The World Meteorological Organization predicts the rise in the temperatures will increase by 5-9 Fahrenheit by year 2100. With global warming escalating on such scale and the continuous depletion of the world’s resources, sustainability in the built environment is essential. According to the United States Green Building Council, buildings in the United States contribute to 39% of CO2 emissions and 40% of the total energy consumption. Although net zero buildings like Bullitt Center generate more renewable energy on site than what they use during operation, the embodied energy – the energy that is put into the material sourcing and assembly, is still high in building construction. Positive Impact Architecture (PIA) is architecture that can reduce carbon emissions and energy consumption while contributing to the ecosystem rejuvenation and reversing the effects of global warming. With new technologies, we can make the buildings behave like an entire living organism that responds to change, self assemblies and repairs, gathers renewable power and water for its occupants. This artificially creates ecosystem services that assist in building maintenance and function. At the end of its life cycle, materials of PIA would be able to degrade naturally while providing nutrients to the earth or reused as a habitat for various species. In this project, I am exploring the architectural practices that would integrate ecosystem services in order to contribute to local nature restoration and reverse global warming potential, thus taking a stand against environmental crisis.

This project aims to analyze the sustainable, economic, and cultrual advantages of adaptive reuse with a focus on Seattle’s building reuse known as architectural retrofitting, or rehabilitation.  Adaptive reuse is the act of reusing an existing building or site for a purpose other than which it was originally built or designed for. The impact of carbon emissions, energy use, and waste production from typical construction processes and building use create harmful environmental consequences on the world. As a result, the amount of waste produced, and new material used is less than that of a typical construction project. Through adaptive reuse, cultural, historic, environmental, and economical elements are influenced by renewing historic buildings. Seattle offers potential for more historic preservation and adaptive reuse as many of the historic districts are well loved by the community. However, as Seattle is becoming a technology hub this is causing demolition of buildings and development in many areas. Landmarked buildings in Seattle are protected by the Landmark Preservation Board which prevents demolition of historic landmark neighborhoods and buildings that are significant to the community.   Although not all historic buildings are protected by the Landmark Protection Board, these buildings can offer the opportunity for reuse and an alternative to typical demolition for construction sites. I conducted a literature review of historical documents, academic literature, content analysis of online sources, and historical sources. The potential of adaptive reuse of non-protected historic buildings in the Seattle area offer a sustainable alternative to typical construction and demolition practices.These adapted buildings preserve culture, and history while committing to better greener practices.  This research aims to address the potential of historic buildings for adaptive reuse and its potential.  Adaptive Reuse offers an opportunity to mitigating the negative impacts of climate change, and build sustainable communities otherwise brought from traditional demolition and construction practices.

In my paper, I would like to research the passive strategies used for thermal control in the traditional buildings in historic Shanghai. House design patterns in 19th century Shanghai known as Shikumen and Lilong used a variety of passive thermal control measures. These vernacular buildings were razed in the modern era, but their passive cooling and heating strategies are still worth studying. The strategies could be utilized in new constructions today in order to reduce energy consumption from fossil fuels. For decades, many architects have studied passive strategies in vernacular architecture and considered their values for design today since historic people use various constructions to mitigate particular climate conditions. Passive strategies from old buildings should not be abandoned or simply conserved as heritage but should be inherited and used in contemporary design. Applying the vernacular aspect of historic design in the context of contemporary Shanghai preserves cultural identity while reducing energy consumption by accommodating the natural way to insulate the building.