Architecture Thesis: Ecometric Design

Socially Responsible Sustainable Design

The carbon emissions of manufacturing elements of the building industry contribute over 15% of the world’s carbon emissions. The Earth’s climate continues to change due to human emissions into the atmosphere, emissions must decrease rapidly to avert disaster. Designers and builders can play an important role in this through thoughtful and meaningful design changes.

A full ecometric analysis – the quantitative analysis of economic, environmental, and societal systems; and the resultant interdependence between system of production and consumption – of any new project would modify current inherent design drivers. Built in the 1900s, Pioneer Square, located in Seattle, Washington, houses many existing structures with materials that can be repurposed into new buildings; for example, the Triangle Building and Bar – a 3000 square foot building built in 1910. With ecometric analysis as a primary design principle and industry standards of new buildings as a basis of comparison, reusing historical shell and core structures will drastically cut emissions from the construction industry instead of ground up construction.