MONDAY | FEB 12 | 4PM | AB100

David J. Lewis will present a lecture titled “Biogenic House Sections” at 4 p.m. Feb. 12 at Estopinal College of Architecture and Planning. Mr. Lewis is a principal of LTL Architects (Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis) and the dean of Parsons School of Constructed Environments. The free lecture will be held in AB 100.

The exhibition Biogenic House Sections presents a visually compelling argument for rethinking the material basis of architecture in a time of environmental crisis. Asserting that the most viable means to radically reduce embodied carbon in buildings is to use plant and earth-based materials, the exhibition demonstrates how this approach can catalyze new types of houses that reduce or sequester carbon, engage regenerative life cycles, and create healthier spaces for living. The exhibition draws from the recent publication, Manual of Biogenic House Sections by Paul Lewis, Marc Tsurumaki, and David J. Lewis.  This book features fifty-five innovative houses from around the world through intricately detailed cross-sectional perspectives and axonometrics complemented by photographs of construction processes, interiors, and exteriors. Analytical drawings make legible an approach to architecture based on circular material logics and a more holistic relationship to our shared environment. 

Through his research, teaching, and practice, Mr. Lewis pursues fundamental transformations in the discipline of architecture brought about by regenerative material systems to address climate change.  Marking their second quarter century of practice, the Principals of LTL Architects—Paul Lewis, Marc Tsurumaki, and David J. Lewis—have refocused the practice to embrace and expand carbon sequestering materials through the seduction of architectural representation and work. This redefinition of the firm coincided with the release of Manual of Biogenic House Sections (ORO Editions, 2022), which articulates how plant-based and low-carbon materials can produce a profound rethinking of section in houses. They are also authors of the monographs, Intensities (Princeton Architectural Press, 2013), Opportunistic Architecture (Princeton Architectural Press, 2008) and Situation Normal….Pamphlet Architecture #21 (Princeton Architectural Press, 1998), and Manual of Section (Princeton Architectural Press, 2016).  LTL Architects is the recipient of 14 AIA awards, and 6 Interior Design Best of Year awards, and their work is in the permanent collections of the MoMA and SFMoMA.  Mr. Lewis received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Carleton College, a Master of Arts in the History of Architecture & Urbanism from Cornell University, and a Master of Architecture from Princeton University. 

Learning objectives include:

  • Learning the fundamental relationship between operational and embodied carbon, and why time and changes in the near future place a greater emphasis on embodied carbon decisions regarding materials. 
  • Identifying the differences between the amount of embodied carbon in industrialized materials common to modernism vs the role that biogenic materials can play in sequestering carbon, transforming buildings into carbon banks. 
  • Understanding what it means to think about an architectural project from the perspective of circular material economies, with particular attention to biogenic materials. 
  • Assimilating information that provides a starting point to using common and available biogenic materials in architectural projects, using the design of houses as a point of reference.

 

AIA Continuing Education

Continuing education credit is available for AIA members attending this lecture.

ECAP lectures are free and open to the public. For more information email caplectures@bsu.edu.