Study Architecture 
ProPEL 
Author(s): Jeremy Ficca
According to the United Nations Environment and International Energy Agency study on accompanying energy consumption, 39% of total global carbon emissions are linked to building construction. While approximately 72% of this segment occurs over the course of a building’s operable lifespan, the 28% associated with embodied processes of construction offers a significant opportunity to address carbon emissions on the front end of construction. Carbon sequestration will play an increasingly important role in addressing atmospheric carbon in the timespans required to avoid the most devastating impacts of climate change. While much attention has been directed recently to bio-based methods of construction such as mass-timber, there are an expanding array of harvested materials that have great potential to sequester carbon, reduce reliance upon petro-chemicals, while offering distinct material/structural/spatial configurations.1 Our research is interested in the affordances of hempcrete as a lower tech, biogenic method of construction that has the potential to simplify traditionally multi-layered exterior wall assemblies, while serving as a substantial carbon sink. Incremental House reveals the unique capacities of this material matrix to combine traditionally disparate elements of a residential wall assembly.
https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.AIA.InterMaterialEco.23.6
Volume Editors
Caryn Brause & Chris Flint Chatto
