Ilana Judah on systems thinking, resilience, and transformative approaches

Design the Future

Architect Ilana Judah recently completed her graduate studies in an interdisciplinary program with a focus on urban climate adaptation. This step in her career was designed to orient herself to where she could make the greatest possible impact addressing the climate crisis. She has been consulting to building industry stakeholders through her firm, ACORN Resilience & Sustainability. Before going back to school, Ilana was Principal/Director of Sustainability at FXCollaborative, known for pioneering work on sustainable high-rise buildings.

Ilana is optimistic about our ability to address the climate crisis. “I think it’s going to come naturally over the next few years,” she says. “We will better weave resilience, equity, health and biodiversity considerations into our thinking, while still remaining focused on drawing down emissions. More frequent climate disasters, increasing inequity, and being on the brink of the sixth extinction gives us little choice.” She points out that architects can bring to the table a greater vision of what makes for happy and sustainable living. In terms of what’s ahead, Ilana calls the energy transition very exciting and suggests that “climate related financial disclosure has the potential to be extremely powerful and transformative, if we can avoid greenwash. I’m also encouraged by the still nascent efforts regarding equity, environmental justice and traditional indigenous ecological knowledge.”