Week 12: Sustainability in 2050

1) Over the next thirty years, the main driving force of architecture will be sustainable design. There is an increasing awareness to the detrimental effects of building which concrete and steel, which combined equate for 8% of annual global green house gas emissions. Investigating nature and harnessing its ability to regenerate, decrease our carbon footprint and create structurally sound edifices will increase our ability to build sustainably. The answers are in front of us in the form of trees, leaves, vines, etc. and its just a matter of studying these components and devising ways to incorporate them into the built environment. For example. Mitchell Joachim, in his piece for TED Talks, speaks of grafting trees together in order to create living, breathing structures that do not negatively impact the earth but in fact help absorb carbon.




Similarly, Michael Green touches upon the idea of harnessing advances in wood construction to build new sky scrapers that are structurally safe and fire retardant. Furthermore, these building components can be harvested sustainably and simply use the power of the sun for their growth.

However, in order to arrive at a place where we are able to use these advances, significant changes will need to be made to building code. At the moment wood structures are limited to 4 stories in the US and Canada. If indeed, these changes are made, instead of buildings contributing to green house gas emissions in the form of embodied energy, they can in fact do the opposite. For example a 20 story wood building in place of a 20 story concrete/steel building would be the equivalent of taking 900 cars off the road.

Wood Innovation Design Center - British Columbia, Canada
(Note: built with special code exemptions)



2) In 2050, the main drivers for sustainability, will be a need to decrease dependency on petroleum based products, find ways to efficiently service cities as it is projected more than 75% of people will live in cities by 2040, limit green house gas emissions and therefore the use of structural elements, such as concrete and steel, and lastly find ways for coastal cities to combat sea level rise.

This last piece will be particularly relevant for the city of Boston as large portions of the city are projected to be prone to significant flooding by the year 2050.

10% annual flood risk shown for City of Boston in the year 2050

Photos from January 4th, 2018 blizzard coupled with "King's Tide" along Boston's Waterfront (Commercial Street & Atlantic Avenue)



The most commonly asserted strategy is to build a concrete sea wall around the city/low lying areas, however this will be an incredibly costly and energy consuming process. In light of the renewing commitment to a return to nature, it raises the question, are there natural processes that can help mitigate the risks of flooding? Can Boston introduce natural materials, such as water reeds, water retention areas, etc. to absorb the rising tides? It will certainly be an angle worth exploring moving forward and may hold the key to sustainably confront sea level change.

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