The New Carbon Architecture: Building to Cool the Climate

by Bruce King

Soak up carbon into beautiful, healthy buildings that heal the climate "Green buildings" that slash energy use and carbon emissions are all the rage, but they aren't enough. The hidden culprit is embodied carbon ― the carbon emitted when materials are mined, manufactured, and transported ― comprising some 10% of global emissions. With the built environment doubling by 2030, buildings are a carbon juggernaut threatening to overwhelm the climate. It doesn't have to be this way. Like never before in history, buildings can become part of the climate solution. With biomimicry and innovation, we can pull huge amounts of carbon out of the atmosphere and lock it up as walls, roofs, foundations, and insulation. We can literally make buildings out of the sky with a massive positive impact. The New Carbon Architecture is a paradigm-shifting tour of the innovations in architecture and construction that are making this happen. Office towers built from advanced wood products; affordable, low-carbon concrete alternatives; plastic cleaned from the oceans and turned into building blocks. We can even grow insulation from mycelium. A tour de force by the leaders in the field, The New Carbon Architecture will fire the imagination of architects, engineers, builders, policy makers, and everyone else captivated by the possibility of architecture to heal the climate and produce safer, healthier, and more beautiful buildings.

Genres: Architecture, Design, Nonfiction, Environment

176 pages, Paperback

Published December 5, 2017

About the author

Bruce King is a registered structural engineer in private practice in San Rafael, California. He is the author of Buildings of Earth and Straw: Structural Design for Straw Bale and Rammed Earth Architecture (1996) and Design of Straw Bale Buildings; The State of the Art (2006). He is founder and director of the nonprofit Ecological Building Network and co-founder, with his wife Sarah Weller King, of Green Building Press. He lives in San Rafael, California.

Reviews

[Jana Rađa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally finished! It's not that the book isn't good (I thought it was quite enjoyable); it's just that I wasn't in the right state of mind for reading. It seems it's back to reading for me and I couldn't be happier! A nice book for anyone interested in the topic. An insightful one for a novice.

[Kerry Pickens · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good reference book for a builder who wants to reduce the carbon footprint of their projects. The information is not new or cutting edge, but it is sound information.

[Frances Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspiring and informative

This book looks at green building from a new and important angle - buildings that sequester more carbon than is emitted in building and living or working in them. It is wide ranging and offers a variety of perspectives. There is a lot of information, some of it quite technical. I’m not a building’s professional, but I found it readable and most of it easy to understand.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the issues in writing a book with multiple authors is addressing the inevitable contradictions of opinions that arise. A seasoned editor might get ahead of the contradictions by including a note explicitly addressing that yes, authors A and B disagreed on x point, and this disagreement is because y consideration. This tells readers that the topic is well-researched and acknowledged, so the contradictions should not cast shadows upon the credibility of the authors and editor.
King, unfortunately, did not do an exceptional job of this, and as a result I can’t help but question much of the information presented here.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although the field is evolving rapidly, this is still a good primer for the importance of looking at the embodied carbon in the built environment and (as of 2017) emerging trends in how to handle it. All architects should read this.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great primer on green building for activists, architects, and scholars.