Biotecture

Biotecture:

noun
1. The profession of designing buildings and environments with consideration for their symbiosis and sustainability.
2. A combination of biology and architecture.

Through ‘Biotecture’ we will be exploring alternative architecture and building techniques for their pros and cons as they relate to sustainability and the natural world.
Biotecture is a method of construction that specializes in building  symbiotic and sustainable, autonomous structures that utilize natural  materials and applications that are customized to support human life, as  well as benefit the surrounding environment, with designs adapted and  customizable to any climate and/or location.

Biotecture is another term for Eco-Architecture (Ecological  Architecture) which is a manner of construction that is symbiotic with  the surrounding environment and ecosystem as a whole, as well as  sustainable in every aspect.  Building life affirming homes that are  healthful, engaging technical efficiency and restorative sustainability  for integral wellness using renewable and inert materials good for  humans and good for environment.  We also go so far as to explore and  integrate waste management and recycling in creative ways re-using objects that would otherwise go to landfills.

We won’t be promoting any one structure over the others as that depends on your environment and your needs.
There are a number of variations of ecologically friendly building  methods, but we will briefly touch upon the main ones in this article.
Here are a few types of Eco-architecture:
– Earthship
– Cob
– Straw-bale
– Adobe
– Bamboo
– Dome
– HempCrete / AirCrete / PaperCrete

Sustainable architecture is architecture  that seeks to minimize the negative environmental impact of buildings  by efficiency and moderation in the use of materials, energy, and  development space and the ecosystem at large. Sustainable architecture  uses a conscious approach to energy and ecological conservation in the  design of the built environment. The idea of sustainability, or ecological design, is to ensure that our actions and decisions today do not inhibit the opportunities of future generations.

Ecological design is defined as “any form of design that  minimizes environmentally destructive impacts by integrating itself with  living processes.” Ecological design is an integrative ecologically  responsible design discipline.

It helps connect scattered efforts in green architecture, sustainable agriculture, ecological engineering, ecological restoration and other fields. The “eco” prefix was used to ninety sciences including eco-city,  eco-management, eco-technique, eco-tecture. It was first used by John  Button in 1998. The inchoate developing nature of ecological design was  referred to the “adding in “of environmental factor to the design  process, but later it was focused on the details of eco-design practice  such as product system or individual product or industry as a whole.  By including life cycle models through energy and materials flow,  ecological design was related to the new interdisciplinary subject of industrial ecology.  Industrial ecology meant a conceptual tool emulating models derived  from natural ecosystem and a frame work for conceptualizing  environmental and technical issues.

Living organisms exist in various systems of balanced symbiotic  relationships. The ecological movement of the late twentieth-century is  based on understanding that disruptions in these relationships has led  to serious breakdown of natural ecosystems.  In human history, technological means have resulted in growth of human  populations through fire, implements and weapons. This dramatic increase  in explosive population contributed the introduction of mechanical  energies in machine production and there have been improvements in  mechanized agriculture, manufactured chemical fertilizers and general  health measures. Although the earlier invention inclined energy  adjusting the ecological balance, population growth following the  industrial revolution led to abnormal ecological change.



Envirostructure is a portmanteau of the words Environment and Infrastructure. It is a noun that describes all the artefacts  needed for application development between the physical infrastructure  and the code. It is in effect the tools, techniques and enabling  technologies that produce and/or affect symbiotic sustainability.
This is the practice for conducting construction analysis, design,  planning, and implementation, using a comprehensive approach at all  times, for the successful development and execution of strategy.  Eco-architecture applies architecture principles and practices to guide  organizations through the business, information, process, and technology changes necessary to execute the strategies, designs and applications.

Arcology, a portmanteau of “architecture” and “ecology“, is a field of creating architectural design principles for very densely populated, ecologically low-impact human habitats.
The concept has been primarily popularized, and the term itself coined, by architect Paolo Soleri. It also appears in science fiction. Authors such as Peter Hamilton in Neutronium Alchemist or Paolo Bacigalupi in The Water Knife explicitly use arcologies as part of their scenarios. Arcologies are often portrayed in science fiction as self-contained or economically self-sufficient. These structures have been largely  hypothetical insofar as no arcology, even one envisioned by Soleri  himself, has yet been completed, but he posited that a completed  arcology would provide space for a variety of residential, commercial,  and agricultural facilities while minimizing individual human environmental impact. We will delve into a few methods of biotecture to gain a further understanding of how some of these methods are applied and why.
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1. Earthship

