Carbon - A Field Manual for Building Designers

A comprehensive approach to design that integrates sustainable principles and design strategies for decarbonized construction
 
Representing an international collaboration between academics and architects in the United States and Europe, Carbon: A Field Manual for Designers and Builders offers professionals in the field an approach to sustainable design that embraces building science principles, life-cycle analysis, and design strategies in carbon neutral construction. The book also contains background information on carbon in construction materials and in the building design process.
 
This book is filled with illustrative diagrams and drawings that help evaluate the potential impact of design decisions for creating carbon emissions. Written by and for designers and builders, the book includes a compelling pair of case studies that explore carbon-reducing strategies, suggests steps for assessing a building's carbon footprint, and reviews carbon storages and circulation of materials. The guidelines detailed in the book can be adopted, replicated, and deployed to reduce carbon emissions and create more sustainable buildings. This important book:
* Offers an effective approach to sustainable design in construction
* Integrates building science principles, life-cycle analysis, and design strategies in carbon neutral construction
* Describes a methodology for quantifying the flow of carbon in the built environment
* Provides an analysis of carbon-reducing strategies based on a case study of a building designed by the authors
 
Written for practicing professionals in architecture and construction, Carbon: A Field Guide for Designers and Builders is a must-have resource for professionals who are dedicated to creating sustainable projects.

List of contents

Preface viii
 
Chapter 1 Carbon? 2
 
Our Carbon Challenge 6
 
Building Elements 6
 
King Carbon 7
 
A Global Carbon Budget 9
 
The Carbon Cycle in Building History 10
 
Carbon Flows in Building 12
 
Staunching the Flow 14
 
Time Management in Carbon Mitigation 17
 
Re-balancing the Planet: Agency and Opportunity 18
 
About This Book: An Overview 19
 
Chapter 2 Measuring Carbon Flows 22
 
Life Cycle Assessment: What's in It for Building Designers? 25
 
The Fundamental Concepts 27
 
The Process of Life Cycle Assessment 37
 
The Production Stage 46
 
The Construction Stage 53
 
The Use Stage 61
 
Service Life 66
 
End-of-Life Stage 74
 
Results, Interpretation, and Comparison 81
 
The Streamlined Life Cycle Assessment for Buildings 83
 
Chapter 3 Case Studies in Decarbonization 86
 
Notes from the Field 89
 
How Were the Calculations Per formed? 90
 
Case Study 1 Common Ground High School 92
 
Architectural Objectives (by Gray Organschi Architecture) 93
 
Common Ground High School: Key Figures 100
 
Materials 100
 
Site and Ground Works 104
 
Foundations and Ground Floor 106
 
Structural Frame 108
 
Façades and External Decks 110
 
Roofs 112
 
Internal Dividers 114
 
Space Surfaces 116
 
Internal Fixtures 118
 
Building System Installations 120
 
Mitigation Potential from Materials and Systems 130
 
Energy-Related Emissions 131
 
Case Study 2: Puukuokka Housing Block 135
 
Architectural Objectives (by OOPEAA Office for Peripheral Architecture) 137
 
Puukuokka One: Key Figures 142
 
Site and Ground Works 146
 
Foundations and Ground Floor 148
 
Modular Units 150
 
Hallway 152
 
Façades 154
 
Roofs 156
 
Building Service Installations 158
 
Mitigation Potential from Materials and Systems 168
 
Energy 168
 
Comparison of the Case Studies 172
 
Comparison of the Emissions 176
 
Chapter 4 De-carbonizing Design 180
 
A Context of Externalities: Pre conditions of the Decarbonized Design Process 185
 
The Decarbonized Design Process 188
 
Phases of Decarbonized Building Design 190
 
The Pre-Design or Project Preparation Phase: Laying the Groundwork for Decarbonized Building Design 190
 
Selecting a Low-Carbon Site 192
 
Programming a Low-Carbon Building 195
 
Anticipating the Lifespan of a Building 196
 
The Conceptual or Schematic Design Phase 197
 
The Design Development Phase 201
 
Material Classes and Their Carbon Consequences 203
 
The Decarbonized Building Assembly 208
 
The Later Design Phases: Contract Documentation, Bidding and Negotiation, and Construction Administration 212
 
