Carbon: A Field Manual for Building Designers

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.

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 Facades 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 Facades 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