An Earthship is an autonomous ‘machine’ equipped with integrated  systems to support life. It is constructed largely using natural and  recycled materials and salvaged waste. All variations of Earthship  models observe these six design principles: – Thermal and solar heating and cooling: the  passive solar design, incorporating a large body of well insulated  thermal mass maximises solar gain, and carefully located ‘cooling tubes’  and vent boxes s generate a convection current to cool the space.
– Solar (and wind) power: a customised solar array,  charge controller, battery bank and inverter provide power for water  pumps, lighting, and the occupants’ electricity needs.  The most basic  system consists of 2 to 4 PV panels, a charge controller, and 2 car  batteries, providing sufficient power to run the basic necessities. More  complex systems incorporate both DC and AC circuits, and support  conventional household loads.
– Building with natural and recycled materials: rammed  earth tyres provide thermal mass, glass and plastic bottle bricks and  cans are used for non-load bearing and partition walls and form work,  adobe is used for slabs, infill and plastering where appropriate, a  variety of materials can be used for insulating and general, non-organic  waste is sequestered within the building.  These materials are found in  abundance globally, and in most places disposal and recycling of these  resources is poorly managed.
– Water harvesting: precipitation is captured on the  roof, stored in cisterns buried in the berm, and piped through a  filtration bank before being pumped to showers, toilets and basins.   Used water then enters the grey water loop.
– Food production: botanical cells are built along the  inside of the front face of the building and plumbed into the grey water  loop, providing naturally lit, temperature regulated and automatically  irrigated growing space for year-round plant propagation.
– Contained sewage treatment: a grey water loop  delivers water to the planter cells, which is then filtered for flushing  toilets, before running out to a contained septic system and  evapotranspiration bed.



There term “Earthship” comes from  the architect Michael Reynolds.  Mike Reynolds graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1969 with a  Bachelor of Architecture.  He soon became disillusioned with the path  architecture was on and moved to the mesa outside of Taos where he began  experimental building with waste and alternative resources.  After a  lengthy court battle, which is well documented in ‘Garbage Warrior‘,  he won the right to test his housing designs through the ‘New Mexico  Sustainable Testing Sites Act’, which was signed into law by Governor  Bill Richardson on March 15 2007.   Reynolds takes his designs all over  the world, responding to natural disasters and humanitarian crises, and  building for clients from anywhere.
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2. Cob

Cob is an ancient earthen building material  consisting of clay, sand, straw, water and earth, similar to adobe. It  is mixed and applied while still wet by forming it into lumps the size  of a loaf or ‘cob’ of bread. These homes are ‘sculpted’ rather than  built and are a dream material for artists. If you’ve seen the movie  ‘Lord of the Rings’ then you’ve seen the charm of cob.
Have you ever looked at a cliff swallow’s nest and marveled at their  cleverness? Nature once again offers us examples to emulate.
The lovely thing about cob is how forgiving it is for the novice.  Fireplaces, porches, even furniture can be formed as part of the house.

Cob is an old English word meaning a round mass. It’s comprised of a  mixture of sand, soil, straw and water. It differs from adobe in that  adobe is dried as bricks or fired in some way to harden the earthen  material. Cob on the other hand is mixed and applied while still wet  usually by forming it into a lump about the size of a loaf of bread, and  stacking one layer upon the other to create the walls. As it dries it  becomes almost as hard as stone, and after a coat of lime plaster can  stand up to many harsh climates.
Cob homes however are not suitable for areas that experience extreme winters.

In other parts of the globe however, cob has proven itself given the  numerous buildings from the 1500’s and up still in use in England today.  One thing is certain; this architecture is heavy, so an appropriate  foundation to hold it up is absolutely necessary. Cement works fine, but  stone foundations (masonry) add a touch of class. Either way it is  important to keep the walls from having contact with water from above or  below so design it with that in mind, including sloping the ground away  from your house and putting in French drains. You know what happens  when the ocean tide comes in and takes your sand castle away. These  homes are fireproof but water will damage them.



