Building a Global Carbon Sink: Alan Organschi

This presentation explores how new uses of wood technologies and carbon accounting might be applied to address exploding demand for urban buildings and infrastructure and the global impact of material consumption by the building sector. Discussion will focus on a new cross-laminated timber building at Common Ground High School, and Timber City, a research project exploring the global ecological benefits of urban “mass” timber construction.

Alan Organschi is design principal and partner at Gray Organschi Architecture in New Haven, a firm recognized nationally for its residential, institutional, and infrastructural design. He is also the principal of JIG Design Build, an offshoot of his work at Gray Organschi Architecture that specializes in the prototyping, fabrication, and installation of building components and systems. Organschi and his partner, Elizabeth Gray, were honored in 2012 by the American Academy of Arts and Letters with an Arts and Letters Award in Architecture and by the American Institute for Architecture with a National Award in Housing for their design of the Fairfield Jesuit Center. In addition to writing and lecturing on construction technology in design, Organschi is a member of the steering committee of the Cities and Climate Change Network, an international consortium of scientists, policy-makers, and design practitioners engaged in interdisciplinary research and the implementation of global projects in carbon mitigation and climate adaptation. He is a contributing author and editorial board member of the upcoming book Mitigating Climate Change: The Emerging Face of Modern Cities. His ongoing research explores the use of new wood technologies in mid-rise, high-density housing and infrastructure. Prior to teaching at Yale, Organschi taught at Wesleyan University and, since 2010, has served as a visiting professor in the graduate design program at the Roger Williams University School of Architecture, Art and Historic Preservation.

REGISTER