the face of climate and social crises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-sandow-byline byline size-regular\"><span>By: <\/span><a href=https://metropolismag.com/"//tag//charlotte-malterre-barthes/">Charlotte Malterre-Barthes<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n<ul class=\"social-share\"><li><a href=https://metropolismag.com/"https:////www.facebook.com//sharer//sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fmetropolismag.com%2Fviewpoints%2Fa-moratorium-on-new-construction%2F\%22 target=\"_blank\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\"><path d=\"M9 8h-3v4h3v12h5v-12h3.642l.358-4h-4v-1.667c0-.955.192-1.333 1.115-1.333h2.885v-5h-3.808c-3.596 0-5.192 1.583-5.192 4.615v3.385z\" \/><\/svg><\/a><\/li><li><a href=https://metropolismag.com/"https:////www.linkedin.com//sharing//share-offsite//?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmetropolismag.com%2Fviewpoints%2Fa-moratorium-on-new-construction%2F\%22 target=\"_blank\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\"><path d=\"M4.98 3.5c0 1.381-1.11 2.5-2.48 2.5s-2.48-1.119-2.48-2.5c0-1.38 1.11-2.5 2.48-2.5s2.48 1.12 2.48 2.5zm.02 4.5h-5v16h5v-16zm7.982 0h-4.968v16h4.969v-8.399c0-4.67 6.029-5.052 6.029 0v8.399h4.988v-10.131c0-7.88-8.922-7.593-11.018-3.714v-2.155z\" \/><\/svg><\/a><\/li><li><a href=https://metropolismag.com/"http:////pinterest.com//pin//create//button//?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmetropolismag.com%2Fviewpoints%2Fa-moratorium-on-new-construction%2F&amp;description=A+Moratorium+on+New+Construction\%22 target=\"_blank\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\"> <path d=\"M12 0c-6.627 0-12 5.372-12 12 0 5.084 3.163 9.426 7.627 11.174-.105-.949-.2-2.405.042-3.441.218-.937 1.407-5.965 1.407-5.965s-.359-.719-.359-1.782c0-1.668.967-2.914 2.171-2.914 1.023 0 1.518.769 1.518 1.69 0 1.029-.655 2.568-.994 3.995-.283 1.194.599 2.169 1.777 2.169 2.133 0 3.772-2.249 3.772-5.495 0-2.873-2.064-4.882-5.012-4.882-3.414 0-5.418 2.561-5.418 5.207 0 1.031.397 2.138.893 2.738.098.119.112.224.083.345l-.333 1.36c-.053.22-.174.267-.402.161-1.499-.698-2.436-2.889-2.436-4.649 0-3.785 2.75-7.262 7.929-7.262 4.163 0 7.398 2.967 7.398 6.931 0 4.136-2.607 7.464-6.227 7.464-1.216 0-2.359-.631-2.75-1.378l-.748 2.853c-.271 1.043-1.002 2.35-1.492 3.146 1.124.347 2.317.535 3.554.535 6.627 0 12-5.373 12-12 0-6.628-5.373-12-12-12z\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\" clip-rule=\"evenodd\" \/><\/svg><\/a><\/li><li><a href=https://metropolismag.com/"mailto:?body=https%3A%2F%2Fmetropolismag.com%2Fviewpoints%2Fa-moratorium-on-new-construction%2F&amp;subject=A+Moratorium+on+New+Construction\%22 target=\"_blank\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\"><path d=\"M12 12.713l-11.985-9.713h23.97l-11.985 9.713zm0 2.574l-12-9.725v15.438h24v-15.438l-12 9.725z\"\/><\/svg><\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column empty-header-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:50%\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap size-regular\">Charlotte Malterre-Barthes\u2019s <em>A Moratorium on New Construction <\/em>is not simply a provocation\u2014it is a nine-step manifesto that calls for a global freeze on building. Drawing from a wealth of case studies, historical precedents, and progressive thinkers, she constructs a picture of how such a halt could be implemented and sustained.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"size-regular\">Malterre-Barthes, an assistant professor of architectural and urban design at the \u00c9cole Polytechnique F\u00e9d\u00e9rale de Lausanne, argues that devastation, greenhouse gas emissions, resource depletion, and social injustice are inseparable from the act of building. A moratorium, she contends, \u201cis unique in its clarity\u201d\u2014granting society a pause to repair damage, rethink priorities, and reimagine the very purpose of architects and our skills and value to our communities.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"size-regular\">The book is not a detailed guide to achieving this utopian vision of stopping construction, and it acknowledges contradictions within the industry. Rather, it reads as an invitation to architects to act in line with the current times and be of service to people. By transforming vacant spaces into affordable homes, valuing existing materials over new extraction, and redefining architectural practice as an act of care and repair, architects could strengthen its relevance and agency in the face of climate crisis, inequality, deregulation, and automation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"size-regular\">Here, METROPOLIS shares some excerpts from the book that invite deeper reflection on the profession. <em>\u2014Francisco Brown<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"object-fit:cover;object-position:50% 50%\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"717\" height=\"1024\" src=https://metropolismag.com/"https:////metropolismag.com//wp-content//uploads//2025//10//MoratoriumSTRN_CSP14_Front-Cover_SBB-717x1024.jpg/" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-119406\" srcset=\"https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/MoratoriumSTRN_CSP14_Front-Cover_SBB-717x1024.jpg 717w, https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/MoratoriumSTRN_CSP14_Front-Cover_SBB-210x300.jpg 210w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 717px) 100vw, 717px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Written by Charlotte Malterre-Barthes, A Moratorium on New Construction (Sternberg Press, 2025) envisions a less extractive future for architecture. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">01. STOP BUILDING&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"size-regular\">\u201cTo build is also to destroy. To construct anything sets a series of actors, events, and transactions with harmful consequences in motion. From funding and legislating to designing and organizing, construction propels the extraction, transportation, processing, and installation of materials; the allocating, inhabiting, exploiting, and commodifying of space; and finally, the generating of waste via demolition. At every turn, there are corresponding adverse effects: known ones, such as ecological devastation and greenhouse gas emissions, but also lesser-identified outcomes, such as debt production, speculative financing, exploitative labor conditions, socially destructive mining, health hazards, racial discrimination, resource depletion, eternal pollution\u2014these other, externalized, forms of social and spatial injustice are just some of the many nefarious arrangements that yield the architecture of our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"size-regular\">\u201cUntil design and planning professionals have figured out how to change these devastating modes of engagement with the built and unbuilt environments, authorities everywhere should stop granting new building permits and enforce a construction ban. This is the premise of the proposed moratorium on new construction you hold in your hands. Such a call may seem drastic at first. But to address the massive, relentless, and senseless damage generated by construction and all its ancillary effects, a moratorium is unique in its clarity as a path toward the radical restructuring society urgently needs. As we problematize what, how, where, by and for whom, and for how long we build, an indefinite pause would allow us to assess, mitigate, correct, and repair the harm generated in the construction of the present world, granting respite today while plotting the course for a different tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">02. HOUSE EVERYONE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"size-regular\">\u201cOne place to begin is rejecting the implacable neoliberal presumption that affordable housing is best provided through new units, primarily by private forces. Offering a view outside this logic by jettisoning the dictate of new building brings emancipatory possibilities for residential production within the existing stock.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"size-regular\">\u201cIn the frame of a moratorium on new construction, tackling vacancy calls for radical measures. To stop building is to freeze the stock, which could be accused of limiting the possibility of generational wealth. The aforementioned legal tools could withdraw vacant spaces from the market toward redistribution, actively guaranteeing housing while compensating owners. The redesign and conversion of existing, vacant spaces into affordable, safe, enjoyable, and car-optional homes\u2014instead of new construction\u2014could become the backbone of a profound reinvention of the housing landscape, undoing decades upon decades of housing injustice, uneven investment, and extractivism.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group none\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\" style=\"object-fit:cover;object-position:50% 50%\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1837\" src=https://metropolismag.com/"https:////metropolismag.com//wp-content//uploads//2025//10//Scales-of-Extraction_HR-scaled.jpg/" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-119407\" srcset=\"https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Scales-of-Extraction_HR-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Scales-of-Extraction_HR-300x215.jpg 300w, https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Scales-of-Extraction_HR-1024x735.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Scales-of-Extraction_HR-768x551.jpg 768w, https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Scales-of-Extraction_HR-1536x1102.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Scales-of-Extraction_HR-2048x1470.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Malterre-Barthes\u2019s Scales of Destruction diagram. Courtesy Charlotte Malterre-Barthes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">03. CHANGE VALUE SYSTEMS<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"size-regular\">\u201cEfforts toward a virtuous circular economy are underway. Still, calculations of the real price of construction materials and their \u2018hidden gray energy\u2019 (their extractive origins) do not value the past, present, and future damage of lost living organisms, destroyed livelihoods, toxic legacies, and social wastelands they create. This might be because of limited metrics and the complexity of supply chains, but also because of the undervaluing of who is affected by extractive processes, a distorted view driven by economic interests, racism, classism, and a colonial mindset prioritizing profits over the living.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"size-regular\">\u201cHowever, as long as the agents shaping value definition standards remain in the hands of the construction lobby, greenwashing will be the norm. Recycling still relies on extraction. Dismantling and demolition are also heavy carbon-generating activities.