Advantages of Cob:
• Cheap! If you DIY the labour the materials are ‘dirt’ cheap
• Cob is an artistic medium similar to sculpting with clay. Your home will be very unique and artistic
• This building material is fireproof.
• Insulates noise from outside well.
• Suited for passive solar heating
• In dry desert areas it keeps cool in summer and warm in winter
• Cob is forgiving therefore easy to correct mistakes
• Cob plays well with other kids such as adobe or straw bale
• Cobbing makes for a safer work place for those involved
• It’s fun! A great way to invite community to come out and play.
• It’s labor intensive but requires little electricity and/or tools
• A local resource thus low embodied energy
• Durable. You can huff, and puff all day long Mr. Wolf.
• Easy to learn. Even with minimum skills young and old can contribute.
• This building material lends itself to creating curvy walls which allows a better air flow than 90 degree angles.
• Cob allows you to sculpt furniture, chimneys, shelves right into the structure.
• No out-gasing from the building material Cob House on Mayne Island in British Columbia   

Disadvantages of Cob • Stone foundations if chosen are labor intensive and expensive if you hire masons.
• While cob is forgiving and simple to use  it is very labor intensive. Depending on the status of your back or your  wallet that may be a problem.
• Permits. In England they have about a 500  year track record and about 20,000 cob homes are still in use today,  however here in Canada…not so much. The good news is it’s not as hard as  it used to be. On the Mayne island cob tour here on the coast of  British Columbia we saw many lovely straw bale/cob hybrids so if you  look to the bottom of the page we’ll hook you up with the right people  to get it handled here in the Great White North.
• It doesn’t meet the R20 requirement for insulation
• How it holds up (or doesn’t) in an earthquake is suspect
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3. Straw-bale

Straw Bale hasn’t been around nearly as long as Cob or Rammed Earth, but it has proven to be a very substantial building material.
Straw, traditionally considered a waste product, is a natural non-toxic  building material. Baled straw from wheat is wrapped in wire, as the  support for walls. It’s a low cost alternative construction material,  with excellent insulation properties.

There are two prevalent means of using straw bale as building stuff and  they are load bearing walls or infill. Load bearing is just that…bales  are stacked one upon the other,  holding up the second floor,  the roof  and a snow load without any effort at all. Compression tests conducted  by engineers (as described in ‘Buildings of Earth and Straw’ by Bruce  King) show that bale walls could support a load of  10,000 pounds per  square foot compared to the standard 2×4 wood framing which can only  handle 1,500 lbs per sq. foot.  Along with this information I find it  very reassuring that if you spike rebar vertically from the foundation  all the way to the top unifying plate thus clamping everything tightly  together, a straw bale house can resist 100 mile per hour winds.



Using straw for building material takes away the practice of burning  it in the field or ploughing it under which has the flip side of being a  great way to replenish the nutrients in the soil for next years’ crop.
Straw bale walls must be protected from moisture to avoid mold and  rotting.  If this occurs it is hell to repair.  Sometimes the entire  wall must be taken out.
Straw bale walls need a thicker foundation than conventional wood beam homes so that adds to the cost of the project.
While bales are easy to erect, they aren’t the most expensive  part of construction in the totality of the project so very likely you  won’t save money building a house of this nature.
Due to moisture considerations a straw bale home can’t be built  underground or earth bermed thus eliminating the thermal advantages of  doing so.

The other method is an infill wall whereby post and beam framing acts  like a skeleton supporting the weight of the house. The bales then are  stacked between the beams acting as insulation. In both cases you don’t  want to skimp on the foundation. Great care must be given to purchase  your bales dry and keep them dry as moisture and mold are a concern if  they get wet. In an effort to keep them dry suitable overhangs must be  present to protect the walls from driving rains, plus toeing up the  foundation helps so that the first course of bales is laid minimum 6-8  inches above the earth (or grade). Other preventative measures are  moisture proofing the surface of the foundation with something non toxic  like the organic sealer DynoSeal since that is where the bales will be  touching during the lay of the first course, and applying a layer of  waterproofing in between. Last but not least allowing the walls to  ‘breath’ so moisture can escape is another consideration which brings us  to my favourite part…finishing the wall in plasters.
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4. Adobe

Nothing can be simpler than mud. It’s been around forever and can be  found everywhere on the globe.  In fact adobe bricks, which are  essentially sun dried blocks stacked and cemented together with mortar,  are then either left alone or covered over with an earthen plaster (so  that’s mud to the power of three). Adobe huts have been around 5000-6000 B.C.
Perhaps the most obvious vulnerability of this building material is its  lack of resistance to water. In arid parts of the world this may not be a  problem, but waterproofing adobe walls from streams of water, free  standing water or seepage from underground becomes imperative no matter  which foundation you ultimately go with, although here in the western  world poured concrete is generally the one of choice.

