Using Culture and Technology to Fight Climate Change
By analyzing the climate impact of our buildings in the design phase, we can build better
Stories are powerful—they have the ability to change perspectives, behaviors, and attitudes. They can also create awareness and empathy and drive action. So how can we apply storytelling in our building designs? Fiona Short, architect and principal at Warren and Mahoney in Christchurch, New Zealand, believes storytelling is key to addressing the climate impact of our buildings. She shares her firm’s practice of examining the intersection of sustainability, culture, and technology in their work to bring a holistic perspective to climate action through design. Warren and Mahoney’s partnership with One Click Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a major step forward in revealing the carbon impact of designs for clients. By extracting materials and quantities from BIM models, and then bringing it into LCA software, they can match it with material carbon data and calculate the total emissions embodied in a design—whether that be a single building, a campus, or even an entire community. With this information, clients can make more informed decisions—and the more stakeholders in the supply chain that have access to the story, the bigger the impact.
About the speaker
Fiona Short is an architect and principal at Warren and Mahoney in Christchurch, New Zealand. A strategic thinker who specializes in sustainable design outcomes for the built environment, Short pairs regenerative design thinking with collaborative design models in the early stages to discover new ways forward for projects. Short holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Auckland.
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