Climate change poses an existential problem, and how architects design their buildings plays a significant role in whether or not they worsen the state of the world or adapt to make their designs as climate-friendly as possible, lessening the impact of buildings on energy consumption. When people talk about climate change, you typically hear mention of going green in regards to cars and other forms of transportation, recycling, factory farming, fast fashion, and the kinds of ingredients used in your household cleaning products. You don’t really hear about how architecture impacts climate change.
While all of those do affect the climate, and greatly, at that, architecture accounts for nearly half of the total carbon emissions in the United States. Here’s what you need to know about how architecture impacts climate change, and how this essential part of our everyday lives can both account for human needs and environmental challenges. It’s bracing to know that although architecture impacts climate change negatively, so too can it positively, as part of the solution for how we save this planet.
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The Materials Matter
Sustainability in architecture is challenging because though it’s known that architecture impacts climate change, so many aspects and materials used in the creation of buildings both positively and negatively affect the environment. Concrete, for example, can bring down energy costs in buildings, which is a positive. However, it’s made with cement, which accounts for roughly 8% of the world’s carbon emissions, which is a negative. Thus, sustainable design leads to dilemmas that don’t always have a clear resolution.
However, there are some materials that affect how architecture impacts climate change in a way that is more easily recognized as a positive over a negative, and these are materials architects should strive to use more of in their designs. Some of the carbon-neutral materials for sustainable design include: timber, stone, and other such natural materials. As science progresses, we are discovering new materials and ways to manufacture current materials to be carbon neutral, such as “sea concrete”, which is grown underwater via an electric current, and carbon-neutral aluminum and steel.
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