Building modern buildings doesn’t necessarily create climate-changing pollution » Yale Climate Connection

Overall, modern buildings have a very large carbon footprint due to polluting concrete, steel, insulation, etc. In fact, according to the United Nations Environment Program, “the construction industry is by far the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, accounting for a staggering 37% of global emissions.” (Estimates vary, but are all high, including in the U.S. of new homes) so it’s no surprise that ways to reduce these emissions are being looked for.

Part of this research involves the recycling and transformation of traditional, natural, low-carbon or even carbon-sequestering building materials, sometimes involving new technologies and sometimes not. The resulting buildings range from high-priced, award-winning designs to refugee shelters that can be built in hours and cost next to nothing. They appear across the globe, from Sweden to Bangladesh and from Ghana to Colorado, although their numbers remain small.

Most of these developments are written up in scientific research papers, trade and professional journals, company blogs, and books by leading theorists and practitioners, rather than in mainstream newspapers and magazines, so the articles collected here are only a sample. Some of the more engaging stories are those that feature individual innovators who combine art, architecture, technology, concern for the environment and climate change, respect for cultural history and specificity, and make their work practical and scalable and goals that truly benefit others.

built with earth

• “The woman who brought filth to Harvard.” Michaela Haas, Reasons to Be Happy. Portrait of artist/architect Anna Heringer, who specializes in earth/clay architecture, especially in Bangladesh. Her 13-minute TED Talk “The Warmth and Wisdom of Earth Buildings” was very good.
• “As African cities grow, traditional building practices offer sustainable solutions.” unep.org. Francis Kéré, an architect from and working in Burkina Faso, wrote this article for the New York Times: “Building the future, drawing on the blueprints of the past.” Kéré wrote in the article titled “ The cultural, historical and conceptual background of his work is described in the title “Mediating the dialogue between tradition and modernity in the search for new architecture in Africa”.
• “Ronald Rael constructs a frontier building using 3D printing in Adobe and regional history.” Joshua Ware, Southwest Contemporary. Another artist/architect working on a conceptually and culturally rich work, this time using very new techniques.
• “Review: Martin Rauch.” Marko Sauer and Gabriela Carrilo, Architectural Review. The influential ceramicist-turned-builder experimented with rammed earth, first for walls and then for increasingly larger and more complex buildings.
• “'I said to myself, dirt won't burn': People rebuild their homes with dirt.” Nick Aspinwall, BBC.

Building with bamboo: strong and fast growing

Architecture rich in plant fibers

Build with wood: “mass” or “engineered” wood

• “Trees and forests in new towers” ​​(Stephen Wallis, New York Times) and “Sustainable construction efforts for wooden skyscrapers reach new heights” (Kurt Kleiner, Knowable Magazine, reprinted in Yale Climate Connection). Both overviews focus on the potential but do not ignore the problems, which include the replacement of mature and old-growth forests with plantations. For a purely optimistic take, read “This old-school building material could take over city skylines” (William Booth, The Washington Post)
• “Wood now has carbon capture capabilities.” Prachi Patel, Anthropocene Magazine. Replacing one of the components of wood (lignin) could improve strength, durability, carbon storage, and even transparency.
• “Rethinking Architecture: The Rise of Timber as a Sustainable Material.” Brian Brownell, Architects Magazine. Focus on recovering and recycling wood to store carbon for as long as possible.
• For an interesting tangent, see “World’s first wooden satellite, developed in Japan, heads for space.” Kantaro Komiya and Eileen Wang, Reuters.