The Carbon Positive City: Building in the Bio-Economy

Presented on November 7, 2018 from 4:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. in the Reinsch-Pierce Family Auditorium, Architecture East Building, College of Design at Georgia Tech.Portman Prize Studio Critic Lecture - The purpose of the Portman Prize and the Portman Visiting Critic Program is to foster design excellence and student creativity in the School of Architecture at Georgia Tech. Recognizing student accomplishment and excellence in the integration of technical considerations as a key constituent of the design process the Portman Prize. It is awarded through competition by a distinguished jury chaired by the Portman Visiting Critic who also participates over the semester as a roving design studio critic and public lecturer.2019 Portman Visiting Critic Alan Organschi is the design principal and a partner at Gray Organschi Architecture, in New Haven, Connecticut, a firm recognized at the local, regional, and national level for its innovative conception and careful crafting of architectural projects that range from the adaptive re-use of damaged buildings and neighborhoods to the development and implementation of low-impact component assembly systems for ecologically delicate sites.Runtime: 101:04 minutesThe contemporary mid- and high-rise city is constructed with mineral-based materials that are extracted, smelted, sintered, or synthesized through intensive fossil-energy fueled industrial processes with significant environmental footprints. Regional as well as global trends in urban growth suggest that the demand for these materials and processes will rise sharply over the next 30 – 50 years, setting the stage for a significant spike in greenhouse gas emissions associated with the construction of new buildings and infrastructure. Potential ecological and economic synergies between an enormous southeastern continental woodshed and the rapidly urbanizing landscapes that line the eastern seaboard of the United States offer a promising alternative: the transformation of dense urban centers into massive carbon sinks that serve to mitigate—rather than simply adapt to—rapid climate change. The broad implementation of emerging mass timber structural technologies and the regulatory and economic policies that promote both biobased urban building and sustainable forest management will challenge the conventions of the building sector but offer a wealth of opportunity to the planners, engineers and architects who seek to reshape it