The New Carbon Architecture: Building to Cool the Climate

Soak up carbon into beautiful, healthy buildings that heal the climate

Green buildings that slash energy use and carbon emissions are all the rage, but they aren't enough. The hidden culprit is embodied carbon -- the carbon emitted when materials are mined, manufactured, and transported -- comprising some 10% of global emissions. With the built environment doubling by 2030, buildings are a carbon juggernaut threatening to overwhelm the climate.

It doesn't have to be this way.

Like never before in history, buildings can become part of the climate solution. With biomimicry and innovation, we can pull huge amounts of carbon out of the atmosphere and lock it up as walls, roofs, foundations, and insulation. We can literally make buildings out of the sky with a massive positive impact.

The New Carbon Architecture is a paradigm-shifting tour of the innovations in architecture and construction that are making this happen. Office towers built from advanced wood products; affordable, low-carbon concrete alternatives; plastic cleaned from the oceans and turned into building blocks. We can even grow insulation from mycelium.

A tour de force by the leaders in the field, The New Carbon Architecture will fire the imagination of architects, engineers, builders, policy makers, and everyone else captivated by the possibility of architecture to heal the climate and produce safer, healthier, and more beautiful buildings.

Bruce King has been a structural engineer for 35 years, designing buildings of every size and type around the world. Bruce's decades of research into alternative building systems has led to building code changes in California and globally. He is the author of Buildings of Earth and Straw , Making Better Concrete , and the landmark Design of Straw Bale Buildings . Bruce lives in San Rafael, California.

Erin McDade is a Program Manager for Architecture 2030. She leads Architecture 2030's Products Challenge, is founding chair of the Embodied Carbon Network, and is on the board of the Carbon Leadership Forum. She is also leading AIA+2030 Online Series development, helping design professionals create zero carbon buildings.

Ann Edminster is a leading international expert on zero-energy efficient (ZNE) green homes. She assists design teams in pursuing ZNE performance goals, has developed curricula for design and construction of ZNE homes, and is a frequent keynote speaker, presenter, and teacher at conferences, universities, non-profits, and utilities.

Catherine De Wolf is a postdoctoral scientist working on low carbon structural design at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. She has spoken about low carbon building materials at TEDx in Paris and when receiving the Innovators Under 35 Award in Belgium.

Kathrina Simonen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Washington with over 15 years of professional practice experience as an architect and structural engineer. She is founding director of the Carbon Leadership Forum, an industry-academic collaboration focused on linking LCA to design and construction practice and has authored a handbook, Life Cycle Assessment, a primer for building industry professionals looking to learn about LCA.

Barbara Rodriguez Droguett has devoted over a decade to the creation and improvement of analytic tools to assess carbon in buildings. In 2015 she received the National Award for Sustainable Construction Leaders under 35 from the Chilean Chamber of Construction. She is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Washington.

Larry Strain , Siegel & Strain Architects. Larry has a 40+ year background in sustainable design and studied ecological systems at Evergreen State College and the Farallones Institute. He wrote a Guideline Specification for Green Materials, which became part of Building Green's GreenSpec Directory. For the past seven years, Larry has focused on reducing the total carbon footprint of our buildings.

Frances Yang is a structures and materials sustainability specialist in the Energy + Sustainability group of the San Francisco office of Arup. Frances uses her studies in structural engineering, life cycle assessment, architecture for the environment, and green chemistry in leading the Sustainable Materials Consulting practice for the Arup Americas region.

Andrew Lawrence is the leading timber specialist at Arup, a member of the European Timber Design Code Committee, and a judge for the UK Wood Awards. Andrew lectures worldwide on the structural use of timber and is currently working with timber industry bodies in the USA, UK, China, southeast Asia, and Australia, to help make timber a mainstream construction material.

Jason Grant has been a leader in the sustainable forestry and green building movements for 25 years. Jason co-founded EcoTimber, one of the first companies in the world to bring certified ecological forest products to market. He has long advocated for sustainable forestry and responsible wood use as a member Sierra Club's Forest Certification and Green Building Team.

Chris Magwood is obsessed with making the best, most energyefficient, carbon sequestering, beautiful and inspiring buildings without wrecking the whole darn planet in the attempt. Chris is currently the executive director of The Endeavour Centre, a notfor- profit sustainable building school in Peterborough, Ontario. .

Massey Burke is a natural materials specialist in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work centers on research, design, and hands-on implementation of building with low-carbon natural materials, with an interest in applying natural building to existing buildings and the urban fabric.

Craig White is a developer, architect, and entrepreneur. Craig is currently leading work on a new model of community- led and -financed housing that meets the housing crisis challenge using carbon-banking renewable materials. Craig is also a consultant with the Carbon Trust, and senior lecturer at the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of West England. A core focus of Craig's work is how research-led innovation delivers commercial impact and sustainable outcomes.

Fernando Martirena is the director of CIDEM (Center for Research & Development of Structures and Materials) at the Universidad Central de las Villas in Santa Clara, Cuba, which is a world-leading institution in the development and implementation of appropriate technologies for social housing.

Paul Jaquin is a chartered structural and geotechnical engineer working in New Zealand. Paul completed his PhD thesis, entitled Analysis of Historic Rammed Earth Construction, in 2008 at the University of Durham, UK. Working as a consulting engineer, he has undertaken the design of a number of earth buildings.

Mikhail Davis is Director of Restorative Enterprise at Interface, the world's largest manufacturer of modular carpet. He is responsible for advancing Interface's globally recognized Mission Zero commitment in the Americas by building internal leadership capacity and creating external partnerships.

Wes Sullens is an advocate for circular material economies and a regenerative built environment. He has worked in the public, private, and non-profit sectors on a range of topics including waste management, recycling, supply chain sustainability, and chemicals transparency. He specializes in green building rating system development, product labeling standards setting, and progressive green building codes advocacy.

Wil V. Srubar III , is an assistant professor of architectural engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU). At CU, he is actively engaged in research projects related to durable, low-carbon polymer- and cement-based construction materials. He is an active member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Architectural Engineering Institute, and he currently serves as a co-chair of the Embodied Carbon Network.

Pete Walker is Professor of Innovative Construction Materials and Director of the BRE Centre of Innovative Construction Materials at the University of Bath, UK. His particular interests are natural materials, including straw bale, earth building and natural fiber composites.

Andrew Thomson works at the University of Bath as a Research Associate. His work focuses on advancing the use of low-carbon construction materials within the construction industry. He has contributed to the structural design of some of the UK's largest Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) buildings and was a key member of the research team that delivered the UK's first certified straw bale panel product; ModCell Core.

Daniel Maskell is a Prize Fellow in Innovative Construction Materials in the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering at the University of Bath, UK. Dan's interests are in innovative building materials and how these can be used for the improvement of indoor environment quality for improved occupant health and well-being. He has wide experience with natural building materials, including earth, straw bale, and other inorganic and organic materials.