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">04. HALT EXTRACTION &nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"size-regular\">\u201cHowever, the encouragement of work that reframes discourses, epistemologies, and histories of exploitative economies concerning the built environment remains primarily confined to academia, research institutions, or politicized niches.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"size-regular\">\u201cThe backlash is already underway. BIPOC, feminists, queer, and anticolonial groups in cultural spheres are under attack from various sides, as \u2018wokeness\u2019 is made a slur. Since October 2023, there has been a gross conflation of anticolonialism with antisemitism and other unhelpful shortcuts. This means that this urgently needed research is hindered. Moreover, connecting building activities and material extraction to their earth-ravaging activities, necropolitics, and racialized oppression does not translate into correcting how construction is conducted and how architecture is produced. Most actors in the industry are yet to recognize these systemic and interconnected injustices and the material pillage and ecological devastation that space production propels\u2014beyond carbon quantification myopia, plain defensive posturing, or basic greenwashing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"size-regular\">\u201cWhen extraction stops, architecture will have to deal solely with the existing stock\u2014demolition and its heavy carbon release being out of the question. A post-extractive architecture values every existing building and element, and relinquishes formal control toward fostering other futures. A post-extractive architecture engages directly with matter while understanding its beginnings, production processes, and labor footprints. A post-extractive architecture advocates not to.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\" style=\"object-fit:cover;object-position:50% 50%\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1288\" src=https://metropolismag.com/"https:////metropolismag.com//wp-content//uploads//2025//10//Pages-from-241210_CSP14_Interior_CMB_Page_3.jpg/" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-119405\" srcset=\"https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Pages-from-241210_CSP14_Interior_CMB_Page_3.jpg 1800w, https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Pages-from-241210_CSP14_Interior_CMB_Page_3-300x215.jpg 300w, https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Pages-from-241210_CSP14_Interior_CMB_Page_3-1024x733.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Pages-from-241210_CSP14_Interior_CMB_Page_3-768x550.jpg 768w, https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Pages-from-241210_CSP14_Interior_CMB_Page_3-1536x1099.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">In the book, Malterre-Barthes included a 2005 photo essay depicting Rubble Mountain St Truiden, an installation by artist \nLara Almarcegui. In the project, Almarcegui piled up the exact amount of rubble from a house in the place where it once stood. Courtesy Charlotte Malterre-Barthes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\" style=\"object-fit:cover;object-position:50% 50%\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1073\" src=https://metropolismag.com/"https:////metropolismag.com//wp-content//uploads//2025//10//Pages-from-241210_CSP14_Interior_CMB_Page_2.jpg/" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-119412\" srcset=\"https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Pages-from-241210_CSP14_Interior_CMB_Page_2.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Pages-from-241210_CSP14_Interior_CMB_Page_2-300x215.jpg 300w, https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Pages-from-241210_CSP14_Interior_CMB_Page_2-1024x733.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Pages-from-241210_CSP14_Interior_CMB_Page_2-768x549.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Courtesy Charlotte Malterre-Barthes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">05. REVOLUTIONIZE CONSTRUCTION<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"size-regular\">\u201cWhat is required is a transformative shift in the public\u2019s perception of the built environment: similar to the inconceivability of smoking in commercial flights today (banned in the US in 1988 and in 2002 in the EU despite opposition by virulent tobacco lobbies), the aim is for demolition to be unthinkable in the future, with new construction being an exceptional occurrence\u2014at least until the ongoing crisis has been dramatically mitigated. Designers will charge clients not to, pivoting toward new tasks that require their abilities. Agents engaged in image production, desire-fabricating machines, and narrative creation can deploy their ability to spin stories to tell other construction tales, using transformative imagination to envision change through narratives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"size-regular\">\u201cArchitecture is a solutionist discipline, assuming there is something to fix, with an instrumental approach to design and problem-solving intrinsically part of its mandate. Harnessing this characteristic, the discipline can address the obsolescence and inertia within its own system and use problem-solving skills to mitigate the harm that the construction industry causes to both humans and nonhuman entities. By doing so, architecture can become a practice of healing and reparation, and move forward as a discipline of strategic importance to face the polycrisis. To halt new construction is to practically seek what and how a revolutionized industry could do to counter its destructive ways. Reallocating capital, material, workforce, and imagination into the care and repair of the built and unbuilt environment toward other ways of space-making that do not cause devastation, a moratorium can change our relation to land, design, and matter\u2014in thought and action.