The Future of Architecture is Resilience and Nature in Design

by Paul Deffenbaugh | 4 January 2021 12:00 am

Buildings that Breathe

We’re relearning how to make our buildings breathe, combining the best of new smart building technology and age-old principles of nature. Two case studies in Washington, D.C., provide examples of solar chimneys and building-automated natural ventilation. External conditions are measured with a rooftop weather station that communicates with the building systems. When conditions are right— temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction—the building HVAC automatically goes into passive mode. Windows and wall-mounted louvers on the first floor open to let in cooler air and expel it through rooftop solar-powered exhaust fans on the second floor. The building takes in a breath of fresh air and lets it out.

Hot air rises naturally, a well-known and powerful force of nature. Natural ventilation harnesses this power to save money, cut back on fossil fuels and, thereby, help mitigate climate change. It also allows the building to be more energy-independent, a great benefit during power outages. After half a century of forgetting, our near future may involve remembering how to open windows.

The Porous City

Reconstructed wetlands are a lesson in how to emulate the cycles of nature for resilience. They mitigate flooding, filter water and increase biodiversity. They’re part of a vision for Washington, D.C., a city that has been a model and a memorial of many things over the years. As we rethink our place in nature in the 21st century, now may be the right time to rethink what it is we wish to memorialize and to model.

Like many cities, climate adaption requires a comprehensive plan for urban water that reshapes the landscape here. Softening and hardening strategies help to resist rising sea levels. Berms and walls protect memorials while wetlands and living shorelines soften the edges. Daylighting the overstressed city gives stormwater ways to provide paths for the discharge of flood water. Rebuilding riverine habitats may be the key to saving the symbols of our democracy in the nation’s capital.

A Contingency Plan

Design thinking tells us that while we are designing buildings and planning cities for now, we also need to consider the ability to accommodate a changing or non-stationary future—one which doesn’t always look like the past. It tells all of us in the planning and building industry to look beyond property lines as we apply outside-the-box thinking for ill-defined problems that often yield unintended consequences.

Architects and planners will engage with scientists and engineers to envision human habitation in the cities of the future, space travel and terraforming. We’ll need the dexterity that design thinking embodies as we encounter a future looking for other places to live. A recent anthology of stories called “Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future,” shows a certain optimism found in the writings of solarpunk and science fiction writers like Neal Stephenson. Their vision may not be so much science fiction as science reality.

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Rick Harlan Schneider, AIA, APA, LEED AP, is principal, ISTUDIO Architects[9], Washington, D.C. He is a champion for sustainable design and his unrelenting commitment to climate action transforms the architecture profession and leads communities to a more equitable and resilient future. Schneider’s service as a board member includes the Virginia Tech College of Architecture + Design[10], the U.S. Green Building Council[11] NCR, and the AIA[12] Committee on the Environment. His award-winning work has been published in Metropolis, Dwell, Forbes and the New York Times.

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