{"id":144180,"date":"2021-10-30T20:20:25","date_gmt":"2021-10-30T14:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=144180"},"modified":"2021-11-01T17:59:44","modified_gmt":"2021-11-01T12:29:44","slug":"cities-and-climate-change-why-low-rise-buildings-are-the-future-not-skyscrapers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/cities-and-climate-change-why-low-rise-buildings-are-the-future-not-skyscrapers\/","title":{"rendered":"Cities and climate change: why low-rise buildings are the future \u2013 not skyscrapers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Synopsis: <\/strong>The plan of urban architecture for accommodating more people needs a change. The new research model offers solutions to both infrastructure and climate.<\/p>\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/h5>\n

More than 50% of the world\u2019s population live in cities and urban areas. By 2050, an additional 2.5 billion will be living there.<\/p>\n

Hence, we need a climate proof plan of architecture for urban areas.<\/p>\n

There is a popular belief that taller, more densely packed skyscrapers are the way forward, because they optimise the use of space and house more people per square metre and limit urban sprawl.<\/p>\n

But as per a new study and given the global commitments to emission-reduction targets and mitigating climate change, this is not the most sustainable solution from a carbon-reduction perspective.<\/p>\n

The study found that densely built, low-rise environments are more space and carbon efficient, while high-rise buildings have a drastically higher carbon impact.<\/p>\n

What was the study and its findings?
\n<\/strong><\/h5>\n

In the study, both operational and \u201cembodied\u201d carbon \u2014 of different buildings and urban environments were studied. Four different urban scenarios were developed:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

High-density, high-rise (HDHR<\/strong>)- tall and close together.<\/p>\n

low-density, high-rise (LDHR<\/strong>)- tall but more spread out.<\/p>\n

high-density, low-rise (HDLR<\/strong>)- low and close together.<\/p>\n

low-density, low-rise (LDLR<\/strong>)- low level and more spaced out.<\/p>\n

Results:<\/strong> The study showed that HDLR<\/strong> scenario is more space and carbon efficient i.e more environmentally friendly.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When moving from a HDLR to HDHR urban environment, the average increase in whole life-cycle carbon (both operational and embodied) emissions is 142%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Operational carbon<\/strong> is generated while a building is in service.<\/p>\n

Embodied carbon <\/strong>(hidden carbon) is produced during the extraction, production, transport and manufacture of raw materials used to construct a building, plus any produced during maintenance, refurbishment, demolition or replacement.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Why building design is a critical element?<\/h5>\n

At a global scale, the construction sector is responsible for a significant impact on the environment. In this, largest contribution<\/strong> comes from ‘consumption of energy and resources’, which is due to design stage neglect.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Design is also important because skyscrapers rely heavily on concrete as a structural material. And concrete has highest hidden carbon contribution among construction materials. So the type of materials we use, how much we use, and how we use them is crucial.<\/p>\n

What are the various issues with the present building design frameworks?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Presently, in building design, “operational efficiency” is given more importance, however “embodied impact assessment” is voluntary<\/strong> and therefore neglected. The focus is on driving down ‘operational energy’ requirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Embodied impact<\/strong> is the impact from the production of materials, their transportation to the construction site, and the construction process itself<\/span><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

However the proportional share of ’embodied energy’<\/strong> consumption has been driven up, <\/strong>as the materials and activities required to build it in first place produce proportionally more impacts across the building\u2019s lifespan.<\/p>\n

What is the solution?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We need to build more HDLR type buildings rather then HDHR.<\/p>\n

Source:<\/strong> This post is based on the article \u201cCities and climate change: why low-rise buildings are the future \u2013 not skyscrapers<\/strong>\u201d published in \u201cDown To Earth<\/strong>\u201d on 29th October 2021<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Synopsis: The plan of urban architecture for accommodating more people needs a change. The new research model offers solutions to both infrastructure and climate. Introduction More than 50% of the world\u2019s population live in cities and urban areas. By 2050, an additional 2.5 billion will be living there. Hence, we need a climate proof plan… Continue reading Cities and climate change: why low-rise buildings are the future \u2013 not skyscrapers<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10335,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[216],"class_list":["post-144180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1703441889},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10335"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}