Barriers for Integrating Zero Carbon into the Design Studio in the USA

The authors co-teach a design studio in which building performance is highlighted as a primary educational objective. For years, we helped students to use evidence-based feedback to improve the structural, energy, and cost performance of their designs. The design-assisting tools used by the students include verified computer programs for structural design, energy simulation, and cost estimating. Most recently, in response to climate change, we examined introducing carbon analysis as an additional design-assisting tool in order to expand the definition of building performance to include the environmental impact of embodied carbon. Initial results were revealing. Findings showed that while energy performance evaluation is often (in both academia and professional practice) limited to the evaluation of operational energy, embodied energy is likely to be the determining factor in the near future. As buildings become more energy efficient and/or increasingly reliant on renewable energy sources, the higher the contribution of its embodied energy is to its overall energy consumption. When buildings reach zero energy in operation, 100% of energy consumption will be due to embodied energy. Furthermore, consideration of a building’s embodied energy is the architects’ most controllable factor. Therefore, educators must stress to students the importance of embodied energy even though educators may face a number of challenges that may hinder their ability to fully integrate carbon analysis into the design studio.

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.Teach.2021.30

Volume Editors
Jonathan A. Scelsa & Jørgen Johan Tandberg

ISBN
978-1-944214-38-8