Adobe bricks can be made to whatever size you want them to be. Adobe  bricks are made from mud containing a ratio of approx. 20% clay and 80%  sand, although building codes in your area may require a higher  percentage of clay as it acts as the binder. Of course getting the ratio  right is important in that too little clay and you’ve got cracking  whereas too much sand and the bricks become brittle and less resistant  to weathering.



There are many variations on how to make adobe bricks.  Some people add chopped straw as it creates a lighter brick to handle.  Others use an asphalt emulsion (oil  by-product) which makes them water proof. However this contains some  serious chemicals that smell and are potentially harmful which are seen  by many as unnecessary when outside walls can be plastered to protect  from moisture instead. Some people further south (Mexico) fire the bricks  in a kiln for two days which makes them harder than the air dried  variety, but they also absorb more moisture which can accumulate inside  the brick and flake during contraction and expansion.  Pressed earth blocks  made by machines (with a little cement added) may lack the charm of  individual hand made bricks, but on the practical side they can compress  a really strong block, of a consistent size, for use almost instantly  in both wet and colder climates.
Of course no matter which blocks you use they will need to be ‘cemented’  together with an earthen mortar made from the same mud as the bricks  minus the little stones and organic matter.
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5. Bamboo

A member of the grass family, bamboo is a versatile and plentiful  building material found all over the planet. It can be used 5 years  after planting. From building the structural portions of homes to your  flooring, bamboo is a fast growing natural resource worth considering in  your construction plans.

Bamboo is as versatile a building material as it is virulent growing.   You can use the thicker portions for framing or structural needs  including floors, beams n’ rafters, and roofing whereas the small stuff  goes into non-load bearing uses like wall/ceiling covers, mats and even  roof shingles.
Its hard to believe that a reed can be used to construct very sturdy  scaffolding or that it is awesome at pinning courses of straw bales  together, but there is a multitude of uses for this building stuff and  the list is growing. Although building houses out of bamboo is better  known in Asia than North America its being rediscovered in hybrids all  over the world today.

Bamboo can be utilized as a building material as for scaffolding, bridges and houses. Bamboo, like true wood, is a natural composite material with a high strength-to-weight ratio useful for structures. Bamboo has a higher compressive strength than wood, brick or concrete and a tensile strength that rivals steel.
Bamboos are some of the fastest-growing plants in the world, due to a unique rhizome-dependent  system. Certain species of bamboo can grow 35 inches/890 mm within a  24-hour period, at a rate of 0.00003 km/h (a growth of approximately 1  millimeter (or 0.02 inches) every 2 minutes).  

  

Disadvantages of Bamboo
 -If you don’t know your species don’t try growing your own to  harvest for building. It can be very invasive and take over the area.
-Bamboo’s greatest challenge is weathering. It doesn’t stand up well to water and needs chemical treatment to protect it.
-Bamboo therefore breaks down quickly if it comes in contact with wet or damp soil.
-Bamboo is highly combustible.
-The reed tapers making it more difficult to build with than processed lumber.
-Reeds vary in size from one to another making it a challenge to build with.
-Grass is hollow and round inside making it more of a challenge than identical pieces of lumber.
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6. Dome

Based on design, Domes resemble the simple shape of an Egg, which is structurally very strong.
The construction material you choose, such as wood, metal, or concrete, will dictate the strength of your structure, and can be Fire, Water and Wind resistant.
Monolithic Dome structures, known to be one of the strongest,  cannot be destroyed by most natural or man made disasters. They are impervious to Hurricanes and Tornadoes. In cases of fire, even though contents that are flammable will be lost, the basic structure can remain unaffected.

Since a circle contains the most square footage of any design shape, the  Dome structure allows for a wide variety of floor plan designs because  they need no Interior Support.
This same shape offers Energy Efficiency in the cost of running and heating.
A Dome is a structure built to resemble the hollow upper half of a ball.  The Sphere can take on several round shapes from a half a grapefruit to a bulbous onion, however it’s still  a sphere.

