2. Methodology

innovation’ and an ‘architectural revolution’ to achieve the ‘engineers aesthetic’12. This ‘engineers aesthetic’ contributed to the formation and widespread use of concrete and steel13 deployed in

buildings and infrastructure all over the world to solidify the status as the world’s most common

material(s). These industries are the single largest carbon emission contributor in the UK and responsible for 13% of all annual carbon emitted worldwide14. However, it is not the aim of this

study to denounce the work of Le Corbusier or comment on the validity of his proposals, but it is

important to recognise the environmental qualities of buildings that have significant inspiration and

role as architectural icons, that have and continue to inspire countless generations that taint

innovative contemporary projects with environmentally destructive buildings.

2. Methodology

This dissertation has been structured to present the reader with the digestible format of two parts

to understand primarily, What is carbon in buildings, How can it be calculated? And What is the

significance of this tool for architectural design?

The line of enquiry is facilitated by ‘The Villa Savoye, (Le Corbusier)’- a modernist icon, to provide a

basis for exploration and the historical interpretation of data to calculate the embodied carbon in

buildings. The latter chapters compare the scope of tectonic language in the wall construction

typology(ies) of ‘the Farnsworth house, 1951 (Mies van der Roche)’ and ‘the Breuer house, 1948

(Marcel Breuer) in the search for a broader, deeper investigation to their implicational use.

The case studies used in this report are driven from a contextual dependent narrative subject to the

limitations of primary and secondary sources, it is important for the reader to understand the data

required to undertake a life-cycle carbon assessment is unique to every building and reliant on

orthographic drawings and the specification of materials. Typically, this process is undertaken in the

latter RIBA design phases in varying scales of definition and specification of building elements to

inform the selection, quantity, and quality of materials. This relies upon the author to make

assumptions based on qualitive and quantitative research that contribute to the contextualisation of

projects in respect to the calculations themselves, therefore objectively questioning the accuracy of

this report. However, not intended is a scientific study on the accuracy of calculating carbon for a

particular building but rather a preliminary investigation towards the implication of using

12 Frederick Etchells "Towards a new architecture by Le Corbusier", (New York: Dover Publications, 2020) 13 (Calder 2021) 343 14 Timo Gerres “Green steel production: how G7 countries can help change the global landscape”, (Online: Lead it, June 2021) file:///D:/GSA/Stage%204/P4/wk%2019/IN/g7-green-steel-tracker-policy-brief.pdf

construction techniques and materials which harbour troubling environmental characteristics,

contributing to global warming.

The source methodology initially involved the widespread reading of environmental consortia

consisting of published books and articles for the preparation of forming an argument to improve

the environmental consistency in architectural design. The clarity of the effectiveness, in the

construction industry pertains to the self determination of methods used to calculate carbon, the

function or aesthetic of design is often the justification for the use of highly embodied energy

materials. This resulted in exploring techniques used by architectural research units such as MEARU

at the Glasgow School of Art, which address and simplify the impact of material characteristics in the

assessment of energy use of buildings. This analysis correlated the expenditure of energy and

industrial refinement of materials to supplement the investigation into statistical evaluation(s).

2.1 Gathering data

The input data used in this report has been collected from a plethora of sources that have been

critically evaluated in terms of authenticity and accuracy by the author. In terms of sources, the data

from case studies have been primarily informed by published academic works on the subject

comparative to original drawings which if exist; lack sufficiency and clarity. When appropriate,

photographs from the original constructional works provide a cross reference to challenge the

validity of assumptions made by the author, consistent to the method used in similar academic

works. This ‘raw’ information has been interpreted into a 3D model, initially sourced from the public

domain but has been subject to modifications by the author to generate diagrams and illustrate

process.