Concrete is the most carbon-intensive material found in the built environment, and rammed earth is a viable alternative—at least for projects of a certain scale. The San Antonio–based architecture firm Lake|Flato has opted for rammed earth on two of its residential projects, such as this one in West Texas.Courtesy Kyle Melgaard/Pilgrim Building Company
Practitioners have finally begun taking a more nuanced approach to the carbon emitted by new buildings. Are they too late?
I’ve started calling them come-to-carbon moments—the inner alarm bells that sound as you begin to register the devastating ecological costs of every man-made surface around you. Every sidewalk you’ve ever walked on, every building you’ve ever walked into, and every material inside those buildings, too. It’s the kind of thing you can’t un-see once you’ve started looking, the kind of knowledge that can transform a worldview, or a practice.