Architecting Change: Design Strategies for a Healthy, Resilient, Climate-Smart Future
FROM CARBON SOURCE TO CARBON SINK: REDESIGNING THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT FOR CLIMATE CHANGE
Amidst the urgent need for affordable housing and urban infrastructure, the culminating impacts of a changing climate demand dramatic shifts in how we design and construct our buildings. One important part of the solution—convert the built environment from a significant carbon source to a carbon sink.
The Urgent Need to Lower Building Carbon Footprints
Climate change demands dramatic shifts in how we design and construct our buildings. At the same time, the urgent need for housing and supportive infrastructure continues to surge at record rates. Buildings and their construction account for 39% of global carbon dioxide emissions; 28% of those emissions come from operational carbon—the energy used to power, heat, and cool a building. Buildings’ operational carbon can be reduced through energy efficiency measures, and policymakers, architects, developers, and engineers have made significant advances in this arena. The remaining 11% of carbon emissions are generated from building materials and construction. This “embodied carbon” can account for half of the total carbon footprint over the lifetime of the building.
To reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with construction, specifiers and stakeholders need to act now to create embodied carbon strategies that reduce environmental impacts from buildings we’ll use well into the future. The costs of delaying any longer are too high. Greenhouse gas emissions have increased by 90% since 1970. A 1.5% increase in global warming will have catastrophic results for ecosystems and people around the world, including the United States.
Embodied carbon is a priority for many environmental, architecture, and urban planning organizations including C40 Cities, Architecture 2030, Urban Land Institute, and the World Green Building Council. Many experts believe addressing embodied carbon for buildings and building materials is critical to achieving the goals of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the 2016 Paris Climate Agreement.
Case Study Finding Common Ground | Lubber Run Community Center, Arlington, Virginia
Photo courtesy of Tom Holsworth, courtesy VMDO Architects
Lubber Run Community Center in Arlington, Virginia.
The Lubber Run Community Center is an expanse of lush green space that draws you toward the net-zero center at its core. The building emerges organically out of the park and features a living roof adorned with trees and park benches. Initially, local residents were set on plans for a three-to-four-story building, tucked into the background of the surrounding park. To find common ground, the design team undertook a lengthy participatory design process that lasted an entire year. Jay Fisette, former Arlington County Board Chair, says that “there was lots of community involvement and excitement surrounding the new design and plan.”
Designing a replacement for the original 1950s-era community center presented a challenge for VMDO Architects. Community members felt strongly that park space be maximized and building space minimized. Yet, through community engagement, the VMDO team was able to demonstrate how architecture can integrate and blend building and landscape, “ultimately creating public space that is greater and greener for residents.” Nina Comiskey, architect at VMDO, says, “This was about understanding what the community wants, rather than specific design guidelines. We were able to guide [the people of Arlington] to a better way of getting what they wanted.”
Lubber Run’s design focused on promoting equitable access to the center and the park and engaging cross-generational communities and hard-to-reach groups. A series of workshops, meetings, online feedback sessions, and on-site engagement activities contributed to the project vision.
Embodied Carbon in a Building’s Life Cycle
Embodied carbon is determined by conducting a life cycle assessment (LCA) of a product, assembly, or building over declared life-cycle stages. An LCA study returns results for a number of environmental metrics, including the potential to impact climate or “global warming potential” (GWP). Embodied carbon is the GWP result. Embodied carbon is measured for each stage of the product’s life cycle, allowing comparisons across any combination of stages.
Photo courtesy of Think Wood
Wood products are approximately 50% carbon by dry weight.
As buildings become more energy efficient, the upfront embodied carbon from materials begins to account for a higher proportion of a building’s carbon footprint. Very soon, embodied carbon is likely to become the dominant source of building emissions.
Embodied carbon varies dramatically between concrete, steel, and wood, making product decisions key in achieving lower carbon buildings. Manufacturing wood products requires less total energy, and in particular less fossil energy, than manufacturing most alternative materials including metals, concrete, or bricks.
Case Study: A Modern Barn Raising | Barn Pavilion, Sacramento, California
Photo courtesy of Chad Davies
The Barn Pavilion in Sacramento, California
Placemaking can revitalize underused urban areas, inviting social connections between diverse citizens and demographics. Located in Sacramento’s once struggling Bridge District, the Barn Pavilion is a modern take on a community barn raising. The sinuous, wood-shingle-clad timber structure, now known simply as the Barn, gives new life to Sacramento’s once deteriorating Bridge District.
The Barn features a curvilinear design that emerges out of the pavement, welcoming passersby into its shaded nooks. The public plaza below the Barn hosts gatherings, while inside you can shop, wine and dine, or wander, making your way out to the extensive open-air breezeway. The Barn’s multifunctionality and warm organic atmosphere turn this public space into a community place that is both beautiful and functional. Its fluid, sculptural form makes for ambidextrous architecture, adaptive to a multitude of uses.
Design choices can have big impacts on community health and well-being—a well-designed building or public space can foster a sense of belonging by creating third places between work and home that invite social connection and interaction. In particular, participatory design invites community engagement and responsibility. By centering the community at the heart of the design process, participatory design can foster community ownership and pride.
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