Radical Addenda: Redesigning Building Codes to Enable Climate Action
Hillier College architecture students in Christopher Gardner’s studio spent last semester applying their design skills to figuring out how to address climate action through building codes, with the codes themselves as the object of design. The students were asked to write a code or code addenda to be instituted in a jurisdiction of their choice and then trace the outcomes of that code's implementation through a set of 'visions' addressing various scales and time frames. The students were limited to designing through writing and the code language alone, a very different approach from the design process of a single building. As part of this exercise they were asked to do a historical review of existing codes, researching what gave rise to the current specifications that govern everything from safety standards established by OSHA that grew out of organization on the part of workers and it sometimes referred to as the first ‘safety bill of rights’, to environmental standards such as LEED, that grew out of the ‘live off the grid’ movement and concept of the ‘passive house’.
What students discovered is that many of the codes that have had a significant impact on how the built environment is designed came from grassroots movements that lobbied for changes to the code. The best known example of this is the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) which specified changes to building codes that provided wheelchair accessibility requirements for public transit, parking and in buildings, on the street with the installation of curb ramps, and for the deaf and blind, things like audible crossing light signals and braille imprints on elevator panels with audible and visual floor level signals. As part of their research students watched the movie ‘Crip Camp’, to understand how these huge changes came from the efforts of a small group of highly motivated people advocating for change.
This global movement for climate action is motivated both by the gravity of climate warming and the possibility of reaching net zero carbon emissions from the construction and building sector by 2050. According to the UN Environment Program and the International Energy Agency, building and construction activities together account for 36% of global final energy use and 39% of energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions when upstream power generation is included, 11% of which resulted from manufacturing building materials and products such as steel, cement and glass. It is also widely recognized that the built environment has an enormous impact on both the social life of humans and the natural environment. The World Green Building Council recently issued a new report on how the building and construction sector can reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Aligned with these possibilities one of the student teams took on material upcycling with the GYP board project shown above. Allie Kostelnik and Meghna Vamburkar amended codes to lower carbon footprints through zone based resident controlled thermal management as well as the installation of high performance thermal facades, windows and insulation for both high rise and low rise buildings.
Kostelnik and Vambukar noted that, "Our project is mainly developed around the comfort zones studied in the psychrometric chart. The first psychrometric chart was invented by Willis Haviland Carrier who invented the air conditioner. In 1970 American Society of Heating Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers, (ASHRAE) came up with the ASHRAE Standard 55 which is now defined as the thermal comfort zone for the average person. We did some experimenting and research of our own involving the psychrometric chart and realized the average person's comfort level has been conditioned to be more restricted than necessary due to the over use of air conditioning systems. Our end goal for this experiment is to be able to utilize the entire comfort zone created by ASHRAE Standard 55. We advised a code for Miami, Florida that, through a system of penalties and controls will allow an implementation through the course of 30 to 40 years to expand the average person’s comfort level to the full Standard 55."
“Architects do not have direct control over broader systems, but do have a specific involvement with codes. This presents one of the most politically viable avenues for architects to have agency. Codes are like an embedded argument, a manifestation of policy - it’s the realm of architects and engineers that write it and have to work within it, so engaging the rules themselves as the object of design is the way we can change architecture,” said Gardner.
The threats of climate warming are most visible in coastal communities that are experiencing the worst storm and flooding events on record, displacing communities year after year, and in areas where drought and extreme winds lead to out of control wildfires. The immense loss of forests in the Northwest US and Brazil represent the loss of homes, communities, wildlife and ground cover that retains both water and carbon, while the loss of trees and green space in urban and suburban areas contributes to warming trends.
The Embodied Carbon RegisTree project by Madona Aziz, Rema Cheikhali and Anuradha Kadam targets the city of Baltimore and the county, as it once used to be a heavily wooded area. As described in the code booklet produced as documentation for the studio, “The purpose of this code is to sequester carbon in the city of Baltimore by establishing the minimum requirements of trees that must be planted for building sites according to the amount of embodied carbon used in construction materials.” Tools for calculating Target Offset Carbon (TOC) are included. Building developers are required to sequester 2% per year of the carbon produced by their building to fully offset the building carbon in 50 years.
As Gardner puts it, “Instead of instituting sustainable standards outright, The 'Registree' code cleverly ties sustainability mandates to the broader, and more conventionally popular policy of planting more trees. This allows them to create a direct corollary between the natural and built environment and standardizes that awareness through the creation of a embodied carbon to tree calculator in order to determine code compliance, much the same way energy code is determined through programs like REScheck or COMcheck".
Envisioning Kiniktuuraq, imagines the role of the architect in the process of relocating a town due to rising sea levels. Gardner observed, “For planners the 'managed retreat' term is rather fraught and the focus of the project is confined to the role of the architect.” Claudia AbouDiwan and Silas McBride placed themselves in the role of an architecture firm, and introduced a code for the role of the architect in the community within their statement of work. This code was more of an ethical code, reflecting commitments architects might make when engaging with a community in the planning, design and moving processes.
This approach to the role of architects in addressing climate warming and the wellbeing of society as a whole, uses the language of code as a tool of radical, or fundamental, change. It takes into account both applications and interpretations, addressing the issues that have been overlooked, while suggesting how codes can construct a system in which the things you want are the output. View the full gallery of visions here.
