Archinect - News

Is carbon offsetting a misleading tool of the building industry?

2022-05-16T15:16:00-04:00

Six months after the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, columnist Kunle Barker wrote in the UK Architects' Journal to take a stand against the industry’s oneiric focus on “lofty ideals of zero-carbon and on soundbites” and towards a more considered system of new project evaluation, advocating for the “need to develop a viability methodology that is independent, objective and focused on carbon impact versus social need.”

“Let’s rid ourselves of these conceited phrases and instead focus on the real issues,” he wrote, arguing that need will always push architects into costly demolition efforts and away from restoring structures that may, in many cases, be better suited for adaptive reuse. “Offsetting is not sustainable. In fact, it's not even close to being sustainable, and most worrying of all, it is allowing lazy, ego-driven designs to be accepted by us all. We must find an objective and fair way to assess if (and how) a building should be constructed. This is the only way the built en...

The world's largest hybrid solar-hydropower floating farm has begun operation in Thailand

2021-11-17T12:36:00-05:00

A floating solar farm that’s equivalent to about 70 soccer fields in size has begun generating power in Thailand, reflecting the country’s push to achieve carbon neutral status by 2050.

Located at the Sirindhorn Dam, which is about 410 miles east of Bangkok, the facility is the world’s largest hybrid solar-hydropower system. It combines two methods of electricity generation, with 145,000 solar panels generating power from the sun during that day, while three turbines convert energy from flowing water at night. It can send up to 45MW of power to three different provinces in the region.

The $34 million solar farm started operating on October 31st. It is the first of 16 similar floating solar panel projects planned in key Thai reservoirs as the country aims to shift away from its reliance on natural gas. According to Bloomberg, Thailand will reach carbon neutrality by 2050, ahead of its previous target of 2065 that was pledged by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha at COP26. In addition, the country aims to reach net zero emissions by 2065.

Here is what happened in Glasgow after the underwhelming conclusion of COP26

2021-11-15T14:38:00-05:00

The ending of this year’s COP26 conference has 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.

The conference concluded on Saturday with a resounding sense of discord, despite a historic pact signed by 197 countries to close the conference. Here’s a look at some of the highlights and tangible changes that came out of the two-week meeting in Glasgow.

Coal

Coal was the biggest hangup at the conference by far, with the final language of the deal constituting what British Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared a “death knell” for the industry. Although more than 40 countries agreed to end their own domestic production of coal, India, with help from China and Iran, singularly stalled the pact until an 11th-hour deal changed the text from “phase out” to the more ambiguous “phase dow...

An architect will generate carbon emissions equal to the lifetime emissions of 162 typical Americans, according to COP26 talk

2021-11-12T17:20:00-05:00

An architect who creates just three typical buildings over their career will be responsible for carbon emissions equivalent to the lifetime emissions of 162 typical Americans, the COP26 summit in Glasgow has been told

During a talk on “Adaptive Transformation” at the Danish Pavilion at COP26, Enlai Hooi, who works as the Head of Innovation at Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects in Copenhagen, said that professionals in the building industry carry a far greater responsibility for the world’s health than other individuals. Hooi referenced The Architects’ Journal’s RetroFirst campaign, an initiative that advocates for retrofitting existing buildings over demolition and rebuilding, calling for government reforms in taxation, policy, and procurement.

This is especially important as Hooi pointed out that prevailing building culture and methods make the adaptation and reuse of existing buildings seem riskier to developers and investors.

“What if we focused instead [of new build] on transitioning our existing buildings into an appropriate architecture for the future and reducing what we build new?,” Hooi said.

“We have an obligation as architects to ask: what qualities exist in the [existing] building?” ...

SOM unveils vision for carbon-absorbing cities at COP26

2021-11-12T14:28:00-05:00

With COP26 entering its final day in Glasgow, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill have used the event to unveil their vision to transform the built environment into a network for absorbing carbon. Titled 'Urban Sequoia,' the project is centered on the concept of “forests” of buildings which sequester carbon and produce biomaterials to support a new carbon economy.

Rendering © SOM | Miysis

To create the scheme, SOM based their approach on an optimization of building design, a minimizing of materials, the integration of biomaterials, and the use of advanced biomass and carbon capture technologies. As a result, the firm estimates that if every city around the world built an Urban Sequoia in line with their design, the built environment could remove up to 1.6 billion tons of carbon from the atmosphere every year.

Rendering © SOM | Miysis

“We are quickly evolving beyond the idea of being carbon neutral,” said SOM Partner Chris Cooper as the project was unveiled. “The time has passed to talk abou...

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

2021-11-04T13:58:00-04:00

Norman Foster’s commentary on urbanism is in the news cycle once again after the architect made an appearance in Glasgow as part of this week’s United Nations COP26 climate summit.

The comments roiled many in the social media universe, who pointed to Foster’s continued insistence on airport design and penchant for high-profile projects in oil economies that for many betray whatever claims the architect might make in regards to his own personal environmentalism.

Foster was participating in a question-and-answer breakfast with U.S. climate envoy John Kerry for an audience of worldwide mayors moderated by Glasgow’s own city council leader Susan Aitken.

Speaking with the former Secretary of State, Foster, who made waves recently after a terse appearance on Bloomberg Television in September in which the architect doubled down on his decision to withdraw from Architects Declare a scant 18 months after its founding, said that Covid has accelerated several already-ascendant trends such a...

