Symposia
Building a Planetary Solution: Regenerative Architectural Strategies for a Planet in Crisis
The lifecycle of the built environment—the production, operation, and, ultimately, disposal of buildings and infrastructure (and their aggregation as towns and cities)—currently accounts for nearly half of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, more than half of solid waste generation, and nearly three quarters of energy consumption. These statistics fail to capture the range of systemic challenges we face as a consequence of our unique but ubiquitous capacity to produce and consume the artifacts of our industriousness. As we approach this critical planetary threshold, what scientists describe as a “climate tipping point,” how can architects and their colleagues in the building sector mitigate or even reverse the ecological and atmospheric impacts of the work? What if, instead of continuing to deplete and degrade our planet’s natural ecosystems—its forests, peatlands, wetlands—the making of global buildings and cities could become a force to incentivize their restoration, reverse climate change, and enhance biodiversity?
Over the course of this three-day symposium organized by Alan Organschi, a diverse array of leading thinkers and makers from the climate, ecosystem, and construction sciences, from industrial ecology and manufacturing, design and engineering, finance and policy will convene to examine, debate, and discuss the materials, means, methods, and potential benefits of a new regenerative paradigm for the building sector.
Symposia at the Yale School of Architecture are supported in part by the J. Irwin Miller Fund.
Watch the Symposium on YouTube
Tours and Workshops
Thursday, February 20
11am: Meet at Hastings Hall, 190 York Street, Basement Level
Equity and Engagement in Design Build Education: Jim Vlock First Year Building Project House Visits.
*Transportation not provided
*Registration: 30 max (waitlist)
A talk on the role of building project-based curricula to engage community and address housing inequity and access, with a visit of two recent Jim Vlock First Year Building Project Houses in New Haven to follow.
- Adam Hopfner, Director, Jim Vlock First Year Building Project; Senior Critic, YSoA
- Alison Cunningham, Director of Formation; Yale Divinity School; former CEO, Columbus House
- Allyx Schiavone, Executive Director Friends Center for Children
12pm: Meet at Hastings Hall, 190 York Street, Basement Level
Regenerative New Haven Tour: Advanced Timber and Bio-Based Construction.
*Transportation not provided
*Registration: 30 max (waitlist)
A talk on the opportunities and challenges of building with mass timber for affordable and market rate housing, with a tour of two mass timber projects, 340+ Dixwell Avenue and the Acme Lofts overbuild, to follow.
- Andrew Ruff, Research Director, GOA Architecture | Building | Research
- Joshua Kuhr, Senior Associate, GOA Architecture | Building | Research
- Darrell Brooks, Chief Operating Officer, Beulah Land Development Corporation
1pm: Meet at Hastings Hall, 190 York Street, Basement Level
Interdisciplinary Research + Implementation: The Horse Island Coastal Research Station. Sign Up Here.
A presentation on the Design Build Partnership between the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History and Center for Biospheric Studies and YSoA Building LAB in a student-led research, design, and prefabrication and construction of the Horse Island Station. Due to weather and seasonal access conditions, the tour has been cancelled and replaced by a presentation.
- Alan Organschi, Director, Yale Building LAB; Principal, GOA
- David Skelly, Frank R. Oastler Professor of Ecology, Director of the Peabody Museum of Natural History
2pm: Meet at Hastings Hall Lobby, 190 York Street, Basement Level
Regional Bio- and Geo-Circular Material Innovations: Bauhaus Earth + Yale Building LAB. Sign Up Here.
A presentation, exhibit, and demonstration of a prototype hybrid “capsule” ceiling and dowel laminated timber structural assembly that uses locally source non-cementitious, unfired earth brick from construction excavation and supported by waste earth brick vault capsule ceiling prototype.
- Christian Gaeth, Micha Kretschman, Research Coordinators, Bauhaus Earth, Berlin, Germany
- Noah Silvestry, Oswaldo Chinchilla, Research Associates; GOA Architecture | Building | Research
- Student Research Associates, Regenerative Building Seminar, Yale Building LAB
3pm: Meet in front of CEA Lab, near 73 Howe Street
Topics in Regenerative Building Research: Projects from the Center for Ecosystems + Architecture.
*Registration: 30 max (waitlist)
Presentations by current researchers on their ongoing work in the field of experimental and regenerative building materials and systems.
- Anna Dyson, Hines Professor of Sustainable Architectural Design, YSoA/YSE, Director, CEA
- PhD students and Post-Doctoral Researchers; YSoA and CEA
Panels and Keyotes
Friday, February 21
Hastings Hall
Introduction and Welcome, 10:00 a.m. Alan Organschi, Yale School of Architecture Building Lab; GOA Architecture
Our Terrestrial Challenge: Barriers and Benefits to System Change, 10:15 a.m.
Karen Seto, Yale School of the Environment
Philipp Misselwitz, Bauhaus Earth; Technische Universität Berlin
Barbara Reck, Yale Center for Industrial Ecology
Phillip G. Bernstein, Yale School of Architecture
Anna Dyson, Yale Center for Ecosystems in Architecture, Yale School of Architecture
Resilient Forests, Responsive Structures: Signals from Natural Systems, 12:00 p.m.
Marc Palahí, Circular Bioeconomy Alliance; Lombard Odier
Andrew Waugh, Waugh Thistleton
Tanya Luthi, Timberlab
Kiel Moe, Architect
Lindsey Wikstrom, Mattaforma
End of Waste? Circular Economic Substitutions / New Raw Material, 2:45 p.m.
Eva Gladek, Metabolic
Catherine De Wolf, ETH Zurich
Jennifer Russell, Virginia Tech
Christian Gäth, Bauhaus Earth
Barbara Reck, Yale Center for Industrial Ecology
Regenerative Building: One Molecule at a Time, 4:30 p.m.
Paul Anastas, Yale Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering
Keynote Conversation: Architecture, Science, and Planetary Governance, 6:30 p.m.
President Maurie McInnis, Yale University
Vice Provost Julie Zimmerman, Yale University
Dean Deborah Berke, Yale School of Architecture
Alan Organschi, Yale School of Architecture Building Lab; GOA Architecture
Saturday, February 22
Hastings Hall
Re-Governing the Commons: New and Neglected Knowledge Networks, 10:00 a.m.
Indy Johar, Dark Matter Labs
Sara Kuebbing, Yale Applied Science Synthesis Program
Vyjayanthi Rao, New School for Social Research; Yale University
Ana María Durán Calisto, Yale School of Architecture
Chandra Robinson, Lever Architecture
Enabling Conditions for System Change, 1:15 p.m.
Mark Wishnie, BTG Pactual
David Lewis, LTL Architects; Parsons School of Constructed Environments
Daniel Ibañez, Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia
Matti Kuittinen, Aalto University
Stephanie Carlisle, C.Scale
Closing Remarks
Alan Organschi, Yale School of Architecture Building Lab; GOA Architecture
Building a Planetary Solution: Regenerative Architectural Strategies for a Planet in Crisis is supported by the J. Irwin Miller Fund.