CA46 - Big Ticket Carbon
The importance of focusing on system change, Mass Timber Summit, EU Right to Repair
NEWSWORTHY
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THE TOPIC
Sometimes we humans can be real idiots.
Have you ever met someone who sets a goal but ignores the most important factor?
Let me give you some examples.
The person who is trying to lose weight but won’t change the things they eat.
The person who is trying to use their phone less, but keeps it on their desk.
The person who is trying to be less angry but is always rushing everywhere.
Before you start to think of one of your friends, you’ll probably want to point the finger right back at yourself.
Why? Because we all act this way from time to time.
We focus on easy solutions that we know or are comfortable for us.
Well surprise surprise, we do the same thing with design.
We want simple solutions to our problems rather than addressing the root of the issue.
We use buzzwords like net zero, operational carbon, and low EUI to avoid talking about the really really important things.
The danger of this type of thinking is that we can think we are doing great things for the world but we are working out but eating the same thing.
Let’s talk about two really important system issues that are plaguing us.
One of the best examples of this that I’ve seen recently is this new building proposal.
The CURV is in Vancouver, Canada.
It’s a 60-storey residential tower in the downtown area
Density & access to transit [good]
It is projected to use 90% less energy compared to typical
Low EUI Passive House [good]
It has triple-glazed windows
Comfort, low energy, soundproof [good]
Over 50 years it will save 50,000 tonnes of GHG emissions
Low operational carbon [good]
So isn’t this what we are going for?
Isn’t this the future of architecture?
I don’t think so.
Don’t get me wrong, all the things above are great, and fully support our buildings becoming more of these things.
BUT I forgot to mention a few critical points about the design.
The building is almost exclusively concrete and aluminum
Two of the highest GHG emissions materials available [bad]
The design has 11 stories of underground parking
Below-grade parking is the largest source of embodied emissions [bad]
Let’s go back to the premise of this article.
Have you ever met someone who sets a goal but ignores the most important factor?
Well here you have it - in architectural form.
As architects, we need to change the way we think about buildings.
We need to go beyond simply fine-tuning our designs and re-evaluate what we are building in the first place.
If we continue to design buildings that support the use of cars, and use the same materials we always have … we’ll be working out but still eating junk food.
Let’s stop eating junk food.
THE PERSON
Tim is a practicing architect with a goal to push toward a new built economy. He has more than a decade of expertise in high-performance design and Passive House construction detailing. He shares some amazing projects he is working on via LinkedIn including Passive House projects and interesting analysis on them.
THE PROJECT
Limberlost by Moriyama Teshima is one of those WOW projects. It’s being built on the George Brown Campus in Toronto, Canada and it’s all Mass Timber. Beyond the structure, it has a PV roof, radiant ceiling panels, and an atrium that draws air up through the building.