The New Carbon Architecture: Building to Cool the Climate

Soak up carbon into beautiful, healthy buildings that heal the climate

"Green buildings" that slash energy use and carbon emissions are all the rage, but they aren't enough. The hidden culprit is embodied carbon — the carbon emitted when materials are mined, manufactured, and transported — comprising some 10% of global emissions. With the built environment doubling by 2030, buildings are a carbon juggernaut threatening to overwhelm the climate.

It doesn't have to be this way.

Like never before in history, buildings can become part of the climate solution. With biomimicry and innovation, we can pull huge amounts of carbon out of the atmosphere and lock it up as walls, roofs, foundations, and insulation. We can literally make buildings out of the sky with a massive positive impact.

The New Carbon Architecture is a paradigm-shifting tour of the innovations in architecture and construction that are making this happen. Office towers built from advanced wood products; affordable, low-carbon concrete alternatives; plastic cleaned from the oceans and turned into building blocks. We can even grow insulation from mycelium.

A tour de force by the leaders in the field, The New Carbon Architecture will fire the imagination of architects, engineers, builders, policy makers, and everyone else captivated by the possibility of architecture to heal the climate and produce safer, healthier, and more beautiful buildings.

1130303390
The New Carbon Architecture: Building to Cool the Climate

Soak up carbon into beautiful, healthy buildings that heal the climate

"Green buildings" that slash energy use and carbon emissions are all the rage, but they aren't enough. The hidden culprit is embodied carbon — the carbon emitted when materials are mined, manufactured, and transported — comprising some 10% of global emissions. With the built environment doubling by 2030, buildings are a carbon juggernaut threatening to overwhelm the climate.

It doesn't have to be this way.

Like never before in history, buildings can become part of the climate solution. With biomimicry and innovation, we can pull huge amounts of carbon out of the atmosphere and lock it up as walls, roofs, foundations, and insulation. We can literally make buildings out of the sky with a massive positive impact.

The New Carbon Architecture is a paradigm-shifting tour of the innovations in architecture and construction that are making this happen. Office towers built from advanced wood products; affordable, low-carbon concrete alternatives; plastic cleaned from the oceans and turned into building blocks. We can even grow insulation from mycelium.

A tour de force by the leaders in the field, The New Carbon Architecture will fire the imagination of architects, engineers, builders, policy makers, and everyone else captivated by the possibility of architecture to heal the climate and produce safer, healthier, and more beautiful buildings.

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The New Carbon Architecture: Building to Cool the Climate

The New Carbon Architecture: Building to Cool the Climate

by Bruce King
The New Carbon Architecture: Building to Cool the Climate

The New Carbon Architecture: Building to Cool the Climate

by Bruce King

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Overview

Soak up carbon into beautiful, healthy buildings that heal the climate

"Green buildings" that slash energy use and carbon emissions are all the rage, but they aren't enough. The hidden culprit is embodied carbon — the carbon emitted when materials are mined, manufactured, and transported — comprising some 10% of global emissions. With the built environment doubling by 2030, buildings are a carbon juggernaut threatening to overwhelm the climate.

It doesn't have to be this way.

Like never before in history, buildings can become part of the climate solution. With biomimicry and innovation, we can pull huge amounts of carbon out of the atmosphere and lock it up as walls, roofs, foundations, and insulation. We can literally make buildings out of the sky with a massive positive impact.

The New Carbon Architecture is a paradigm-shifting tour of the innovations in architecture and construction that are making this happen. Office towers built from advanced wood products; affordable, low-carbon concrete alternatives; plastic cleaned from the oceans and turned into building blocks. We can even grow insulation from mycelium.

A tour de force by the leaders in the field, The New Carbon Architecture will fire the imagination of architects, engineers, builders, policy makers, and everyone else captivated by the possibility of architecture to heal the climate and produce safer, healthier, and more beautiful buildings.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781771422567
Publisher: New Society Publishers
Publication date: 12/05/2017
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 160
File size: 13 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range: 16 Years

About the Author

Bruce King has been a structural engineer for 35 years, designing buildings of every size and type around the world. Bruce's decades of research into alternative building systems has led to building code changes in California and globally. He is the author of Buildings of Earth and Straw , Making Better Concrete , and the landmark Design of Straw Bale Buildings . Bruce lives in San Rafael, California.

