Jen Wong

material manifesto

jen

wong

Architectural education is overdue for an overhaul; our students and instructors alike lack the material- and carbon literacy required to meet the climate crisis. Today, we occupy over two-and a-half trillion square feet of building area worldwide, but by 2050, we will add two trillion more in new construction and major renovations1 in order to meet the needs of our growing population.2 At its core, global expansion at this scale will require massive amounts of material and energy. 2050 is also critical for another reason that clashes headon with our current practices: it marks our deadline from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for halting all anthropogenic greenhouse-gas emissions (GHG).3

The magnitude of this collision requires a complete rethinking of what and how we build. Though much progress has been made in recent years regarding renewable energy and operational efficiency, we must equally and immediately address our material consumption.4 Resource extraction and production across all industries accounts for half of all GHG emissions and — just as critically — for 90% of biodiversity loss.5 Given the imperative that we meet the infrastructure and housing needs of the billions more people to come, we must aggressively pursue new material strategies including not only a transition to new material palettes, but also a paradigmatic shift towards dematerialization, the minimization of material quantity. These urgent changes first require a significant leap in our collective material literacy, followed by the articulation of material commitments at the individual and institutional level that are acted upon with dedication and resolve.

LITERACY

Material literacy is fundamental in the pedagogy and practice of built-environment design and planning. In the most straightforward way, architecture, interior design, landscape architecture, planning, and preservation are disciplines that move and consume massive amounts of material. The materials used in the construction and maintenance of buildings alone account for one tenth of all emissions.6

As such, it is critical that our students, educators, and practitioners develop a deep understanding of the qualities, contexts, and implications of material use. And yet, material curriculum in design education and practice is woefully under-developed. We remain distracted by the aesthetic and formal concerns of a care-free past, which dominate studio projects and dialogue to the detriment of our graduates and disciplinary relevance.

Too easily, we have lost track of the critical context of our raw and processed materials, the literal building blocks of our disciplines. We lack material knowledge essential to ecological and human health, from the quantity of embodied carbon in our most common products to the chemical ingredients of concern in our most intimate interiors. We must expand our scope far beyond the first stage of the building lifecycle, tackling the reality that construction and demolition waste account for more than a quarter of all landfill in the U.S.7 Not least, we must stay ahead of leading-edge material developments that would benefit from our advocacy and participation.

Since 2001, the Materials Lab has fostered material literacy at The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture through two parallel efforts. From the beginning, it has provided students and faculty with direct access to material products through a curated collection that is unparalleled among peer institutions. Critical to the success of the collection are efforts that serve to interpret its holdings through direct course support as well as extracurricular programming and education. Recent emphasis has been placed on

These BioMason pavers are fabricated with the help of microorganisms that excrete calcium carbonate crystals, binding together fine aggregate with “biocement” to form masonry units. Courtesy of the Materials Lab.

ABOVE A growing subset of the Materials Lab collection includes products designed for circularity, including this “mono-carpet” from Niaga available in all polyester, returnable to the manufacturer for recycling. Courtesy of the Materials Lab.

RIGHT Incorporating 100% Blue Planet aggregate in one cubic yard of concrete would amount to over 1300 lbs of sequestered carbon dioxide, more than twice the carbon footprint of conventional concrete. Courtesy of the Materials Lab.

the support of experiential learning in the form of workshops that provide hands-on access to sustainable and innovative materials and assemblies. Examples include the cultivation of rapidly renewable, plastic-free foam from mycelium; the formation of hempcrete blocks following the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill that lifted restrictions on industrial hemp production; and the casting of low-carbon concrete using Blue Planet’s synthetic limestone made of sequestered carbon.

“Appropriate Materials for the 21st Century” — the course first taught as an advanced theory seminar in the summer semester of 2019 and since adapted for a non-major undergraduate audience in the spring of 2021—goes a step further. My main objective in teaching these courses is to lay the foundations of lifelong material literacy that students may build upon over time. We start the course with a survey of the evolution of matter itself, including the formation of our planet and all of the resources we utilize today. We follow this with another survey of the 3.3-million-year trajectory of human material use. These lessons provide the necessary context for grasping the complexities of the material present, in which we examine our greatest material challenges and possible trajectories. We explore both the most prevalent materials of today and those on the horizon, and ask ourselves by which criteria |can we determine those that are most appropriate — and when, and for whom. Among these are four key criteria that widen the singular lens of sustainability — addressing not only environmental and health factors, or “welfare,” but also “accessibility,” “performance,” and “value.”