Principles of Decarbonized Design 213
 
Understanding Design Agency: Shifting Roles and Responsibilities 218
 
Chapter 5 Re-Forming the Anthropocene 220
 
Beyond Sustainable 223
 
Thinking Outside the Building's Life Cycle 224
 
Re-forming the Anthropocene 231
 
The Anthropocene Re-formed 240
 
Acknowledgments 243
 
Glossary 244
 
References 248
 
Index 252

About the author

Matti Kuittinen is an architect and professor of resource-efficient construction at Aalto University, Finland. As a policymaker, he has been developing whole life carbon assessment methods in Finland and the EU.
Alan Organschi is a design principal and a partner at Gray Organschi Architecture, in New Haven, CT and a senior member of the design and technology faculty of the Yale School of Architecture. He currently serves as the Director of the Innovation Lab of the global initiative Bauhaus Earth in Berlin, Germany.
Andrew Ruff (New Haven, CT) is the Research Coordinator of the Timber City Research Initiative, the Design Director at Gray Organschi Architecture, and a Visiting Critic at the Yale School of Architecture. He previously held appointments as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Wesleyan University and a Lecturer at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and served as part of the guest faculty at the Roger Williams School of Architecture, Art, and Historic Preservation, where he led design research into the applications of mass timber assemblies in mid-rise building applications. In addition to his professional degree in Architecture, he holds a Master of Environmental Design from the Yale School of Architecture and has lectured and published on the subject of mass timber buildings in the global carbon economy.

Summary

A comprehensive approach to design that integrates sustainable principles and design strategies for decarbonized construction

Representing an international collaboration between academics and architects in the United States and Europe, Carbon: A Field Manual for Designers and Builders offers professionals in the field an approach to sustainable design that embraces building science principles, life-cycle analysis, and design strategies in carbon neutral construction. The book also contains background information on carbon in construction materials and in the building design process.

This book is filled with illustrative diagrams and drawings that help evaluate the potential impact of design decisions for creating carbon emissions. Written by and for designers and builders, the book includes a compelling pair of case studies that explore carbon-reducing strategies, suggests steps for assessing a building's carbon footprint, and reviews carbon storages and circulation of materials. The guidelines detailed in the book can be adopted, replicated, and deployed to reduce carbon emissions and create more sustainable buildings. This important book:
* Offers an effective approach to sustainable design in construction
* Integrates building science principles, life-cycle analysis, and design strategies in carbon neutral construction
* Describes a methodology for quantifying the flow of carbon in the built environment
* Provides an analysis of carbon-reducing strategies based on a case study of a building designed by the authors

Written for practicing professionals in architecture and construction, Carbon: A Field Guide for Designers and Builders is a must-have resource for professionals who are dedicated to creating sustainable projects.

Report

"This is a must-read book. It achieves the rare outcome of being a successful volume for design practitioners (who should know what to do) as well as design students (who don't yet know what to do). But it is also very useful to educators, policymakers, engineers, local authorities, industry professionals and - really - anyone who takes seriously the sheer impacts caused by the global built environment to ecosystems, biodiversity, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, land use, urban fabric transformation, energy demand, social shifts and implications for the lives of millions who live in, or at the margins of, it."
--Francesco Pomponi, Buildings & Cities
 
"A recommendable book to get started with LCA in building construction with focus on CO2 or carbon as well as concepts for decarbonization.... The basic LCA aspects are presented in an easy to follow manner.... Also worth to mention: many specific LCA terms which are helpful in discussing with LCA experts such as cradle-to-gate, end-of-life, end-of-waste or closing the loop are addressed in easy to understand words."
--nbau, NACHHALTIG BAUEN "Its explanatory tone runs like a seam through this book; copiously illustrated in black and white and on a thin, uncoated paper that intimates the authors' awareness of its own carbon footprint. It's worth it alone just for Chapter 3, 'Case Studies in Decarbonisation'"
--The RIBA Journal

Product details

• Authors: M Kuittinen, Matt Kuittinen, Matti Kuittinen, Matti (Aalto University Kuittinen, Matti Organschi Kuittinen, Ala Organschi, Alan Organschi, Alan (Yale School of Architecture Organschi, Alan Kuittinen Organschi, Andrew Ruff
• Publisher: Wiley, John and Sons Ltd
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.06.2021
• EAN: 9781119720768
• ISBN: 978-1-119-72076-8
• No. of pages: 272
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Architecture; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Technology > Structural and environmental engineering; Architektur, nachhaltiges Bauen, Architecture, Bauentwurf, Baustoffe, Bauingenieur- u. Bauwesen, Civil Engineering & Construction, Construction: Sustainability, Building Design, Construction Materials