Archinect - News

Arup measures carbon emissions of 1,000 projects for COP27, calls for greater effort to collect industry climate data

2022-11-15T12:27:00-05:00

Arup has announced the creation of a dataset which catalogs the whole life carbon emissions of buildings in its portfolio. The dataset, unveiled to coincide with COP27, has so far calculated the emissions for almost 1,000 Arup projects across 30 countries.

The data represents an effort by Arup to calculate their ‘carbon handprint,’ which quantifies the scale of emissions arising from the firm’s design portfolio. To collect and analyze the data, Arup developed a new software platform called Zero, into which over 1,100 Arup engineers and designers fed data on 954 projects.

Related on Archinect: Arup formed part of the team who recently delivered a 'first of its kind' mass timber office extension in Washington DC

“In taking this crucial first step, we have been driven by a determination to overcome the barriers to scaling net zero buildings,” explained Arup chairman Alan Belfield. “Comparable and open whole life carbon data is the tool that will allow actors across the global property ...

SOM presents 'ready-to-build' Urban Sequoia NOW design at COP27

2022-11-08T17:53:00-05:00

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) has revealed an update to its Urban Sequoia project it says can be built right now, during a presentation that took place today at the COP27 climate summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

SOM Partner Chris Cooper was on hand to make the presentation of his firm’s refined design for a carbon-sequestering building that can be used as a weapon in the fight against carbon emissions globally, three-quarters of which are generated from urban areas alone.

“We recognize the need to alter the trajectory of climate change by going beyond net zero,” Cooper said during the presentation. “We need to take carbon out of the atmosphere through the built environment, and we have developed a design to do just that.”

Image: © SOM | Miysis

Despite some considerably less-marketable obstacles to its effective implementation, the technology for carbon sequestering has come a long way in its development to offer itself as a plausible answer to the challenge posed by the need to a...

ASLA will send two observer delegates to UN's COP27 for the first time

2022-11-03T17:51:00-04:00

A two-person delegation from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) will be present as observers of next week’s COP27 summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, in an unprecedented move first announced yesterday by the organization.

Landprocess founder Kotchakorn Voraakhom and Climate Positive Design founder/CMG Landscape Architecture principal Pamela Conrad will travel to the conference in order to present the ASLA Climate Action Plan to attendees, which is set for publication on November 12th.

The plan is an extension of the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) Climate Action Commitment that was announced at last year’s summit. The 27th edition is taking place under a rather unique set of circumstances colored by an ongoing land war and a recent UN report that called for up to $6 trillion in annual green investments in order to combat its updated prediction indicating the world is now on track to warm between 2.1 to 2.9°C by the end of the century.

Related O...

Norman Foster unveils San Marino Declaration of sustainability principles ahead of COP27

2022-10-04T17:40:00-04:00

Norman Foster is in San Marino this week to present what he says is a new set of sustainable urban design principles to the 83rd meeting of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s Committee on Urban Development, Housing, and Land Management.

The so-called San Marino Declaration appears as a sort of guidebook around which architects and urban planners can build cities that are “climate-neutral, safer, more inclusive, and resilient.” In it, a set of eleven interrelated principles are floated for universal adaptation based on past actions and directives taken by the UN Secretary-General that carry broad and direct implications to the built environment and ascending migration of populations into urban centers across the globe.

Previously on Archinect: At COP26, Norman Foster speaks about the primacy of cities in the fight against climate change

Speaking to Dezeen recently, Foster compared the plan to the Hippocratic Oath Western medical professionals typically sign, adding th...

As Egypt prepares for COP27, one trailblazing architect sees an opportunity to address climate change in the global south

2022-09-12T11:33:00-04:00

Preparations are underway in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt for the hosting of the COP27 climate conference, launching on Sunday November 6th. Under its strapline ‘Together for implementation,’ COP27 is billed as an ‘African COP’ due to an expectation that the exposure of African countries to climate change will play a significant role in the event.

The event follows one year after COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, which, as we wrote at the time, “left many architects to ponder how effective the mostly non-representative group of negotiators were in addressing the skepticism and high expectations coming into the meeting that is meant to address what is undoubtedly the greatest moral issue of our time.”

Archinect Feature: Business as Usual or Build Back Better? Architectural Leaders Share Their Thoughts on This Weekend’s COP26 Opening

One architect who will hope for a more optimistic verdict on COP27 is Sarah El Battouty. The Egyptian architect and entrepreneur, who directs the leading Egyptian gre...