Chris Abel

"I have always enjoyed the writings of Chris Abel. They are full of surprising insights and provocative connections between such diverse issues as history, technology and ecology"

Norman Foster, Founder, Foster + Partners

"Chris Abel is a nomad in the intellectual as well as the geographical sense. The result is always unconventional and challenging, and sometimes impressively prescient"

Colin Davies, The Architectural Review

"Abel does the work of a horde of architectural critics writing all at the same time from all over the globe’

Ken Yeang, Hamzah & Yeang

"For anyone interested in actually understanding the radical responses of architecture to the changing times, Abel offers a powerful perspective built over many years of reflection that is more relevant than ever"

Anthony Burke, University of Technology Sydney

"‘Having been taught by Chris I can testify to his passion and knowledge. VAST is amongst the very best in advanced tall building studios internationally"

Antony Wood, Executive Director, CTBUH

"This exhibition and book come at a crucial moment in the development of our cities…not because such approaches are the ultimate expression of the Modernist project or of a particular aesthetic, but because they can help to solve the problem of the growth of our cities"

Norman Foster, Founder, Foster + Partners

"It really makes me look at nearly everything I do with a critical eye; everything from the products I consume, to my design choices. It has added an entirely new dimension to the way I analyse architecture and lifestyles"

Student Andrews, on a climate change seminar, UNL

Climate Crisis

Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the Enlightenment belief in the fundamental rationality of human behaviour continues to influence responses to the looming threat of ecocide, encouraging denial and hindering effective action. The reasons for the stubborn resistance to changing self-destructive ways of life, however, are many and complex, and go well beyond cognitive dissonance or any common political and economic explanations. Nor is the answer to be found in human history alone. The driving forces underlying that resistance, I suggest, originate far back in evolutionary time to the impulses governing all sentient creatures.

From: The problem is not runaway climate change. The problem is us’. Insight article, Architectural Research Quarterly, July, 2023, p. 79.