Dome construction goes back millennia.  Remains of mammoth tusks/bones  used for small dwellings presumed to be domes were dug up by a Ukrainian  farmer in 1965 while he was digging in his cellar.  The tusks dated  back 15,000 to 20,000 years ago. That’s how far back we are talking  about.  Domes are found all over the world made out of a Multitude of  Building Materials as mammoth tusks are hard to get a hold of today  (kidding)  There’s  an insane number of variations on this theme so one  might come to the conclusion it’s a damn clever structure.  Indigenous  peoples from all over the world have been building them with whatever  local material as available.



The Native Americans had Wigwams made from branches and hides, while the Inuit made Igloos from blocks of snow, and the Himba people of Namibia made a similar igloo shape out of wattle and daub as they were desert dwellers.     

 FEMA rates them as “near-absolute protection” from F5 Tornadoes and Category 5 Hurricanes.  Recently, a number of monolithic domes constructed using MDI (  Monolithic Dome Institute ) techniques have survived major disasters.   In fact in 2003 one such domed government building in Bagdad, formerly a  part of Saddam Hussein’s regime, was hit by a (2,300 kg). bomb, and  apart from the hole made by the entry of the bomb, it remained  structurally sound.
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7. Hempcrete / Aircrete / Papercrete

-Hempcrete or Hemplime is bio-composite material, a mixture of hemp hurds (shives) and lime (possibly including natural hydraulic lime, sand, pozzolans) used as a material for construction and insulation.  It is marketed under names like Hempcrete, Canobiote, Canosmose, and  Isochanvre. Hempcrete is easier to work with than traditional lime mixes  and acts as an insulator and moisture regulator. It lacks the brittleness of concrete and consequently does not need expansion joints. The result is a lightweight insulating material ideal for most climates as it combines insulation and thermal mass.

Like other plant products, hemp absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere as it grows, retaining the carbon and releasing the oxygen. Theoretically 165 kg of carbon can be absorbed and locked up by 1 m3  of hempcrete wall during manufacture. Furthermore the carbonation of  the lime during curing adds to this effect as lime turns to limestone.

The typical compressive strength is around 1 MPa, around 1/20 that of residential grade concrete.  It is a low density material and resistant to crack under movement thus  making it highly suitable for use in earthquake-prone areas. Hempcrete  walls must be used together with a frame of another material that  supports the vertical load in building construction, as hempcrete’s density is 15% that of traditional concrete.



-Aircrete, otherwise known as Autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC), autoclaved cellular concrete (ACC), autoclaved lightweight concrete (ALC), autoclaved concrete, cellular concrete, porous concrete, Aircrete, Hebel Block, and Ytong, is a lightweight, precast, foam concrete building material invented in the mid-1920s that simultaneously provides structure, insulation, and fire- and mold-resistance. AAC products include blocks, wall panels, floor and roof panels, cladding (façade) panels and lintels

AAC is a highly thermally insulating  concrete-based material used for both internal and external  construction. Besides AAC’s insulating capability, one of its advantages  in construction is its quick and easy installation, because the  material can be routed, sanded, or cut to size on site using standard carbon steel power tools.
AAC is well suited for urban areas with high rise buildings and those  with high temperature variations. Due to its lower density, high rise  buildings constructed using AAC require less steel and concrete for  structural members. The requirement of mortar for laying of AAC blocks  is reduced due to the lower number of joints. Similarly, the material  required for rendering is also lower due to the dimensional accuracy of  AAC. The increased thermal efficiency of AAC makes it suitable for use  in areas with extreme temperatures, as it eliminates the need for  separate materials for construction and insulation, leading to faster  construction and cost savings.

Even though regular cement mortar can be used, most of the buildings erected with AAC materials use thin bed mortar  in thicknesses around ⅛ inch, depending on the national building codes.  AAC materials can be coated with a stucco or plaster compound to guard  against the elements, or covered with siding materials such as brick or  vinyl.



-Papercrete is an incredible building material that  is lightweight, amazingly insulate, and low cost.  Any paper can be  used, including old newspapers, phone books, and cardboard.
Papercrete can be formed into bricks by simply pouring the pulpy mixture  into molds, then setting them into the sun to dry, similar to Adobe  bricks. Once dry, the bricks can be used like traditional bricks, using  more papercrete as the mortor to hold the bricks together.
Papercrete is recycle-reusing old paper in a slurry of sand and cement  mixed and poured into molds to make any size and shape brick you please.  It’s cement ‘light’, all the insulated properties you want without the  weight.

The recipe goes as follows:
60% paper (newspaper/cardboard/magazines), 30% sand and 10% cement.

