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Phenomena in Building and Material Stories of Architecture : Toward a New Environmental Analysis

Mills, Holly

As architecture becomes increasingly self-conscious of its role in the climate crisis, environmental assessment tools, particularly Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), have emerged as the dominant method for evaluating the impacts of building materials and processes. These tools arose from an effort to course-correct an architectural history that prioritized thinness, aesthetics, and affect at any environmental cost. Today, they are widely accepted due to their standardization, with industry trusting measurement and calculation as the truest form of sustainable building. The highly quantitative nature of these tools, however, risks flattening the dynamic and interconnected systems of energy, material, labor and knowledge that architecture engages. Neither the carbon calculations of today nor the phenomenological ideals of the past are alone sufficient to meet the urgency of our moment. Instead, a truly responsive environmental assessment must embrace both measurable impacts and lived experience—recognizing architecture not only as a technical endeavor but also as a cultural and ecological one. The research begins with a critical evaluation of existing LCA standards, methodologies, and limitations. Following an explanation of the phenomenological foil, the work then identifies a parallel between the structure of typical LCA frameworks and phenomenological research methodology. Combining these, the project then develops a new framework of ‘Superimposed Analysis’ that accounts for both technical and phenomenological approaches to environmental assessment. This philosophy is then applied in the speculative design of a manufacturing facility in Nelson, B.C., engaging the region’s history and deep ties to its natural surroundings. The project explores ideas of architecture as character, programmatic obsolescence, ebbs and flows of industrial and community identity, and shared work as a catalyst for community, envisioning an architecture that is materially, socially and environmentally accountable, and attuned to the identities, histories, and futures of its place.

Text

University of British Columbia. ARCH 549

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0448853

Applied Science, Faculty of; Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/