For 4.5 billion years the earth has been creating and re-creating itself through natural processes. Homo sapiens on the other hand have only been around for about 200,000 years. To put this into perspective, if the age of the earth were proportioned to equal one year then man has only been around since about 11:30 PM on December 31st.
For the first 199,800 years human activities had virtually no effect on natural earth systems. Then the industrial revolution occurred and previously insignificant Homo sapiens started taxing natural world systems - first air, then water, and finally the earth itself.
For hundreds of thousands of years, the level of CO2 in the earth’s atmosphere has ranged from 200 to 300 parts per million by volume. Fluctuations have mainly been the result of ice age cycles. The industrial revolution, which was energized by carbon-based fuels, caused and continues to cause a dramatic rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration.(1)
During the 19th Century, CO2 concentration levels rose approximately 50 ppm. In the 20th Century the rise was much more pronounced when another 100 ppm were added to the atmosphere. As of 2007, the atmosphere contained 383 ppm – the highest concentration in the last 650,000 years.(2)
It’s almost impossible to deny that human activity has become so significant that it is now dramatically affecting the once seemingly omnipotent natural systems of the earth. This is rather incredible given the fact that we arrived at 11:30 PM yet have developed this power by 11:57. Put another way, within the last three minutes of the year we have polluted the earth to the level of creating major changes in the natural order.
With the built environment accounting for about forty percent of energy consumption and carbon emissions we as architects have a lot to do with just how much human systems can influence the natural ones.
The guiding principles of sustainable development are becoming clearer each day. However it is imperative that architects understand and consider macro-sustainability as they design individual buildings that are but one small part of the complex web of human activity. But it is easy to become isolated. Take the term “green building”, for example. This is a micro-sustainability term at best. We can design green buildings but are they green from a macro perspective? A LEED Gold building could be green but on a life cycle basis may be an energy hog.
Architects and other members of the building industry are finally looking at projects on a complete life cycle basis. This macro approach looks at energy use and carbon production at the four stages of product life cycle – raw material production and distribution, project construction/manufacturing, energy use and emissions during the project’s life, and building disposal or deconstruction. To do this we must adjust the notion that we only provide a service. Yes, we do, but that service is just one part in the creation of a product – a building.
To be true to the macro concept we must even expand the scope of the products we are producing. Yes, they are buildings, but they are also part of the larger built environment – the physical representation of human activity – the neighborhood, the town, and the city. Architects have always considered context in their designs, but the connection to urban principles has become even more critical. We must now question our very life style more critically than ever before.
It is through this urban connection that our role has extended into the transportation sector of the energy/emissions equation. Transportation accounts for another thirty percent of total energy use and emissions. Thus architects, between buildings and transportation, influence seventy percent of the built environment.
We all know what must be done – more dense development, efficient transportation systems, and alternative energy systems that all work together to enhance human activity. The era of building design in isolation is over, architects are now called upon to collaborate, even manage and oversee a multi-disciplinary approach to resolving society’s life style issues.
(1) Carbon Dioxide, Methane Rise Sharply in 2007. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. April 23, 2008.
(2) Globalwarmingart.com. Robert A. Rohde. 2008.
By: Jules Chiavaroli, AIA Rochester President Elect
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