John Hardy

Bjarke Ingels Group – BIG – is a Copenhagen based group of 85 architects, designers, builders and thinkers operating within the fields of architecture, urbanism, research and development.

Historically the field of architecture has been dominated by 2 opposing extremes. On one side an avant-garde full of crazy ideas. Originating from philosophy, mysticism or a fascination of the formal potential of computer visualizations they are often so detached from reality that they fail to become something other than eccentric curiosities. On the other side there are well organized corporate consultants that build predictable and boring boxes of high standard.

Architecture seems to be entrenched in two equally unfertile fronts: Either naively utopian or petrifying pragmatic. We believe that there is a third way wedged in the no mans land between the diametrical opposites. Or in the small but very fertile overlap between the two.
A pragmatic utopian architecture that takes on the creation of socially, economically and environmentally perfect places as a practical objective.

In our projects we test the effects of scale and the balance of programmatic mixtures on the social, economical and ecological outcome. Like a form of programmatic alchemy we create architecture by mixing conventional ingredients such as living, leisure, working, parking and shopping. Each building site is a testbed for its own pragmatic utopian experiment.

At BIG we are devoted to investing in the overlap between radical and reality. Choosing between them you condemn yourself to frustrated martyrdom or apathic affirmation. By hitting the fertile overlap, we architects once again find the freedom to change the surface of our planet, to better fit the way we want to live. In all our actions we try to move the focus from the little details to the BIG picture.

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Carolyn Kenwrick, The GreenAsia Group

Roughly 5 to 10 percent of global CO2 emissions are related to the manufacture and transportation of cement, a major ingredient of concrete.

The manufacture of cement is considered worldwide as one of the world’s most energy intensive industries, and as such, is an industry that is increasingly being looked at to become more sustainable.

0.8 tonnes of CO2 are emitted for every tonne of cement produced. 0.4 tonnes are offset when the cement is mixed with water and absorbed, but the carbon footprint for 1 tonne of cement remains at 0.4 tonnes once used in construction.

“The manufacture of cement is relatively efficient when compared with other building materials, such as steel and wood. The problem is the scale at which it’s produced – roughly 2.4 billion tons in 2006 and growing.” Professor Franz-Josef Ulm Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.

“The reality is that the geological availability, and global distribution, of suitable natural resources, coupled with the extensive validation needed to confirm fitness-for-purpose, make it highly unlikely that (eco-friendly) cements will a be realistic alternative for volume building.” British Cement Association

“In the UK the climate bill commits us to reduce CO2 emissions, and every sector should play its part. The construction industry needs to take greater responsibility for its own environmental impact.” Jonathan Essex, Bioregional, UK

The facts above, in an age when sustainability and environmental guardianship of the planet are becoming of paramount importance, have hastened the search for new building materials and ‘green’ concrete products.

The construction industry has the opportunity to take an active part in alleviating the worst effects of climate change.
Industry in general is working towards reductions in greenhouse gases because, put simply, it lowers costs.

The transportation sector is changing rapidly because of the fear of overpriced, increasingly scarce oil.

Architects, designers, builders can contribute their knowledge and skills toward making buildings as carbon-neutral as possible. Thus the hunt for new materials, and attention to looking at the carbon footprint of a carefully designed building, one that puts environment at the top of its list.

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Edward Mazria, Mazria Inc. USA

Further info re buildings from a well-known architect.

“Unknowingly, the architecture and building community is responsible for almost half of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions annually. Globally the percentage is even higher.
I developed a way to look at buildings as a sector of the economy, the way the industrial transportation sectors tracked. And I defined the building sector to consist of what we, as architects, control.
When we design a building – its orientation, massing, fenestration – we set in motion the energy consumption pattern over the life of the structure. We also control what materials buildings are made from. So, in my calculations, I included the energy use of building as well as the embodied energy of construction materials.
When you compare the building industry to the industrial and transportation sectors, you realize that only in the building industry do we have the chance to reverse the pattern of global warming. The industrial sector gets marginally more efficient every year. And the transportation sector is changing rapidly because there’s simply no option – oil is getting more scarce and more expensive. It’s up to us, as members of the design and construction community, to contribute our knowledge and skills toward making buildings as carbon-neutral as possible. If we don’t get a handle on that, we’re going to not be in very good shape in the near future.”

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