Long before COP26, the architect’s career was being reshaped by climate change

2021-10-28T16:40:00-04:00

On 31st October, the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) will begin in Glasgow, Scotland. Among the events across the two-week conference is Built Environment Day: the first time a dedicated day at COP will be given to addressing carbon emissions from buildings. The dedicated day, scheduled for 12th November, is in addition to a virtual climate pavilion running throughout the conference which, as we previously reported, will feature 17 exemplary climate-conscious architectural projects from around the world.

The inclusion of a dedicated Built Environment Day at COP26 is not without reason, and is arguably long overdue. According to the World Green Building Council, almost 40% of global energy and process-related emissions are generated by the building and construction industry. While 28% of emissions are derived from operational energy use, such as heating, cooling, and powering buildings, the remaining 11% of emissions are released from materials and construction ...

World’s first 3D printed raw earth house to be showcased at COP26

2021-10-26T12:54:00-04:00

TECLA, the world’s first raw earth house constructed using 3D printing, is to be exhibited as one of 17 projects in the Build Better Now virtual exhibition at COP26. As we previously reported, the exhibition will also feature a sustainability-focused 360-degree virtual pavilion designed by Make Architects, forming the exhibition’s centerpiece.

Image: Iago Corazza

Originating in Italy, and designed by MC A (Mario Cucinella Architects) and WASP (World's Advanced Saving), TECLA features an innovative circular housing model that combines vernacular architectural principles with advanced building technology. The scheme also takes inspiration from one of Italo Calvino’s “Invisible Cities,” with its attention to whole life cycles evoking the idea of a city in continuous construction.

Image: Iago Corazza

“It is an almost zero-emission project,” explains MC A. “Its envelope and the use of a locally sourced material have made it possible to reduce waste and scrap. The local clay is quarried...

'Let’s prepare, act, and survive': UK urged to invest in every area of floodproofing

2021-10-13T13:21:00-04:00

It is a case of “adapt or die”, said the Environment Agency’s chair, Emma Howard Boyd, warning that deadly events such as the flooding in Germany this summer would hit the UK if the country did not make itself resilient to the more violent weather the climate emergency was bringing.

With some big-name resiliency projects planned in Miami and New York for the next few years, the UK now faces a renewed push to invest in its flood-adverse communities before they suffer irreversible damage due to climate change. Sea walls are still a popular infrastructure solution to the crisis, although some say they don’t necessarily offer the best protection owing to their structural inadequacies and corrosive effects on beaches.

England will need about 3.4 billion extra liters of water per day in the future as it faces incredible supply shortages 20 to 25 years in the future. Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the opportunity to answer the crisis a "coming of age" in his speech to the UN General Assembly last month. The government's response will be in the spotlight soon as Glasgow prepares to host the Cop26 summit next month.

RIBA and Architects Declare announce program for Built Environment Summit 2021

2021-10-08T16:31:00-04:00

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), in partnership with Architects Declare, has announced the program for the Built Environment Summit 2021, a two-day, partially in-person conference taking place on October 28 and 29, 2021.

The event comes following the publication of RIBA and Architects Declare’s Built for the Environment report, that details the role industry has and must have in tackling the climate crisis. The summit also arrives ahead of COP26 in Glasgow, which starts on November 1.

As stated by RIBA, “The summit is a call to action, bringing together professionals from across the international built environment sector to address the urgent need to drive changes in behaviour to reduce carbon emissions. We cannot meet the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C temperature rise limit above pre-industrial levels without transforming the way we plan, design, build, operate, and adapt our built environment.”

Virtual climate pavilion to be launched for COP26 with free public events and exhibition of exemplary projects

2021-10-07T11:24:00-04:00

In advance of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) taking place in Glasgow, Scotland in November 2021, the UK Green Building Council has announced 17 sustainable projects to be displayed in an online exhibition. The exhibition, titled Build Better Now, will take place in virtual reality, and will also feature a sustainability-focused 360-degree virtual pavilion designed by Make Architects, forming the exhibition’s centerpiece.

Heart of School, Green School Bali, Bali, Indonesia, by John Hardy, PT Bambu, Heru Wijayanto, Joerg Stamm, Gadjah Mada University

Alongside the exhibition of the 17 exemplar projects, the Build Better Now virtual pavilion will host an events series comprising of tours and talks, keynotes, panel discussions, and other downloadable content aimed at highlighting the impact of the built environment on climate change, and potential mitigations or solutions. The events will be free and open to a global audience, running from October 31st to November 12th, 2021.

F...

World Green Building Council publishes 2021 report on net-zero carbon

2021-06-14T12:29:00-04:00

The World Green Building Council (WGBC) has published its Advancing Net Zero Status Report 2021, offering an overview of the construction sector’s progress towards decarbonization throughout the last twelve months. Available to read and download here for free, the 48-page report offers detail on the sector's progress towards net-zero carbon, including the scale of the problem, positive case studies from the industry, and responses to common misconceptions about net-zero carbon in buildings.

The report is an output of the GBC’s Advancing Net Zero global program; a pillar of the organization’s response to climate change. The 2021 report contains a world map showing participation in the program by the GBC’s global network, and an update on the GBC Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment, whose 141 signatories include 107 businesses, 28 cities, and 6 states/regions.

“A bold approach is urgently required to reduce the [environmental] impacts of the sector, which is globally responsible ...