1. Introduction This dissertation sets out to define the role in which modern methods of analysis can be used in environmental design to reduce the carbon footprint of buildings. The subject of study will focus on the research of architectural icon(s) from the twentieth century of the Modernist style through the lens of ‘sustainable design’. Modernism is broadly renowned for its use and implementation of the structure of highly energy intensive materials such as concrete and steel 1. The study aims to provide quantifiable data that can be used as a metric to argue both; that the construction industry cannot stand idle as it contributes to accelerate the progression of climate change. But also, architectural icons must also go under the same scrutiny of contemporary architecture to consider their viability as buildings for inspiration in the age of a climate crisis. -The Paris agreement set out by over 195 countries the legally binding treaty to hold the increase of global average temperature(a) to 2 °C and strive to limit the increase of warming to 1.5°C 2. In the UK, approximately 49 percent of annual carbon emissions are attributable to buildings 3, ‘The London Energy Transformation Initiative’ (LETI) research shows that to achieve these targets by 2025 all new buildings must be designed to deliver ‘net zero carbon’ to the significant reduction of greenhouse gases in the construction of our buildings to zero 4. This entails a paradigm shift, the change of attitude from decades of architectural design and to question the validity of existing, iconic buildings as a precedent for designing in the age of a climate crisis. Architects Climate Network (ACAN), a body of voluntary individual(s) concerned with architecture and the built environment, claim that the embodied carbon of materials in a residential building can make up to 70 percent of all emissions when accounting for the 60-year lifespan 5. So far, the UK government has made tentative moves to improve much needed legislation towards the regulation of carbon in the construction industry. Namely introducing ‘carbon budgets’, a mechanism to allocate the set of parameters- per industry, for the emission and reduction of carbon every 5 years
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Barnabas Calder, “Architecture, From Prehistory to Climate Emergency” (Great Britain: Pelican Books, 2021) 344 UN, United Nations, “Paris agreement” (UNFCC), accessed March 2022, https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/english_paris_agreement.pdf 3 Pelsmakers, Sofie, and Nick Newman. Design Studio 1 “Everything Needs to Change - Architecture and the Climate Emergency” (London: RIBA, 2021) 3 4 Clara Bagenal George “LETI Embodied Carbon Primer, Supplementary guidance to the Climate Emergency Design Guide”, ((LETI, London Energy Transformation initiative, 2020) https://www.leti.london/_files/ugd/252d09_8ceffcbcafdb43cf8a19ab9af5073b92.pdf, 6 5 Joe Giddings, “ "The carbon footprint of construction: The case for regulating embodied carbon in construction to significantly address the impact of the industry on the planet", (London: ACAN, 2021 ) https://www.architectscan.org/_files/ugd/b22203_c17af553402146638e9bc877101630f3.pdf 2
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