Workshops
Biomimicry: The Next Frontier in Sustainable Design View Digital Media
Workshop Presentation Jamie Miller
Let’s embark on the next frontier of sustainability. How? By uncovering the design secrets of the natural world and applying nature's genius to the way we think, behave, and create. Living in the era of a climate crisis, biomimicry allows us to release our notions of truth, utilize science to push the boundaries of conventional thinking and embrace deeper creative sources. It invites us to leverage 3.8 billion years of research and design from the most sustainable system on the planet – nature. In this workshop presentation, we will explore the world through the lens of biomimicry by playing with Design Fiction. Design fiction is the development of believable ideas that may not (yet) be possible but that provokes a conversation of what could (should) be possible. Heading outdoors, we will do activities that will spark a shift in our perspective. Biomimicry is learning from the local experts, the elders of the land, to create new forms, processes, and systems that are more efficient, sustainable, and beautiful. It is a rapidly burgeoning field that is inspiring incredible technologies and systems, like self-healing concrete, circular economies, improved impellers and fans based on Fibonacci spirals, or facades that can breathe like skin. In this workshop, we will look to nature to spark each participant's deeper creativity and learn to design with nature.
10 Strategies for a Low Waste, Low Carbon Building Project: Making Decarbonized Building Design Accessible View Digital Media
Workshop Presentation Imani Hamilton, Nancy Gonzalez Madynski
Humans have 10 years to decarbonize before climate change becomes irreversible. Annually, the built environment is responsible for 40% of carbon dioxide emissions globally, and 500 million tons of construction waste in the US. It’s critical for designers and builders at all levels to implement basic strategies for reducing their project’s impact. Bridging general contracting and sustainable design experience, and drawing on a project that was ILFI’s first Zero Carbon single family home candidate, Nancy and Imani will share 10 actionable strategies to build a low waste, low carbon project. We will: lead an engaged discussion about construction waste, its environmental impacts, and relationship to decarbonization; Share tactics that general contractors and design teams can employ to reduce waste in construction and demolition; Define carbon, and how it is measured from an embodied and operational perspective throughout the stages of the building process; Share simple strategies for reducing the embodied carbon of a building during the design phase, from materials to specification and sourcing decisions; Outline how to achieve a zero operational carbon building, from electric appliances to solar, to offsetting any carbon emissions; Discuss how to implement and present low waste and low carbon strategies on a project team and manage client expectations. Together, the context and actionable strategies will enable attendees to improve the sustainability, health, and efficiency of any building project. It’s time to make low waste, low carbon building accessible and widespread.
