Climate change is happening and we are witnessing the responses and adaptations governments, designers, and developers are choosing. Urban Sequoia is a prototype project centered around sustainable development and regenerating the environment. This article will focus on Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s announcement at the most recent climate change conference which gave an update on their most recent design for the Urban Sequoia. This is a living systems approach with an end goal of creating sustainable buildings and beyond within our future cities.
Glossary
Embodied Carbon – is the carbon dioxide emissions associated with building construction, including material production.
Carbon Sequestration – is a process by which carbon is removed from the atmosphere and stored.
Regenerative Design – is a paradigm shift in which buildings are designed and operated to create a net positive impact on the
environment.
Doing less bad doesn’t mean doing good – especially in regards to the environment. That’s what sustainable building is doing right now and doing less bad is not good enough. The built environment is responsible for 40% of annual global CO2 emissions. The building industry should not just mitigate the negative impact on the environment, they need to make it better. Climate change has hit the real estate sector as floods, fires, and other natural disasters have made it seem “more real.” This is finally being taken seriously and concrete steps can start to be made in changing the industry standard on climate change and environmental impact. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) has taken that step with the creation of Urban Sequoia.
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), an architectural, urban planning, and engineering firm, announced at COP26, the 2021 N Climate Change Conference, Urban Sequoia, a concept for buildings within their urban context that absorbs carbon. At COP27 SOM presented the next phase of the design with a high-rise prototype that can be built today.
The Urban Sequoia concept was named after the sequoia tree, which sequesters more carbon than any other tree. With the Urban Sequoia, the built environment can also sequester carbon and regenerate the environment. The prototype concept uses new technologies and sustainable design at the building scale. SOM says that “by holistically optimizing building design, minimizing materials, integrating biomaterials, advanced biomass, and carbon capture technologies, Urban Sequoia achieves substantially more carbon reductions than what has been possible by applying these techniques separately”.
This design prototype would reduce embodied carbon from construction by 70% compared to a typical high-rise building. The building would achieve net zero within the first five years and over 100 years it would absorb more than 300% of the amount of carbon emitted from construction and operation.
This concept, of a building with living systems, can be applied more broadly to cities. New technologies and materials, including timber, bio-concrete, and energy- generating solar glass used in the design prototype, can not only help reduce CO2 emissions, but actually help regenerate the environment by carbon sequestration. Cities can apply this concept throughout their built environment in buildings, parks, infrastructure, and landscaping to build a more resilient city.
For Further Reading…
For more in depth discussions and continued conversation at Schack –
- Class Connection: Green Building & Sustainable Development
- Professor Connection: Prof. Stuart Brodsky (sb4311@nyu.edu)
Check out these resources –
Why the Built Environment? – Architecture 2030
6 Things to Know about Regenerative Design – HDR
What You Can Do Now: Regenerative Design – AIA California
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