EAA Panel Discussion: The Housing Emergency Beyond Numbers

EAA Panel Discussion: The Housing Emergency Beyond Numbers

Exploring how the housing emergency intersects with the ecological crisis, and how we can deliver better homes for people and planet.

The housing emergency is both a systemic issue and one that affects people on a deeply personal level. Yet it is often framed through impersonal numbers: housing targets, planning permissions, investment, starts and completions.

At the same time, communities across Scotland face a wider set of interconnected pressures, from rising housing costs and insecurity to climate breakdown, biodiversity loss and increasing strain on natural resources.

These challenges are deeply linked, yet rarely discussed together.

The question is no longer simply how many homes we build, but what kind of homes we create, how and where we build them, and whether they strengthen communities and contribute to a liveable future.

Join the Edinburgh Architectural Association for a panel discussion exploring where the housing and climate agendas converge, where they pull apart and what each can learn from the other.

Rather than framing the conversation as development versus conservation, we'll explore how housing demand and environmental responsibility can work together to deliver better outcomes for people and places.

Confirmed Speakers:

Jim MacDonald - Chief Executive Architecture and Design Scotland

Chris Stewart - Architect at Collective Architecture, PPRIAS, Doctoral researcher at Centre for the Science of Place and Memory, University of Stirling

Maxime Cunin - Architect, Strategic Housing Steward at Dark Matter Labs. Maxime is involved in the Homes that Don’t cost the Earth Project.

Chairing the discussion: Mariana Novosivschei, EAA Council Trustee, Architect and Sustainable Design Lead, MLA