Erin McDade is a Program Manager for Architecture 2030. She leads Architecture 2030's Products Challenge, is founding chair of the Embodied Carbon Network, and is on the board of the Carbon Leadership Forum. She is also leading AIA+2030 Online Series development, helping design professionals create zero carbon buildings.

Ann Edminster is a leading international expert on zero-energy efficient (ZNE) green homes. She assists design teams in pursuing ZNE performance goals, has developed curricula for design and construction of ZNE homes, and is a frequent keynote speaker, presenter, and teacher at conferences, universities, non-profits, and utilities.

Catherine De Wolf is a postdoctoral scientist working on low carbon structural design at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. She has spoken about low carbon building materials at TEDx in Paris and when receiving the Innovators Under 35 Award in Belgium.

Kathrina Simonen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Washington with over 15 years of professional practice experience as an architect and structural engineer. She is founding director of the Carbon Leadership Forum, an industry-academic collaboration focused on linking LCA to design and construction practice and has authored a handbook, Life Cycle Assessment, a primer for building industry professionals looking to learn about LCA.

Barbara Rodriguez Droguett has devoted over a decade to the creation and improvement of analytic tools to assess carbon in buildings. In 2015 she received the National Award for Sustainable Construction Leaders under 35 from the Chilean Chamber of Construction. She is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Washington.

Larry Strain , Siegel & Strain Architects. Larry has a 40+ year background in sustainable design and studied ecological systems at Evergreen State College and the Farallones Institute. He wrote a Guideline Specification for Green Materials, which became part of Building Green's GreenSpec Directory. For the past seven years, Larry has focused on reducing the total carbon footprint of our buildings.

Frances Yang is a structures and materials sustainability specialist in the Energy + Sustainability group of the San Francisco office of Arup. Frances uses her studies in structural engineering, life cycle assessment, architecture for the environment, and green chemistry in leading the Sustainable Materials Consulting practice for the Arup Americas region.

Andrew Lawrence is the leading timber specialist at Arup, a member of the European Timber Design Code Committee, and a judge for the UK Wood Awards. Andrew lectures worldwide on the structural use of timber and is currently working with timber industry bodies in the USA, UK, China, southeast Asia, and Australia, to help make timber a mainstream construction material.

Jason Grant has been a leader in the sustainable forestry and green building movements for 25 years. Jason co-founded EcoTimber, one of the first companies in the world to bring certified ecological forest products to market. He has long advocated for sustainable forestry and responsible wood use as a member Sierra Club's Forest Certification and Green Building Team.

Chris Magwood is obsessed with making the best, most energyefficient, carbon sequestering, beautiful and inspiring buildings without wrecking the whole darn planet in the attempt. Chris is currently the executive director of The Endeavour Centre, a notfor- profit sustainable building school in Peterborough, Ontario. .

Massey Burke is a natural materials specialist in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work centers on research, design, and hands-on implementation of building with low-carbon natural materials, with an interest in applying natural building to existing buildings and the urban fabric.

Craig White is a developer, architect, and entrepreneur. Craig is currently leading work on a new model of community- led and -financed housing that meets the housing crisis challenge using carbon-banking renewable materials. Craig is also a consultant with the Carbon Trust, and senior lecturer at the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of West England. A core focus of Craig's work is how research-led innovation delivers commercial impact and sustainable outcomes.

Fernando Martirena is the director of CIDEM (Center for Research & Development of Structures and Materials) at the Universidad Central de las Villas in Santa Clara, Cuba, which is a world-leading institution in the development and implementation of appropriate technologies for social housing.

Paul Jaquin is a chartered structural and geotechnical engineer working in New Zealand. Paul completed his PhD thesis, entitled "Analysis of Historic Rammed Earth Construction," in 2008 at the University of Durham, UK. Working as a consulting engineer, he has undertaken the design of a number of earth buildings.

Mikhail Davis is Director of Restorative Enterprise at Interface, the world's largest manufacturer of modular carpet. He is responsible for advancing Interface's globally recognized Mission Zero commitment in the Americas by building internal leadership capacity and creating external partnerships.

Wes Sullens is an advocate for circular material economies and a regenerative built environment. He has worked in the public, private, and non-profit sectors on a range of topics including waste management, recycling, supply chain sustainability, and chemicals transparency. He specializes in green building rating system development, product labeling standards setting, and progressive green building codes advocacy.

