Fabric Architecture Specifier's Guide 2022 - 4

Fabric structures reduce
environmental impact
Improving building performance,
sustainability through fabric.
by Bruce N. Wright, FAIA
M
ore than ever before, architects are being called
upon to dramatically improve the performance
of their buildings, and fabric can help with this
mandate. The key to implementing this is to
reduce the embodied carbon in buildings.
It's a given that 40 percent of global resources goes
to the built environment, so our construction industry
must significantly ameliorate this problem. Embodied
carbon can come from either direct building contributions
or operations. Building contributions include products,
transportation to site, construction and maintenance.
Operations includes heating and cooling, lighting and
power. How can the fabric structures industry address
these two issues to become more sustainable?
This is the takeaway message I gleaned from a trio of experts who
recently gathered to discuss the importance of fabric in the battle
to reduce the carbon footprints of all construction, but especially
lightweight buildings. Nicholas Goldsmith, Denis Hector and Marc
Shellshear spoke with me about the urgent need to find solutions to
the impact of global climate change, the apparent increase of disasters
from natural causes, and a universal societal need for reliable shelter
and reduction of the carbon footprint of buildings.
Architect Goldsmith, FAIA, LEED AP, senior principal at FTL
Design Engineering Studio in New York City, whose specialty is
designing and engineering tensile membranes, spoke of numerous
areas where architects and specialty contractors in this industry can
direct their efforts using architectural fabrics, three of which include:
4
www.FabricArchitectureMag.com
1) Adaptively reusing existing and
underused buildings.
2) Developing demountable
structures to minimize wastage of
building materials and addressing
climate refugees.
3) Retrofitting existing buildings to
improve thermal efficiency and
reduce energy usage.
ADAPTIVE REUSE
" Since 40 percent of global resources
goes to the built environment and it
would take 100 years to rebuild all our
buildings sustainably for which we don't
have the time, we need to rethink our
approach to building, " Goldsmith says.
" Rather than extract more raw materials
to build new buildings, we should find
new uses for existing structures. "
A great way to do this is using fabric
and foils to improve the thermal
performance of these buildings.
" This can be done using such things
as replacement membrane facade
systems or overcladding enclosures
using membranes such as ETFE that
have a carbon footprint 80 percent
lower than glass wall systems. By
using these enclosures as primary
or secondary building skins, we can
improve the thermal envelope of the
existing buildings in cold climates or
create shading opportunities for passive
cooling in hot climates. A current
project we are working on, the Ruane
Friar Center at Providence College, is an
example which ties four existing sport
facilities together by adapting a threelayer
ETFE foil roof to cover an unused
pedestrian street. "
This, Goldsmith says, improves the
overall insulation of the older buildings,
which were built under older energy
http://www.FabricArchitectureMag.com
Fabric Architecture Specifier's Guide 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Fabric Architecture Specifier's Guide 2022