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">06. FIX THE OFFICE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"size-regular\">\u201cA professional suicide. Some have argued that this is what pausing new construction would mean. Yet to stop building new does not mean the end of architecture, but rather the end of the design practice as we know it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"size-regular\">\u201cThis posits that the current architecture firm is an obsolete model\u2014feeding off oppressive structures and plagued with internal shortcomings. Following the moratorium\u2019s prompt, forcing a halt to new construction might allow for emancipation from patriarchal, patronizing, exploitative, and energy-intensive economic operations, toward post-extractive, ecological, and human modes of design work. This reformation of the profession could potentially be articulated as a form of strike vis-\u00e0-vis external forces\u2014from the unchecked predatorial real estate milieu to state-led past and ongoing deregulation efforts dismantling protective fee regulations\u2014for which the profession would need to be better organized and politically engaged.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\" style=\"object-fit:cover;object-position:50% 50%\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1073\" src=https://metropolismag.com/"https:////metropolismag.com//wp-content//uploads//2025//10//Pages-from-241210_CSP14_Interior_CMB_Page_5.jpg/" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-119408\" srcset=\"https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Pages-from-241210_CSP14_Interior_CMB_Page_5.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Pages-from-241210_CSP14_Interior_CMB_Page_5-300x215.jpg 300w, https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Pages-from-241210_CSP14_Interior_CMB_Page_5-1024x733.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Pages-from-241210_CSP14_Interior_CMB_Page_5-768x549.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Rubble Mountain St Truiden reflects on how a pile of debris has the same intrinsic value as the house that it used to be. Courtesy Charlotte Malterre-Barthes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\" style=\"object-fit:cover;object-position:50% 50%\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1073\" src=https://metropolismag.com/"https:////metropolismag.com//wp-content//uploads//2025//10//Pages-from-241210_CSP14_Interior_CMB_Page_7.jpg/" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-119411\" srcset=\"https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Pages-from-241210_CSP14_Interior_CMB_Page_7.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Pages-from-241210_CSP14_Interior_CMB_Page_7-300x215.jpg 300w, https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Pages-from-241210_CSP14_Interior_CMB_Page_7-1024x733.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Pages-from-241210_CSP14_Interior_CMB_Page_7-768x549.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Courtesy Charlotte Malterre-Barthes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">07. REFORM THE SCHOOL<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"size-regular\">\u201cFor design schools housed within technological universities, this cultural homogeneity coincides with an emphasis on growth and techno-optimism rather than fostering ecological awareness and institutional transformation. This prioritization permeates the essence of curricular content, devaluing nonconventional examples and frugal practices, and neglecting their importance due to geographic origins, ethnicity, class, gender, or sexual orientation. Yet exploring all examples and precedents to face the current crisis is crucial.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"size-regular\">\u201cDesigners can leverage these props to enable the room to turn \u2018into some new thinking and into a new set of relations, a new way of being together, thinking together,\u2019 as per Harney and Moten. This approach takes up Black feminist thinker bell hooks, who believed that \u2018the classroom remains the most radical space of possibility in the academy.\u2019 Chairs, walls, windows, rooms, panels, screens, and desks have agency\u2014they can replicate oppressive systems or help to question educational hierarchies in the classroom and how to navigate without dismissing power asymmetries. Learning and unlearning are multidirectional processes.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">08. DON\u2019T DIG<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"size-regular\">\u201cFor instance, Japanese architect Mio Tsuneyama considers it a heritage to be passed to future generations and integrates the fungal micro-organisms in the soil within her designs. This is the way forward\u2014rather than treating living matter again merely as a material to be subdued, reducing earth to another potential building material. Moving away from extractive mindsets, a transdisciplinary reinvention of planning would set the sector on the right track to pivot toward less damaging practices, to \u2018reshape desire, reorient hope, reimagine possibility\u2019 with regard to soil.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">09. TAKE CARE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"size-regular\">\u201cA case in point is the fact that, in many places, tasks like cleaning, preserving, nurturing, and fixing are executed by low-paid, racialized, and gendered laborers, their jobs perceived as menial.