MANIFESTO

The culminating project of “Appropriate Materials” is a material manifesto that captures each student’s outlook on material appropriateness, developed and challenged over the course of the seminar. As has commonly been observed during the COVID-19 pandemic, periods of insecurity lead to upheaval and acceleration that may not have otherwise occurred. The climate crisis, though less visible or directly disruptive for most of us thus far, is more existentially pressing by orders of magnitude. What better time to reassess our practice, our priorities, our raison d’être through the exercise of articulation?

Manifestos take many forms, spanning the spectrums of irony to sincerity, reality to idealism, and criticism to agenda. At their core, they are public declarations that provide critique and often programs for change. First employed to explore the dynamics of power and politics, manifestos have since become available in all flavors. Among these is the sustainability manifesto, whose authors range from science-fiction thinkers (see Bruce Sterling’s Viridian Manifesto, 2000) to scientists (see E.O. Wilson’s A Biologist’s Manifesto for Preserving Life on Earth, 2017), environmental groups, and corporate brands (see the Imagine Mission from Gap Inc., 2020).

The exercise of formulating a manifesto focused specifically on materials counteracts the bias towards aesthetic and formal concerns that dominates much of design curriculum. It redirects our attention to the physical realities of building and the far-reaching implications of our actions. Our students have taken on the task of generating their material manifestos with a commitment and enthusiasm that is inspiring. Each student is asked to define “material,” to map a trajectory of material use, to identify the material challenges they find most pressing, to establish criteria for determining appropriateness, to test these criteria via case studies, and to generate a concise declaration of appropriate material use. The semesterspanning exercise moves many of the students from an initial sense of despair, stemming from the enormity of our material challenges, to an outlook infused by motivation and resolve. Their declarations include strong commitments to

global equality, renewability and regeneration, circularity, efficiency, and dematerialization. Though their material outlooks will likely shift over time, as both the exterior world and their interior selves continue to evolve, the act of articulation following literacy is a powerful exercise that can nudge them towards eventual action.

CHALLENGES

Increasingly, rhetoric addressing the manifesto has proliferated in the form of mission statements, vision documents, and other pledges, indicating movement in the right direction. In 2019, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) passed a resolution on climate action for the first time. This resulted in a change to the AIA Code of Ethics, making it mandatory for architects to consider the environmental impact of their buildings and to inform clients of these results. It is now “officially” unethical for architects to ignore sustainability. Following the resolution, projects considered for Design Excellence awards are now assessed by ten measures originally outlined by the AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE). Other positive indicators include the emergence of climate advocacy and working groups such as Architecture 2030, Architects Declare, Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN), and the Carbon Leadership Forum. Further still is the adoption of sustainability certifications for projects and material products, which have expanded beyond LEED to include WELL, SITES, LBC, C2C, and more.

As our most committed colleagues push forward, challenges remain in architectural education. There is a growing gap between the scale and immediacy of the climate crisis and the ability of our instructors to meet it. Having obtained my MArch nearly a decade ago, I can attest that a shift towards topics of sustainability and equity is indeed underway. However, this progress is outpaced by a greater leap in the justifiable demands of our student population, whose desire for immediately applicable information and tools remain unmet. In 2020, ACAN launched a Climate Curriculum Campaign calling for increased carbon literacy in architectural education, warning students, “Your education is failing you!” Speaking for myself, with the assumption that my experience might well apply to others, my own training has proven inadequate in meeting today’s climate emergency, and there is a real need for the continued education of our educators. This challenge, which upends the traditional instructor-student dynamic, can be tough to admit. However, it is a reality rooted in the exponential rate of change today, and the fact that much of what we need to know is still in nascent stages.

Another challenge in architectural education is the long-standing tension between technical and theoretical study. Architectural education is a lifelong pursuit, and we can’t teach it all. However, it’s critical that we dissolve the biases that actively stand in the way of the change that is needed. Though our students need not be LEED-certified upon graduation (though some are), they should be equipped with basic understandings — not only spatial and canonic but also material and architectonic — that will serve as firm foundations moving forward. Every dialogue should hold the possibility of a turn supported by a deep material (and thus, carbon) literacy, not only in those seminars with a sustainability focus, but in every core course, advanced theory seminar, and especially in studio. Though we’ve treated them as

A view of the winter gardens and balconies that make up the self-supporting second skin of the reinvigorated Tour Bois-le-Prêtre, originally built in the 1960s. Renovation by Frédéric Druot and Lacaton & Vassal, 2011, Paris. Courtesy of Igor Siddiqui.

