055: Kira Gould: Sustainability and Storytelling in Architecture

Mar 24

On today’s episode of Architectette we welcome Kira Gould.

Kira is a writer, strategist, and convener focused on advancing design leadership and climate action through her company, Kira Gould CONNECT.

She is also the co-host of the Design the Future podcast with Lindsay Baker, a Senior Fellow with Architecture 2030, and co-authored Women in Green: Voices of Sustainable Design.

We talk about:

- Kira’s career as a non-architect working in AEC. She elaborates on her family roots in the industry and how she leaned into her passions for writing and sustainability.

- We talk about the power of storytelling and how limiting industry jargon and using clarifying language helps to set clear expectations about the design and construction process with clients.

- We also chat about the evolution of sustainability from an offshoot to an integral part of practice today with leaders not only leading sustainable initiatives, but the companies where they work.

- Kira and I review the lessons and impact of Women in Green and discuss other impactful topics including parenthood, mentorship, Architecture 2030, and developing thought leadership.

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Links:

Connect with Kira: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/kiragould/⁠

Design the Future Podcast: ⁠https://www.designthefuturepodcast.com/⁠

⁠Women in Green: Voices of Sustainable Design⁠ (2007), Kira Gould with Lance Hosey

Kira's Book Recommendations:

Multisolving: Creating Systems Change in a Fractured World, Elizabeth Sawin (2024)

“I have just started reading this book, because I think our movement is not doing a great job talking about co-benefits (and because I’m forever enamored with Donella Meadows’s Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System, and Sawin is a student of systems thinking). Sawin: “It is some very effective marketing that has convinced so many of us that getting off fossil fuels is a sacrifice as opposed to a money-saving, peace-promoting, water-protecting, health-improving, technological leap forward.” We have to tell the story of the living future to show what is possible.”

Flourish: Design Paradigms for Our Planetary Emergency, Sarah Ichioka, Michael Pawlyn (2021)

“This touches on Doughnut Economics and biomimicry and describes the power of designers and design communities – and the agency, ingenuity, and storytelling capacity that we need: "[P]art of bringing about change is working out what kind of future we want, articulating it and repeating it more clearly and confidently, then embodying it in the work we do, sharing that knowledge and doing it again, better.”’

It’s Not the End of the World, Hannah Ritchie (2024)

“This data scientist illustrates that we are making progress on both halves of the conventional sustainability definition (from Gro Harlem Brundtland, 1987): “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”’

What If We Get It Right, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson (2024)

“Johnson interviews thinkers and doers. And her calls to action are inspiring: “Keep showing up; join something; find your people; bring your superpowers; be a problem solver; choose your battles; nourish joy; love nature.” Critic Paola Antonelli: “[Design] does not only solve problems or give form to functions, it changes behaviors.”’

Doughnut Economics, Kate Raworth (2017)

“This book is a mind-shifter and it made me regret not studying economics! Conventional economics depends on extraction/destruction; Kate envisions a system that respects planetary boundaries. Brilliant.”

Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World, and Why Things Are Better Than You Think, Hans Rosling (2018)

“The late doctor and public health leader has written (and did many talks before his death) about factfulness, “a relaxing habit for critical thinking. It helps you maintain a fact-based worldview. It teaches you how to recognize and avoid the most common ways information gets misinterpreted.”’

Shape of Green: Aesthetics, Ecology, and Design, Lance Hosey (2012)

‘“Make things better” is #10 in Lance Hosey’s manifesto at the end of The Shape of Green, his 2012 book … which I think has done more to unify ideas about beauty and sustainability – and advance climate action through design -- than perhaps any other single work.”

Foundational books that were mind shifters for me:

Cradle to Cradle, William McDonough, Michael Braungart (2002)