Wil V. Srubar III , is an assistant professor of architectural engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU). At CU, he is actively engaged in research projects related to durable, low-carbon polymer- and cement-based construction materials. He is an active member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Architectural Engineering Institute, and he currently serves as a co-chair of the Embodied Carbon Network.

Pete Walker is Professor of Innovative Construction Materials and Director of the BRE Centre of Innovative Construction Materials at the University of Bath, UK. His particular interests are natural materials, including straw bale, earth building and natural fiber composites.

Andrew Thomson works at the University of Bath as a Research Associate. His work focuses on advancing the use of low-carbon construction materials within the construction industry. He has contributed to the structural design of some of the UK's largest Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) buildings and was a key member of the research team that delivered the UK's first certified straw bale panel product; ModCell Core.

Daniel Maskell is a Prize Fellow in Innovative Construction Materials in the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering at the University of Bath, UK. Dan's interests are in innovative building materials and how these can be used for the improvement of indoor environment quality for improved occupant health and well-being. He has wide experience with natural building materials, including earth, straw bale, and other inorganic and organic materials.


Bruce King has been a structural engineer for 35 years, designing buildings of every size around the world. He's the Founder/Director of the Ecological Building Network and the BuildWell conferences on green building materials. Bruce's decades of research into alternative building systems has led to building code changes in California and globally.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Preface: Buildings Made of Sky

Introduction
A Word about "Carbon"

1. Beyond Zero: The Time Value of Carbon by Erin McDade
A Global Carbon Limit
Buildings Are the Problem; Buildings Are the Solution
Zero by 2050
The Zero Net Carbon Gold Standard
Embodied Carbon: Getting to Real Zero
Emissions Now Hurt More than Emissions Later: The Relative Importance of Embodied Carbon
Embodied Carbon in the Future
The Time Value of Carbon
Zero Energy in a Nutshell by Ann V. Edminister

2. Counting Carbon: What We Know and How We Know It by Catherine De Wolf, Barbara Rodriguez Droguett, and Kathrina Simonen
Building Carbon Neutral
The Relative Impact of Embodied Carbon in Typical Buildings
Comparing Structural Materials
Comparing LCA Methods
Concrete
Steel
Wood
Other Structural Materials
Nonstructural Materials
Comparing the Embodied Carbon of Buildings
Getting to Zero: Embodied Carbon

3. Rebuild: What You Build Matters, What You Don't Build Matters More by Larry Strain
We Can't Build Our Way Out of This
Reuse: A Complete Strategy
Reducing Embodied Carbon
Reducing Operating Carbon: Renovation + Upgrade
Upgrading to Zero
Retrofit Opportunities
Energy Efficiency Opportunities
Net-zero Opportunities
Saving Embodied Carbon Opportunities

4. Wood: Like Never Before
Mass Timber Construction by Frances Yang and Andrew Lawrence
The Carbon Argument
So How Tall Can Timber Really Go?
Enter Cross-laminated Timber (CLT)
Stiffness
Fire
Acoustics
Seismic Performance
Beyond Carbon
The Future
Seeing the Forests for the Mass Timber by Jason Grant

5. Straw and Other Fibers: A Second Harvest with Chris Magwood and Massey Burke
Straw Bales and Straw Bale Panels
Prefabricated Straw Bale Wall Panels
Straw Blocks
Straw Panels
Bonded Plant Fiber Insulation Systems
The Planet's Sixth Carbon Sink: A Success Story by Craig White

6. Concrete: The Reinvention of Artificial Rock with Fernando Martirena and Paul Jaquin
What Is Concrete?
The Problem with Concrete
The Reinvention Is On
But First, Some Basics
Clay: The First Cement by Paul Jaquin
Historical Building Using Clay as a Binder
What Makes Clay Special?
Bonding in Clay
Sheets, Layers, and Assemblages
Sheets
Layers
The Assemblage
Friction
Suction
How Strong Is Clay Concrete?
Humidity Buffering and Thermal Mass
Future
Rethinking Cement by Fernando Martirena
More Ways to Reinvent Concrete
What About Reinforcing — Steel and More

