Specialty Fabrics Review August 2024 - 62

While it's tempting to look toward
" There is embodied
carbon and then there
is operational carbon.
Fabric as a material
can work for both
areas, although in
different ways. "
Nic Goldsmith
SILMAN LIGHTWEIGHT
STRUCTURES GROUP
the heavens for relief, architects like
myself have a mandate to help mitigate
the environmental impact of our
buildings and to focus our efforts here
on Earth instead, certainly a more
practical endeavor.
The architectural profession's
current mantra goes something like
this: " Whatever you do, make your
buildings reduce their carbon footprint
to zero! " This has been the drumbeat
for architects since 2015 when the
United Nations launched the " 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development "
that warns of a no-turning-backdeadline
for Earth's health report.
Architect Nic Goldsmith, FAIA,
has made a career of designing fabric
structures and doing the heavy lifting
with regard to fabric as a material of
choice when it comes to sustainability.
" This is a big subject, " says Goldsmith,
" First there is embodied carbon and
then there is operational carbon. Fabric
as a material can work for both areas,
although in different ways. "
MEANS TO AN END
There are many ways to reach the
sustainability goal, and this article will
mention several involving architectural
fabric as the means. I propose that a)
counting the embodied carbon and
operational carbon, b) making wise
material choices, and c) integrating
photovoltaic technologies with fabric
structures, can all significantly help
reduce the overall carbon impact of
our buildings.
WHAT IS " MID-DOORS " ?
n November 2020, well after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the
business journal Fast Company ran an article by Erik Olsen that defined
" mid-doors " as a transition zone between inside and outside. " Rather
than thinking of indoors and outdoors as a binary condition, we need to
acknowledge there is a spectrum from indoors to outdoors, " Olsen wrote.
He cited several familiar places-large atriums amid big office buildings,
grand European train stations that provide protection from sun and rain
but are mostly unheated, and covered markets that only shade or stop the
rain. He stated that " mid-doors spaces provide energy savings. Relaxed
temperatures result in less heating and cooling energy, or in some cases,
no energy at all. "
The photo on page 63 shows a project that was designed as a mid-doors
space and is located adjacent to Times Square in New York City. The TSX
project, designed by Perkins Eastman Architects and Silman Lightweight
Structures Group, features ETFE pillow roofing and ETFE motorized walls.
" These allow for indoor/outdoor spatial qualities, " says Nic Goldsmith
of Silman, " as the exterior temperature changes. This was an outdoor
terrace which could now be utilized for year-round use. The mechanized
retractable ETFE sidewalls are the first application of this material as a
retractable glazing system. "
EMBODIED CARBON
When it comes to embodied carbon,
adaptive reuse of existing buildings
is one sustainable approach that has
proved highly successful. To start, the
lighter mass of architectural fabrics
begins the carbon count at much
lower levels than more traditional
building materials such as wood,
steel and concrete. Fabric has a
very low embodied carbon measure
and also lower carbon footprint for
transportation to a construction site.
Combining the sequestered embodied
carbon of the original building with
the low carbon footprint of fabric
elements keeps the overall calculations
to a minimum.
There is another approach with
reusing existing buildings and that
involves modifying existing buildings
with " mid-doors " strategies (see
sidebar). This approach has been
nicely applied by Goldsmith to two
public spaces that work with existing
buildings to find underused spaces that
can be converted to more active use
throughout the seasons. The concept
62 SPECIALTY FABRICS REVIEW / August 2024
Specialty Fabrics Review August 2024

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