Building technologies that approach climate issues are never objective, neutral, or isolated. Like most technological advancements, they’re susceptible to human biases and errors, making them speculative, complex, and messy rather than definite and authoritative. What is the role of designers and building technology scholars in the face of climatic and environmental issues? How can these be addressed through otherwise inclusive, democratic, and scientific methodologies? And how can we do so “in generative joy, terror, and collective thinking?”Footnote1
This TAD: Climate issue aims to provide a platform for and provoke conversations around the nonstatic nature of climate issues, seeking to encompass a broad spectrum of technological responses, interpretations, and expressions from an architectural standpoint.
Within the realm of design, preliminary decisions of placement, massing, and concepts are key for impactful environmental responses down the road. Foundational form-finding and geometric constraints are inherent to the initial architectural determinations. This issue features papers by Soroush et al., who explore computational methodologies for topology optimization through actualized design case studies. In another paper by Van de Riet and Graiz, design research examines exterior building-integrated vegetation from a “reconciliation ecology” framework encompassing species biodiversity and habitat fragmentation insights.
Another crucial approach to climatic architecture revolves around material selection, from the interiors to the building envelope. This issue includes a paper by Williams, who conducts a carbon assessment of repurposed shipping containers for use in residential buildings. Shipping containers offer a ready-made structural cast steel cladding system that can serve as a circular structural system. In Elmalky and Araji, innovative microalgae are incorporated into building façades as photobioreactors for enhanced energy efficiency and biomass generation.
These approaches address environmental issues and directly and indirectly contribute to socio-environmental aspects such as occupants’ health and well-being, regional access, and community engagement. Platt and Mahmoudi’s paper provides an overview of health care infection risks through computational predesign for climate mitigation, emphasizing these aspects.
Looking ahead to future generations, influential educational methodologies, pedagogy, and policy play crucial roles in scrutinizing responses to climate challenges. Meguro’s paper reviews classroom interventions related to rising sea levels and adaptation technologies. In parallel, Hindle investigates the Y02 patent classification scheme, assessing its relationship with environmental design influencing climate change.
Loescher-Montal expands the discussion on climate architecture to critical issues of resiliency and risk management by demonstrating how resiliency checklists for flood risk evaluation can become effective design and planning decision-making tools in large-scale development projects through case studies in Boston’s waterfront.
This TAD issue includes works that focus on the effectiveness of design approaches using a combination of passive strategies. Alaqtum’s paper employs simulation-based methods to evaluate the efficacy of a mixed-methods design strategy to mitigate daylight glare in architectural spaces in hot-arid environments.
Form-finding and shape optimization of building elements is another aspect of climate-responsible architecture. While most concrete construction techniques focus on reducing labor costs through modularization, reducing material costs is an equally important consideration, especially in developing countries. Ismail et al.’s paper proposes and evaluates design methods to reduce the material impact of concrete construction in less economically developed countries (LEDCs), focusing on shape optimization of floor systems through lab-scale structurally optimized prototypes.
Moving beyond passive design strategies, ambient intelligence technologies play an increasingly important role in how sustainably we use our built environment. Bier’s paper makes a compelling argument for how ambient intelligent technologies (Internet of Things, information and communication technology, and machine learning) can be used in addition to commonly used passive approaches for addressing climate change, demonstrating results through original case studies.
In summary, building technologies, design methods, and smart building or urban operation models that approach climate issues more responsibly are a moral and ethical imperative in today’s global environmental crisis. This TAD issue offers a multifaceted view on this increasingly important discourse for the discipline of architecture.
Notes
1. Donna J. Haraway, “Tentacular Thinking: Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Chthulucene,” in Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene (New York, USA: Duke University Press, 2016).