Climate change is likely to devastate our planet, says Snøhetta co-founder Kjetil Trædal Thorsen. In the second part of an exclusive interview, he tells Dezeen it is "absolutely possible" to create fully CO2 negative buildings.
Snøhetta is a pioneer of eco-friendly architecture, with projects including Powerhouse Brattørkaia, which produces twice as much energy as it consumes, and ZEB Pilot House, which produces enough power for itself and an electric car.
The firm also recently pledged to make all its buildings carbon negative within 20 years.
"It's all on the market and it's not even particularly expensive," said Thorsen. "So it's absolutely possible to get fully CO2 negative buildings calculated over a clean energy production period of four years." Kjetil Trædal Thorsen says architects must prepare for a "failed future"
However Thorsen said that, in spite of these breakthroughs, it is unlikely that the building industry will be able to change fast enough to reverse the impact of global warming on the environment. Construction currently contributes 40 per cent of global carbon emissions.
"There are some certain armageddon situations when it comes to this whole thing," he said. "That's really serious."
"Adaptive design for a failed future"
According to the landmark IPCC report published last year, big changes need to be implemented around the globe by 2030 in order to limit the global temperature ri...