Defining “climatopia”: An evaluation framework to support transformational adaptation in climate-inspired utopic design

Abstract

As climate change intensifies, architects and other design professionals are creating bold visions for future dwellings, such as green buildings, master-planned eco-cities, and even planetary-scale sustainability measures. These “climatopias,” categorically different from ecological utopias of the past, are architectural and urban-planning proposals for the built environment that seek to address climate adaptation and/or mitigation through new design, material, and sociopolitical processes. In this perspective, we define a climatopia and introduce an evaluation approach to examine aspirational design projects for climate change according to concepts of transformation and climate-resilient development being widely called for across the climate research community. Using criteria of effectiveness, justice, and feasibility, the evaluation approach offers design practitioners and policymakers a high-level framework to critically evaluate climate-inspired utopic design schemes. Climatopias support transformation when they give sustained consideration to both material and social, political, and economic dimensions of the design process and its outcomes for inhabitants.