Confronting the Environmental Crisis: New Approaches in Architecture

Bilingual edition (English/German) / Zweisprachige Ausgabe (deutsch/englisch) Compelled by the global environmental crisis, the building industry is moving toward a paradigm shift that significantly impacts the way we build, design, and interact with the natural environments around us. The built spaces of the future need to disrupt the conventional design practices that have "elevated" the building sector to the largest contributor of manmade CO2 emissions globally. Achieving net-zero embodied and operational emissions in future construction will require the active participation of design, construction, and building professionals, as well as the prompt implementation of decarbonization solutions. These solutions, which restructure the way humans interact with their ecosystems, entail a reevaluation and reinterpretation of architecture and its role as a transformative agent. GAM 21 collects perspectives and proposals on how to make a radical shift towards environmental transformation successful. With contributions by Nicolas Alaux, Romullo Baratto, Carlos Enrique Caballero-Güereca, Olga Beatrice Carcassi, Stefano Corbo, Ana María Durán Calisto, Greg Foliente, Antonio Garciá Martínez, Vanessa Gomes, Verena Göswein, Guillaume Habert, Sabine Hansmann, Ida Karlsson, Ailton Krenak, Monica Lavagna, Klaus K. Loenhart, Alice Moncaster, Elisabetta Palumbo, Francesco Pittau, Bas Princen, Philippe Rahm, Matt Roberts, and Bernardette Soust-Verdaguer - Explores contemporary approaches to decarbonizing the construction industry, one of the world's largest emitters of CO2 - Includes contributions from international authors and experts

Alexander Passer holds the Endowed Professorship for Sustainable Construction at TU Graz. Since 2011 he has been directing the Sustainable Construction Working Group. The working group focuses on Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA), its application in the design process, and the optimization of the life-cycle performance of buildings, taking into account systemic interactions. He is an Austrian delegate to the committees of CEN/TC350 and CEN/TC442, as well as other national and international committees. He has been chairman of TU Graz's-sustainability board since 2018, and a board member of the Climate Change Centre Austria (CCCA) since 2019. Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade is a tenure-track assistant professor at the Institute of Structural Design at TU Graz. She graduated from the Federal University of Espírito Santo as an environmental engineer in 2010, and obtained an MSc (2013) and PhD (2017) in civil engineering at the University of Campinas, Brazil. She worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Interdisciplinary Research Laboratory in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Circular Economy (LIRIDE) at the University of Sherbrooke in Canada (2018-2020). Marcella was involved in the International Energy Agency (IEA) EBC Annexes 57 and 72, and most recently became a subtask leader in the IEA EBC Annex 89-Ways to implement Net Zero Whole Life Carbon buildings. She has taught at universities in Brazil, Canada, and Austria.