Reducing Climate Anxiety within the Built Environment

There is a climate and ecological emergency, with the physical impacts to our planet and health in a state of crisis, radical policies are needed to be put in place for the future city, with a complete economic, environmental, social and political shift. The climate crisis has resulted in many implications, not only on the planet, but on people, with both physical and mental health being affected.

Creating a noticeable change to young people’s environment will have a positive impact on reducing climate anxiety, whilst also contributing to Bristol’s goals of becoming net 0 by 2030. By exploring large scale policy and wide spread change, the necessary radical action needed for the climate crisis can be assessed and developed through new master-planning and policies located in Eastville, Bristol.

The thesis aims to explore the role of the built environment in reducing climate anxiety. As an intangible subject, questions arise over how it can be reduced within tangible forms, which is interrogated through the thesis. It will aim to investigate the role of architecture and the physical environment in reducing climate anxiety, whilst also exploring actions towards reducing the effect of the built environment on the climate crisis through programme and design.

The proposed masterplan establishes parameters for the main aspect of the design thesis exploring climate anxiety, inviting a proposal for a large scale Climate Playhouse that responds to discoveries around factors affecting climate anxiety and its social, environmental and political context.

The full scheme aims to encompass reducing climate anxiety in identified factors developed through the primer through a range of different programmatic elements. The proposal is also to celebrate sustainable construction methods and renewable energy resources, furthering the concept that the climate crisis can bring about positive changes to the built environment, which don’t need to lead to a less engaging and playful building.