Categorie: evaluation

Everything that doesn’t last at least 50 Years, is system degradation

Everything that doesn’t last at least 50 years is a step backward. It signifies a decline in the physical-biological system potential. If that system—Earth—is already fully burdened, beyond regeneration capacity, or I other words: if we are living above our personal resource bubble (beyond our physical-biological means), it becomes extremely…

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The CO2 Swamp

How to deal with CO2, causes quite a bit of confusion. (See also earlier [1]) No wonder, considering that focusing on an effect rather than a cause leads to such confusion, but more on that in a moment. I was once again triggered by the debate about Carbon Credits. For…

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(building-) Shame

We are often called upon to change our behavior: stop buying bullshit, fly less, avoid fast fashion. Sometimes, it is even enforced by the government: buy an electric car, insulate your house, or install a mandatory heat pump, for example. A call for ‘flying less’ however doesn’t translate to flying…

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Large City fires in 2100 ( ‘D-Day’….)

The year 2100: Finally! It’s the year 2100, and for the first time, CO2 emissions from buildings will start going down. It should have been already zero by 2050, but due to spreading emissions over the lifespan of buildings, it’s only mathematically the case from 2100 onwards. Yearly that will…

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‘transgressive ‘ projects: the architect 3/3

Last time I wrote about about project development, and how everything was optimized within project borders, but the effects outside the project boundaries were neglected. But between architect and client, it’s just the same, and even worse, as became evident once again when I attended a presentation about a new…

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‘transgressive ‘ projects ! 2/3

A building is usually assessed sec, as a building. Or as a complex of buildings, within the project development boundary, both energetically and financially. See previous contribution. But that is often at the expense of effects outside the project boundary. A few examples can clarify this. Some years ago I…

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LCA is not for practice. We need absolute energy indicators. 2/2

In many countries there is discussion at the moment about measuring the environmental impact of building ( and living ). [1] On the one hand of course the (operational) energy consumption, and how to deal with limited CO2 emission budgets. But on the other hand even more on the environmental…

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