The facts are too convincing. The share of negative implications of the present status quo in the building industry and in planning culture, its choices of technologies and materials, and in the building codes are too critical to ignore.

The climate knows no barriers. Sustainability in the building industry is only possible if we work across scales, sectors, silos, and geographic borders.

As a design practice, we cannot do it alone. We don’t work in isolation, we rely on the input of specialists, and we are only as good as our clients allow us to be. We need close collaboration and partnerships with the industry to develop long lasting, efficient, realistic, and feasible sustainable solutions. Our knowledge of sustainable and resilient architecture, urban areas and landscapes is generated and implemented in close collaboration with innovative and ambitious partners. And we are committed to assisting our clients in the green transition that every industry and every organization is facing now.

"We don’t believe in generic solutions when it comes to truly sustainable solutions."

At Cobe we believe that resilient buildings, urban areas, and landscapes must be tailored to a specific context as well as to the future users of that place. Our design process is anchored in analysis of the places, culture, and history of each site and project we are involved in. Our most important tool as designers is our ability to listen, reflect, and adjust our designs and points of view. We don’t believe in generic solutions when it comes to truly sustainable solutions.

The choice of potential reuse, transformation and adaptation is a point of departure.

If a building or space cannot be totally reconfigured in 50 years, while at the same time inspire a sense of belonging, relevance, and appreciation – it is not good design. In that sense our projects today have as much focus on longevity as they do the present moment. This is an approach where we as designers take a step back and allow the communities, clients, and users to adopt, interpret, and even to a degree complete our designs. We can really only defend the resources we spend in realizing our projects if they will be relevant, useful, and appreciated after our lifetime.

We believe in a holistic and integrated approach. Smart, technical, pragmatic sustainable solutions can inform a new vocabulary of design. The marriage between this and a firm belief in the power of aesthetics will influence the future of architecture.

"Through collaboration and dialogue, we learn what makes a specific technology, material, or concept applicable to a specific challenge or condition."

Our projects here at Cobe are the result of a structured and a highly integrated design process that every employee takes part in within the office. A process based on empiric analysis, conceptualizing, and evaluation in an almost infinite loop. We have learned that by changing the evaluation criteria in the design processes toward systematic and data driven benchmarks, our output intuitively changes its focus toward sustainability and resiliency. This is the case for all projects in the office, across all fields and services - urban planning, landscape design, buildings, and industrial design.

My role at Cobe as Head of Resiliency is to facilitate sustainable processes. Through collaboration and dialogue, we learn what makes a specific technology, material, or concept applicable to a specific challenge or condition – physical, process-based, cultural, political, or economic.

Our approach to the task is humble and based in realism. We would rather push the envelope gradually but continuously and to make a difference now, rather than wait for future innovations and technologies to present themselves.

The success criteria are for sustainable processes to become self-sustaining, both within our office and in the industry as a whole, without the need for further facilitation.