Editors’ Letter | Carbon: No Simple Solutions

This issue of CONTEXT is the third in our annual series exploring building materials: Wood in 2022, Brick last year, and now Carbon. But wait. Does “carbon” belong on this list? Carbon is not a building material in the conventional sense. It is not something we select or specify or collaborate with craftsmen to form or mold. However, carbon is present in everything we do as designers. 

Carbon has become a topic that all design professionals must be fluent in discussing and factoring into decision making. The terms carbon emissions, embodied carbon, carbon sequestration, carbon neutral, carbon dioxide equivalent, and others are increasingly common parlance among architects, other designers, and building owners. This chemical element with periodic symbol C and atomic number 6 is a necessary component of all forms of terrestrial life, and yet we now find ourselves in an existential race to reduce its impact on life. 

This issue contributes to the expanding conversation around carbon. Alan Organschi takes us on a 400-million-year ride from the Devonian period to mass timber. Timothy Lock explores biogenic materials and espouses the necessity of using less of everything. Your co-editors also take turns on the topic. Tim opens a discussion with landscape architects on the greener, absorbing side of the carbon cycle. Todd reviews a new book, Not the End of the World, which sounds a data-driven call to action. The Expression section takes a look at the physical properties of Pennsylvania’s most famous and purest form of carbon — anthracite — through the work of artist Andrea Krupp. We also profile four local AIA projects that offer exemplary architectural responses to the carbon crisis. 

There are no simple solutions when we talk about carbon, and this issue just scratches the surface of this enormously critical material. CONTEXT invites you to embrace the complexity of carbon and bring its consideration into all aspects of design. For the health of our world, we need to understand it better and exploit it less. 

TIM KERNER, AIA 

Principal, Terra Studio and CONTEXT Co-Chair 

TODD WOODWARD, AIA 

Principal, SMP Architects and CONTEXT Co-chair