There is a growing gap between the scale and immediacy of the climate crisis and the ability of our instructors to meet it.

Students attend a Materials Lab workshop on mycelium materials, led by guest instructor and founder of Myco Alliance, Daniel Reyes. Photo by Katie Hill. Courtesy of the School of Architecture Visual Resources Collection.

such, materials and carbon have never been specialist subjects, and the significant role of buildings in the climate crisis serves as glaring evidence. We must acknowledge — today — that we are in an emergency situation. Whatever lofty ideas we might hold about the higher art of building are thrown out the window once we realize that our house is on fire.

ACTION

One powerful example of a material-adjacent manifesto in action can be found in the thirtyyear careers of 2021 Pritzker Prize laureates Anne Lacaton and Jean-Phillipe Vassal. Working from an oft-quoted mantra of “never demolishing, subtracting, or replacing things, but of always adding, transforming, and utilizing them,” their projects demonstrate an impressive consistency that can only come from purposeful intention. Indeed, this mantra is the opening line of their 2004 manifesto, Plus+, a 264-page publication written in collaboration with fellow architect Frédéric Druot.8 Plus+ provides a forceful counterargument to a movement by the French government to demolish and replace post-war social housing blocks it deemed outdated. In addition to a nine-part exposition on the many merits of saving these buildings, the authors provide a catalog of diagrammatic interventions for individual and communal habitation and several proof-of-concept studies of existing structures.

Plus+ predates the realization of Lacaton & Vassal’s most iconic projects, a series of social housing towers in Bordeaux, Paris, and Saint-Nazare that preserve and improve upon existing structures through the economic addition of a second skin that provides light, air, and extra space. Although their work is centered on social justice, it is supported by a deep material literacy that is inherently sustainable and incorporates some of the most effective strategies of dematerialization. In using off-the-shelf components, they not only stretch their budget but also reduce construction waste. In stripping away material layers to the essentials, they further reduce embodied energy. By refusing demolition, they preserve the most carbon-intensive elements of the project: its structure and foundation. In the case of the Léon Aucoc Plaza, they have gone a step even further by prescribing nonintervention. As the saying goes, “what you build matters, but what you don’t build matters more.”9 Lacaton & Vassal’s robust body of work demonstrates the potential of moving from material literacy to manifesto to action.

The 2030 and 2050 deadlines for net-zero emissions are fast-approaching, and likely inching up. Recently, the International Energy Agency called for an immediate halt to all fossil fuel development.10 In response, Architecture 2030 has revised its eponymous target year for carbon neutrality to 2021. We have no time to waste and must get to work immediately. Key to these efforts is radical change in our material use, which requires boosting our material literacy, articulation of firm resolutions, and swift pursuit with all of the integrity, focus, and skill that we have. And, just as manifestos are powerful exercises at the individual level, they are also indispensable tools at the level of the institution. If we are serious about change, we will find ways — a climate task force of students, faculty, and staff; a climate curriculum committee; a town hall forum — to kick start into action.

1 Global ABC/IEA/UNEP, “Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction: 2017 Global Report for Buildings and

Construction,” 2017. https://www. worldgbc.org/sites/default/ files/ UNEP%20188_GABC_en%20 %28web%29.pdf. 2 UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, “World

Population Prospects 2019,” 2019. Projected at 9.7 billion in 2050 and 10.9 billion in 2100. 3 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, “Summary for

Policymakers,” in Global Warming of 1.5°C. An IPCC Special

Report, 2018. 4 Erin McDade, “Beyond Zero: The Time Value of Carbon,” in The

New Carbon Architecture, ed. Bruce King, (New Society, 2017).

Over the next thirty years, the embodied energy of our material use will have an outsized impact over operational energy. 5 UN International Resource Panel, “Global Resources Outlook 2019: Natural Resources for the Future We Want,” 2019. https:// www.resourcepanel.org/reports/global-resources-outlook. 6 ARUP/WBCSD, “Net-zero buildings: Where do we Stand?” 2021. https://www.wbcsd.org/contentwbc/download/12446/185553/1. 7 Mark Gorgolewski, Resource Salvation: The Architecture of

Reuse (Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2018). 8 Frederic Druot, Anne Lacaton, and Jean Philippe Vassal, Plus+ (Barcelona: Gustavo Gilli, 2007). 9 Larry Strain, “Rebuild: What You Build Matters, What You Don’t

Build Matters More,” in The New Carbon Architecture, ed. Bruce

King (New Society, 2017). 10 International Energy Agency, “Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector,” 2021. https://www.iea.org/ reports/net-zero-by-2050.