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"size-regular\">\u201cAfter watching the documentary by Ila B\u00eaka and Louise Lemoine that follows the meticulous journey of Guadalupe Acedo, the housekeeper in Lemoine\u2019s father\u2019s famously intricate Bordeaux house, Rem Koolhaas was irritated and commented on the lack of creativity of the cleaner: How could she be using such a \u2018generic technique of cleaning [for] something so exceptional\u2019 as his designs? These examples highlight a customary attitude among architects: Such matters are banal, domestic, and beyond their purview\u2014users must adapt to design, not vice versa. In short, building maintenance does not pertain to the discipline; architects do not design for care.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group none\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div style=\"height:60px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"comment size-regular\">Would you like to comment on this article? Send your thoughts to: <a href=https://metropolismag.com/wp-json/wp/v2/metro_viewpoint/\"mailto:comments@metropolismag.com/">comments@metropolismag.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n<ul class=\"tag-cloud\"><li><a href=https://metropolismag.com/"https:////metropolismag.com//domains//research///" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Research<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n<ul class=\"tag-cloud\"><li><a href=https://metropolismag.com/"https:////metropolismag.com//tag//adaptive-reuse///" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">adaptive reuse<\/a><\/li><li><a href=https://metropolismag.com/"https:////metropolismag.com//tag//books///" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Books<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"post-cards__wrapper is-condensed-default columns-3 single-row\" data-type=\"metro_viewpoint metro_profile metro_project metro_product\" data-amount=\"3\" ><h3 class=\"section-title\">Latest<\/h3><ul><li class=\"card__metro_viewpoint\"><div class=\"post-cards__image\"><a class=\"post-cards__link\" href=https://metropolismag.com/"https:////metropolismag.com//viewpoints//sustainability-news-updates-for-q4-2025///"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"640\" src=https://metropolismag.com/"https:////metropolismag.com//wp-content//uploads//2025//11//AdobeStock_332538740-1024x640.jpg/" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" style=\"object-position: 50% 50%;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/AdobeStock_332538740-1024x640.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/AdobeStock_332538740-300x188.jpg 300w, https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/AdobeStock_332538740-768x480.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/div><div class=\"post-cards__content\"><p class=\"type\">Viewpoints<\/p><a class=\"post-cards__title-link\" href=https://metropolismag.com/"https:////metropolismag.com//viewpoints//sustainability-news-updates-for-q4-2025///"><h4>Sustainability News Updates for Q4 2025<\/h4><\/a><p class=\"excerpt\">A year of policy ups and downs in the United States has created a fragmented regulatory landscape for the building industry to navigate.<\/p><\/div><\/li><li class=\"card__metro_viewpoint\"><div class=\"post-cards__image\"><a class=\"post-cards__link\" href=https://metropolismag.com/"https:////metropolismag.com//viewpoints//what-is-and-is-not-biophilic-design///"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"508\" src=https://metropolismag.com/"https:////metropolismag.com//wp-content//uploads//2025//11//ME_25_Biophilia-Web-Image-1024x508.png/" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" style=\"object-position: 50% 50%;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ME_25_Biophilia-Web-Image-1024x508.png 1024w, https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ME_25_Biophilia-Web-Image-300x149.png 300w, https:\/\/metropolismag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/ME_25_Biophilia-Web-Image-768x381.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/div><div class=\"post-cards__content\"><p class=\"type\">Viewpoints<\/p><a class=\"post-cards__title-link\" href=https://metropolismag.com/"https:////metropolismag.com//viewpoints//what-is-and-is-not-biophilic-design///"><h4>What Is and Is Not Biophilic Design?<\/h4><\/a><p class=\"excerpt\">The creator of the concept of Biophilic Design explains effective strategies that keep us healthy by bring us closer to nature.<\/p><\/div><\/li><li class=\"sponsored-post ntv-01\"><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new book calls for a global halt on new construction\u2014reframing architecture\u2019s value and impact in the face of climate and social crises.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1405,"featured_media":119417,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"featured_image_focal_point":[],"legacy_WP_ID":0},"tags":[1889,98],"metro_tax_domain":[11],"metro_tax_topic":[],"metro_tax_program":[],"metro_issue":[3754],"metro_cat_viewpoint":[],"internal_flag":[2353,2402],"class_list":["post-119362","metro_viewpoint","type-metro_viewpoint","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-adaptive-reuse","tag-books","metro_tax_domain-research","metro_issue-fall-2025"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Moratorium on New Construction - Metropolis<\/title>\n
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