Sustainability

The way we build must fundamentally shift to harmonise with tree and carbon cycles in order to realise the Timber Revolution, writes Smith Mordak. There’s an argument that’s often trotted out against building with timber: there isn’t enough of it. The fear is that if we built everything out of wood there wouldn’t be a

The post “We can’t detox our built environment by swapping out fossil-fuelled building materials for timber” appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen’s latest series investigates the potential of mass timber. Starting today, Timber Revolution will question whether the material can break steel and concrete’s hold over the construction industry. The world’s oldest building material is making a comeback. Timber was once used to construct the vast majority of our buildings, but in the 19th and 20th centuries

The post The dawn of the Timber Revolution appeared first on Dezeen.

CAMPLUS San Pietro is a student residence located in the heart of Rome next to Vatican City. This conversion of a five-story building of a former nursing home included seismic retrofitting and improvement of its functional and energy efficiency.

The circular economy concept became more defined in 1990 when it appeared in the article Economics of Natural Resources and the Environment, by British economists and environmentalists David W. Pearce and R. Kerry Turner. At the time, the main purpose of the research was to demonstrate that the traditional economy did not incorporate recycling. In this way, the environment assumed a secondary role, just like a simple waste reservoir. Therefore, the circular economy would gain strength as an opposition to the linear (or traditional) economy, in which the production chain motto is “extract, produce and discard”. A model deeply rooted in our economy that has become unsustainable for several reasons, like the depletion of natural resources and the contamination of the environment resulting from production and disposal.

World Wetlands Day is celebrated every February 2nd to raise awareness of wetlands. This day also marks the anniversary of the Wetlands Convention, adopted as an international treaty in 1971. Its enactment is because nearly 90% of the world’s wetlands have been degraded since 1700, decimated three times faster than the forests. However, they are essential ecosystems that contribute to biodiversity, climate mitigation and adaptation, freshwater availability, world economies, and much more.

The Wood. The unique wooden A-frame is tucked away in the jungle of Lombok, Indonesia. This project started shortly after Lombok was hit by an earthquake in 2018, leaving many buildings on the island in ruins. While many modern concrete structures in the area crumbled after the earthquake, most simple wood structural buildings would stand still. Wood is known for its unique characteristic that can flex in an earthquake, making it a great choice of material for a house that must withstand Indonesia’s volcanic conditions. In response to this geographical condition, the triangular frame or A-frame structural system is used for its stiff structure.

Inspiration for the CHARRED barn was found amidst the familiar barn shapes covering the local landscape in the rolling hills of West Chester, Pennsylvania. The structures are functional, contextually appropriate, and true to the task in their conception. Employing an ICF exterior shell and LiteDeck flooring system, these traditional forms began to step into a modern-day landscape. Utilizing passive venting, the thermal mass of the concrete, thoughtful building orientation, PV panels, and sustainable interior and exterior finishes, the familiar forms began to take on unfamiliar characteristics. The exterior cladding furthered the dialogue between the familiar and the unexpected by pairing corrugated metal with concrete, steel, charred wood, and reclaimed timbers.