7. Plastic: So Great, So Awful — Some New Directions
by Mikhail Davis, Wes Sullens, and Wil Srubar
Introduction
Biopolymers and Bioplastics
Plant Biopolymers
Animal Biopolymers
Bacterial Biopolymers
The Bioplastics Dilemma
Existing Plastics in the World
The Scale of the Plastics Problem: How Much Is Already Out There?
What To Do With All That Existing Plastic?
Barriers to Plastics Recovery and Recycling
Bright Spots for Plastics
What You Can Do: The Low-carbon Plastics Hierarchy
Guidelines: The Low-carbon Plastics Hierarchy
From Obstacles to Opportunities to Solutions: Can We Redeem Plastic?
Trash to Treasure: Can We Harvest the Existing Plastic Pollution from the Environment to Make New Products?
Carbon-loving Plastics: Can We Produce Plastics that Capture or Store Carbon?
Paths to Bio-based Plastics
Regenerative Agriculture
GHG to Plastic
Carbon-plastic Composites: Can We Put New Carbon into Old Plastic?
Closing the Loop: Can We Truly Manage Plastics in a Circular System?

8. To Your Health: The Health Benefits and Impacts of Natural Building Materials by Pete Walker, Andrew Thomson, and Daniel Maskell
Health Benefits
Moisture Buffering Materials
The Breathing Wall Concept: Vapor Permeability and Capillarity
Controlling Volatile Organic Compounds
Health Risks
Radioactivity
Silica Dust
Handling Lime
Protective Treatments
Concluding Comments

9. Size Matters: Can Buildings Be Too Tall? by Ann Edminster
The Height Problem
Aspects of the Problem
Ground Zero: Height as a Driver of Embodied Carbon
Will Transit Catch Up?
Middle Ground, Perhaps
Livability
Resiliency
Conclusions
Editor's Endnote

10. Technology and Localization: Trends at Play
Nanotechnology
Biotechnology and Biomimicry
Localization: The Convergence of Social and Technological Trends
Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and 3-D Printing

11. Action Plan: Places to Intervene in a System
Places to Intervene in a System
Building Codes and Standards
Incentives
Research
Information Flows
A Price on Carbon
Necessary Afternote #1
Necessary Afternote #2
Necessary Afternote #3: Which System Are We Talking About?
Necessary Afternote #4: In Which the Republicans Make the Case

Afterword
Contributing Authors
Index
A Note about the Publisher

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Truly, what a fantastic, timely, important book."
— Paul Hawken, author of Blessed Unrest and Drawdown

I cannot overstate the importance of Bruce King’s book at this critical time. We know that in order to effectively address climate change, we must go beyond building operations and address embodied carbon — phasing out carbon emissions in building materials and construction by mid-century; this book illustrates how."
— Edward Mazria, Founder / CEO Architecture 2030

That same carbon atom that’s wreaking havoc in the atmosphere is a building block for many great traditional and new building materials. The New Carbon Architecture shows us how in ways that are both practical and imaginative — truly a resource for our times. — Nadav Malin, President, BuildingGreen, Inc.

Bruce King provides a valuable and unique reference for understanding how one-fifth of all carbon emissions from buildings are currently not being counted or even comprehended. Understanding embodied energy and incorporating it into design thinking and product development is the next frontier for green building practice. I recommend this book as a primer for anyone interested in combating global climate change via building science."
— Jerry Yudelson, PE, LEED Fellow “The Godfather of Green” — Wired Magazine Author/Keynote Speaker/Sustainability Consultant

In The New Carbon Architecture, Bruce King delivers an emergent template for designing buildings in a future of climate uncertainty. The climate clock is ticking and we urgently need the ideas King and his colleagues present if we are to ensure comfort, safety, and resiliency in our next-gen built environment. The litany of “no regrets practices” King offers provides both adaptation and mitigation benefits in an industry not well known for offering either."
— David A. Schaller, retired EPA climate and sustainability coordinator

Bruce King and his crew of knowledgeable, enthusiastic authors have given us a great starting point for designing and (re-)creating our built environment. This is an important book for the entire design industry to read; from industrial designers and chemists to natural building craftspeople. It gives us all a starting point for the transformation of our infrastructure into one that is truly sustainable and healthy — while reducing the quantity of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by simply using them as building blocks instead of emitting them. All this, and they show us that we can have fun doing it!."
— Tim Krahn, P. Eng., Structural Engineer, Building Alternatives Inc

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