Publication: An Architecture Guide to the UN Sustainable Development Goals

‘An Architecture Guide’ (Volume 1 and 2) presents built examples from around the world that demonstrate how architecture can actively support the 17 SDGs. Developed in collaboration with the Danish Association of Architects and the UIA Commission on the SDGs, the guide has been translated into several languages and has inspired locally adapted editions worldwide.

In 2018, the Royal Academy, Department of Architecture and Technology, launched an architecture guide with a focus on the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The guide was created in collaboration with the Danish Association of Architects and UIA's Commission on the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

When the Nordic member section of UIA competed in 2017 for the right to hold the congress, it was with the SDGs as a theme and with an ambition to use the congress as a generator for knowledge sharing and inspiration in the international built environment. Not just during the congress days themselves, but in the years leading up to and after.

To support this ambition, the parties behind the initiative initiated the publications "An Architecture Guide to the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals", volumes 1 and 2 (2018, 2020). The books have been used in the work of promoting architecture's contribution to the SDGs internationally, and have been translated into Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese and French by local enthusiasts, as well as having inspired publications with a local focus in Brazil, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan and Denmark. Natalie Mossin was also one of the initiators and one of the authors of "The Dhaka Declaration", 2019.

The guide is built around the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Each chapter briefly describes how the built environment interacts with the SDG, and then provides two to three examples of built architecture – in Denmark as well as in the rest of the world – that supports the individual SDG. The guide has been prepared as an extension of the Royal Academy's three-year commitment to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and was presented at COP24 in 2018.

There are already architectural solutions all over the world that contribute to the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals. These solutions can take the form of realised buildings, diverse forms of housing and initiatives in cities. However, a number of environmental challenges exist in the built environment, as many are major consumers of energy and natural resources and produce massive amounts of waste. How we build has a great impact on both our health and the environment. The hope is therefore that the guide can inspire architects and others involved in the built environment to address the challenges and participate in the conversation about how architects can contribute to sustainable development.

The architecture guide was presented at COP24 in the Nordic Pavilion on 5 December 2018. COP24 is the UN's two-week climate conference, where almost 200 delegates from all over the world meet. The conference was held in 2018 in Poland in the city of Katowice.

The architecture guide is supported by the Dreyer Foundation.