What is Sustainable Architecture? Texts on the Possibilities and Challenges of Architecture in an Era of Polycrisis
In 2025 we launched an online platform dedicated to a straightforward yet complex question: What is sustainable architecture? The forty-odd texts published on the website attest that this question cannot be answered with a single definition, but rather with a multiplicity of arguments, approaches, and perspectives that reveal the tensions between the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability.
More projects
The Architecture of Sharing: From Crisis to Resilience
architectureofsharing.site
Building on research in the field of sustainability in architecture, SHIFT initiated the production of a short animated documentary The Architecture of Sharing, dedicated to participatory and community housing as one possible response to the current housing crisis.
Micro-Stations: Sensory Architecture for Urban Space
In collaboration with the SHIFT lab, doctoral student Adam Varga developed modular urban furniture prototypes called Micro-Stations, which translate the invisible dynamics of urban environments into a shared sensory language. The project is grounded in the conviction that urban intelligence need not be communicated solely through numerical and analytical means.
Upcycling Statement: Rethinking Textile Waste
Through doctoral student Veronika Soukupová, SHIFT became involved in a long-term pedagogical and research project of UMPRUM's Fashion and Footwear Design Studio, focused on the issues of textile waste and sustainability in the fashion industry. The project Upcycling Statement: Rethinking Textile Waste was realised in collaboration with Diakonie Broumov – a social cooperative operating a sorting and processing facility for used textiles.
Ignored Technology
The research and educational project Ignored Technology is a platform for critical reflection on technologies that can be considered long-marginalised, overlooked, or excluded from the dominant discourse and practice of architecture and design. The project challenges the persistent distinction between “technologies” and “crafts”: innovations are typically associated with tools and processes linked to mechanisation and industry, while hand-made or community-oriented modes of making remain outside this frame.
