Tane Garden House, Vitra Campus Weil am Rhein, Germany, 2023, Atelier Tsuyoshi Tane Architecture

ARC480H1 F1
Instructor: Sam Dufaux
Meeting Section: L0102
Fall 2024

As our world and industry are rapidly transitioning into a low carbon economy, natural materials are critically needed to reduce carbon emissions and extractive harmful impact associated with conventional building materials.

In this course, we will learn about materials that either sequester carbon or materials with very low embodied carbon, their life-cycle, characteristics and appropriate use in buildings. Natural materials are defined as minimally processed, readily available, local, healthy and non-toxic such as hemp, straw, cork, bamboo, earth, mycelium, etc

We will examine a number of case studies in contemporary construction utilizing these materials, study key publications and also bring a number of guest speakers, including, architects, builders, product manufacturer and engineers to discuss the use of natural materials in design and construction.