Alan Organschi: Building a global carbon sink

In this lecture, Alan Organschi, co-principal of Gray Organschi Architecture and a senior critic at the Yale School of Architecture, examines the relationship between architectural agency and climate change mitigation through the lens of structural timber. By substituting mass timber and other bio-based building materials in the construction of new cityscapes, we can radically reduce net carbon emissions and develop a more synergistic relationship between forests and urban centers, he asserts. He traces the various materials, engineering strategies, assembly techniques, and carbon life-cycle assessment studies his firm has used to produce different types of innovative and biologically economical timber buildings.

The lecture is followed by a discussion between Organschi and Scott Marble, co-principal of Marble Fairbanks Architects and professor and William H. Harris Chair of the School of Architecture at the Georgia Institute of Technology.