 

Disadvantages of Papercrete:
•    You want to build a what? Getting permits
 •    Non-resistance to water
 •    Experimental – you are the guinea pig
 •    Not too many construction crews around doing this yet
 •    Codes not yet written for this method
 •    Not suitable for the rain forest or wet climates
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Zero Carbon Housing and Zero Energy Housing are terms used interchangeably to define single family dwellings with a very high energy efficiency  rating. Zero Energy Housing requires a very low amount of energy to  provide the daily needs and functions for the family occupying the home. A zero carbon home has a yearly net carbon footprint of zero. The carbon footprint is the total measure of all greenhouse gas  emissions generated or produced directly or indirectly by activities in  the home such as heating the home or running an appliance, personal  activities such as driving a car, broader services such as the use of public transportation or air travel,  and individual consumption of food and other products.

A home’s carbon  footprint consists of the sum of two parts, the primary footprint and  the secondary footprint, expressed in units of metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent(CO2e).  
-The primary carbon footprint is a measure of the CO2 emissions from the direct consumption of fossil fuels for energy consumption  and transportation.
-The secondary carbon footprint is the measure of  indirect CO2 emissions related to the manufacturing process of products  used in the home and eventual decomposition of products. Examples of the  parts that make up the secondary carbon footprint are the manufacturing  of clothes, cars, and furnishings, as well as recreational activities  by the inhabitants.

The calculation of the carbon footprint becomes detailed when  considering secondary factors. Secondary factors involve the home’s  occupant lifestyle such as diet, foods are consumed (an example being  conventional agriculture compared to agroecological  cultivation), frequency of yearly air travel, commuting mileage to and  from work, school, etc., use of public transportation, and number, type,  and use of private vehicles.
Secondary factors also include fashion or  type of clothes purchased and worn, frequency of recycling, recreational activities and use of financial and other services throughout a given year. The frequency of airline  flights in a year is considered due to the amount of fuel consumption  and other energy usage and emissions generated by one flight. A person  that travels frequently may have a significantly bigger carbon footprint  than someone who flies once a year for a vacation. The emissions for an  individual flight are calculated by using the greater circle method.  

First, the distance between airports  is determined. Then calculations are completed to account for indirect  distances and by an emissions factor in relation to the type of flight  (international or a short flight, and what class seating the person is  in). Another contributing factor to a person’s carbon footprint is their  personal vehicle which includes the type of car driven, the efficiency  or miles per gallon  (MPG) rating, and the amount of miles driven each year. The frequency  of public transportation used by an individual, miles travelled on public  transportation and the type of public transportation used such as bus,  train, or subway contributes to their carbon footprint as well. Other  factors, as trivial as they might seem, are included in the calculation  of a person’s carbon foot print to include things such as the type of  diet. 

Other factors include the purchase of local and /or agroecologically  grown produce vs. imported items, the latest clothes fashions vs. more  conventional purchases, buying individually packaged products vs. buying  in bulk, recycling activities, and the types of recreation such as  carbon-free activities like hiking and cycling or carbon-intensive  activities like skydiving or boating.

Biotecture can play a considerable role in environmental governance.  These ecologically symbiotic and sustainable structures are capable of  serving the same everyday functions of a home / building against  changing environmental conditions and are a form of engineering  resilience. Engineering resilience is a part of adaptive governance.  Adaptive governance is the idea that sustainability  can be achieved by adapting to changes instead of changing something  completely.

-Zero Carbon homes allow humans to adapt to the increasing  global temperature. These types of homes make it possible for people to  survive without the use of declining levels of fossil fuels, protects  the inhabitants from food shortages, and water contamination.  
-Zero carbon homes can provide resilience to the changes from the upset  of a tipping point in dynamic stability. In this case “tipping point”  represents the dangerous aspects of climate change.  When a tipping point occurs the system would be subjected to a new  domain of stability and the characteristics of stability will have  changed. The system will have entered into a new “domain of attraction”  and the system will be attracted to a new resting place. In the idea of  this, the height of the valley that the “domain of attraction” is in  determines the amount of stress or disturbances needed to force the  system into another valley or “domain of attraction”.  
-Zero carbon homes provide engineering resilience to this event because  they will be able to cope with the disturbances that occur. Exactly when  these “tipping points” are going to occur is almost impossible to know  and difficult to predict. They represent non-linear change, making it  difficult to predict or prepare for.


Written by: Quae Frei