Mitigate — carbon reduction

The headquarters for Tscherning, a family-owned deconstruction company, demonstrates that materials from demolition sites are valuable resources for adaptive reuse.

Using exclusively reclaimed elements, such as brickwork from an old prison and stairs from a public school, the project pushes the boundaries of sustainable design by solely relying on reused materials, which reduces the new headquarters’ carbon footprint.

This adaptive reuse project repurposes the industrial ruins of a 16-acre rail depot and introduces a new, modern, multidisciplinary art center and public park south of Arles.

Passive and active design measures and renewable energy sources reduce consumption by 60%. Further carbon reductions are achieved through climate-minded selections of materials and construction methods that visibly distinguish this exemplary project.

The Plus is set to become the first project of its kind in the world to achieve the highest environmental BREEAM rating.

All materials are carefully chosen by their environmental impact, with the facade constructed from local timber, low-carbon concrete and recycled reinforcement steel.

Through this project, Vestre aims to prove that industrial projects can also be global innovators in the environmental field.

The Anandaloy Building hosts a center for people with disabilities and a small studio for producing (Dipdii) fair textiles in Bangladesh.

The structure is built with local, low-carbon materials and techniques — a fired brick foundation, mud walls (cob technique), bamboo pillars, ceilings, and roof structure, straw lower roof and sheet metal upper roof.

Read more about this remarkable building’s distinct purpose and how it breaks the mold.

This entrepreneurship hub in Kigali, Rwanda, is a model for adaptive reuse and circular design practices. The project will be EDGE Advanced certified, achieving 40 percent or more energy savings.

Through rigorous conservation measures, the design has also reduced embodied carbon by 32 percent compared to the global average for similar office buildings.

Founders Hall is the first fully mass timber building on campus and embraces the University of Washington Green Building Standards; reducing carbon emissions by over 90%.

The building incorporates a mass timber structure with cross-laminated timber decking, reflecting the university’s connection to the Pacific Northwest and the local wood products industry.

This remarkable upgrade of two 1980s office blocks to become energy-positive buildings will generate more energy than consumed over their lifetime. The ambitious objective recognizes the energy used for construction, renovation, operation, and end-of-life.

The award-winning design combines highly efficient energy systems to heat radiators and water, ventilate air, cool the buildings in summer, and much more.

The site is the largest LEED v4 BD+C: NC Platinum certified project in the world and The largest facility to ever attain the International Living Future Institute (ILFI) Living Building Challenge (LBC) Water Petal Certification.

In addition, heating and cooling for this project is supplied by the largest geo-thermal pile system in North America.

By reducing energy demands, using energy efficient systems and equipment, and incorporating a clean supply of renewable energy, the facility goes beyond Net Zero Emissions, producing a surplus of reusable energy that will be stored in onsite batteries and used to power EV charging stations.

This is the largest net-zero facility of its kind.

Adaptive reuse offers another path to carbon reduction by retrofitting and upgrading current building stocks.

Reuse challenges us to think differently about aesthetics and consumption because it limits new construction, furnishings, and fixtures in order to lower their embodied carbon tally.

By doing so we lessen the need for all things to be new and promote a more circular outcome.

This project exemplifies adaptive reuse by ––

Utilizing existing building stock and simultaneously reducing demolition waste.

Repurposing removed building materials to create architectural features while minimizing the use of virgin materials.

Leveraging low-carbon mass timber from sustainably forested North American sources.

The Kamikatsu Zero Waste Center embodies the principle of Zero Waste by offering 45 categories of recyclable waste disposal, a store for upcycled goods, a community hall, a communal office, and a hotel.

This benchmark project thoughtfully utilizes local materials and building capabilities combined with clever adaptive reuse.

The town’s recycling rate surpasses 80%.