Drafting in a Burning World
- Oarabile Matsafu
Oarabile Matsafu won the first prize in the 2025 Climate Change and Me essay competition.
Oarabile Matsafu argues that sustainable architecture is not just a climate issue, it is a justice issue.
Let us be honest, no one becomes an architect just to draw lines. We shape space and we imagine futures. We hold a kind of power to decide what gets built and what fails. But what happens when the spaces we create become a part of the very thing destroying the Earth?
This morning, while in my bedroom, I saw something I could not ignore. It was not outside, but it was inside my room. The sun hit the wall just right, and suddenly the air above it shimmered, the kind of effect we see on the road when it is too hot. My wall looked like it was breathing heat, as if it needed help.
In that very moment, I felt the weight of studying architecture. Architecture is no longer just design, but it is climate work. Every material we choose and every angle we draw is either helpful or harmful to the earth. The wave of heat off my wall was not just a natural reaction. It reflected the world we have built.
Climate change is not invisible. It is the construction dust in our lungs and the anxiety in our future careers. It is present in the surfaces we sleep besides, in our homes, and in the heat, we try to ignore. As a first-year student, I am learning that buildings are not separate from the climate; they are part of it. And if we do not begin designing with the truth in mind, we are creating heat traps. That is the burden I carry.
The truth is that buildings are accountable for around 39% of global carbon emissions. That is more than cars, planes, and ships combined (World Green Building, 2020). Materials like cement and steel have big carbon footprints. According to the Global Status Report (2022), the building sector alone contributed 10 gigatons of carbon dioxide emissions in 2021. That means that every time we pour concrete without thinking, we are feeding the fire. As the Climate change headlines get scarier, the design responsibilities get heavier. I now question myself about what kind of architect do I want to be.
Sustainable architecture is not about making buildings look green. It is about rethinking the system, using passive design strategies, locally sourced materials, and renewable energy systems. It is about seeing buildings as part of an ecosystem, not as isolated monuments of human pride. Think about building ecology, how buildings store energy, consume water, and interact with their environment. I have started incorporating these ideas into my thinking. What if walls could regulate temperature naturally? What if we used rammed earth instead of cement? The answers are out there from sandbag housing in Mitchells Plain. The only thing stopping us is mindset.
Studying architecture in a warming world forces you to reckon with some harsh conditions. I often sit in lectures discussing innovation while knowing that the construction industry generates tons of waste that ends up in landfills, contributing to flooding in places like Umlazi or Alexandra, and ultimately harming the landfills of communities that will be designed for last. As a black South African young woman in this field, I carry something deeper, the burden of knowing that climate change will hit those marginalized communities the hardest. That is why sustainable architecture is not just a climate issue, but it is a justice issue. If I can learn how to design buildings that adapt, that protect, and heal, maybe I can give someone not just a home but a chance.
If architecture is the language of the future, then let my designs speak truth. I do not want to design a building that shines while communities drown. I want to create spaces that breathe with the earth, not against it. I choose care, blueprints of survival.
REFERENCE LIST.
UNEP. (2022). Global Status Report for Buildings and Construction. United Nations Environment Programme. Available at: https://www.unep.org
World Green Building Council. (2020). Bringing Embodied Carbon Upfront. Available at: https://www.worldgbc.org