Design Matter(s) for Decarbonization
In an era where anthropogenic materials surpass the weight of all life on Earth, and the construction sector stands as a major driver of ecological disruption, rethinking material practices, coupled with advancements in digital technologies, presents a paradigm-shifting opportunity to address the extractive, consumptive, and contaminating logic and processes of the built environment.
Responsive Cities 2025 aims to shift the conversation on resource depletion by focusing on abundance rather than scarcity, advocating for material-driven innovations in architecture and urban design that challenge traditional material practice and advance decarbonization goals. Adopting an abundance mindset is a new paradigm relevant to design and construction practices, expanding the definition of “resources” and exploring where both raw and non-raw materials can be sourced and “mined” to offset carbon emissions.
The integration of reclaimed materials, and the upcycling of waste streams, combined with design strategies that facilitate disassembly, promote adaptive reuse, or prioritize the repurposing of existing building stock, challenges conventional design and construction norms while placing materials at the core of circular design and circular carbon economy. Embodied carbon measurements and material analytics on this front become crucial for informed decision-making. Concepts such as urban mining and buildings as material banks call for new practices in digitizing the physical world, including the use of advanced computation for monitoring material flows and carbon offsets, performing life cycle assessments, and creating digital material libraries for reuse.
Embracing this paradigm encourages the exploration of unconventional ideas and interdisciplinary collaboration, opening paths for novel approaches, new policies, and innovative uses of digital technologies.
Design Matter(s) for Decarbonization seeks to explore proposals for novel monitoring, design, and manufacturing processes that effectively detect and reconstitute materials while improving the performance of material assemblies to facilitate reuse. It also advocates for a vision of metabolic architecture: an architecture that digests its waste or decomposes itself; an architecture where its form adapts to material availability, introducing new aesthetics; an architecture that redefines building lifecycles and ultimately regenerates rather than merely reducing its negative environmental and economic footprint.
The theme of Responsive Cities 2025 additionally marks the importance of designing and building with material libraries that evolve towards organic and natural properties, or even towards synthetically created living materials that can grow and be harvested. Biomaterials such as earth, bamboo, biochar, timber, fibers, or cork, as well as living matter such as mycelium, algae, microbes, or nature-based solutions, not only contribute to reducing the carbon footprint of the building industry and enhancing biogenic carbon storage, but also support a restorative, decarbonizing approach to design and production. Buildings become carbon sinks while carbon is transformed into value for the built environment.
Design Matter(s) for Decarbonization integrates the importance of ethical decisions in managing resources and in designing and constructing with them. Ethical design practices ensure that construction projects do not contribute to the displacement or harm of vulnerable communities affected by resource extraction. Managing resources, such as land or forests, on the other hand, prioritizes the conservation and responsible use of natural resources, supporting ecosystems and biodiversity while promoting practices that mitigate environmental degradation and foster long-term ecological health. This dual approach advances decarbonization goals as much as it supports new (bio)economic models, aligning with broader objectives of social equity and environmental stewardship. Such a new paradigm could disrupt "business as usual" in the built environment, favoring practices that do not exploit the climate crisis over those that do.
From new ethical “material breeding” practices and synthetic growth/degrowth, to waste farming and harvesting expired building components, Responsive Cities 2025 explores the power of design and its potential to integrate both natural and technological solutions to mitigate the harmful and extractive nature of current design and construction protocols.
The Responsive Cities Symposium – Design Matter(s) for Decarbonization – is organized around the following central topics:
DESIGN & BUILD: design for disassembly | form follows availability | digital manufacturing for reuse | circular feedback
DECARBONIZE: zero/negative carbon materials | buildings/cities as carbon sinks | regeneration | sustainable land management
ADAPT TO CLIMATE & PERFORM: synthetic ecologies | living systems | building metabolism | design performance
DIGITIZE THE PHYSICAL: computing (living) matter | monitoring | digital twins | material passports
ETHICS & POLICIES: design ethics | inclusivity | decision making | democratize technologies
