“Embodied Energy and Design” frames embodied energy in the context of broader design ecosystems and architectural issues. Organizer David Benjamin (The Living, GSAPP Incubator) wrote, “the energy story involves a striking twist: in the past fifty years, operational energy—defined as the energy for things like heating, cooling, and lighting—has actually declined as a percentage of total energy consumption in buildings. At the same time, embodied energy—defined as the sum of all energy required to extract raw materials and then produce, transport, and assemble the elements of a building—has rapidly increased. This makes embodied energy an increasingly urgent topic for architecture.”
The day-long conference is bracketed by an opening keynote by Michael Specter (The New Yorker) and a closing keynote by Paola Antonelli (The Museum of Modern Art). The is free and open to the public, RSVP is suggested – RSVP here.