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Most architects are familiar with urbanist William H. Whyte and his studies of vibrant urban places, especially small public places such as pocket parks and plazas, streets and hardscapes. After close observations of scores of public places, Whyte listed a number of key factors that pertain to successful popular usage of these spaces, including sitting spaces, food vendors, sunlight, trees and shading. If there is one material that readily works to provide shade, it is technical fabrics.
This Specifier’s Guide seeks to inspire with product listings and case study examples that are great at placemaking while helping with the professional obligation to reduce the carbon footprint of our designs. The term most often used in this discussion is “decarbonization.”
Not all of these examples are urban focused—such as a cloud-like shopping center at a seashore—but all bring creative flair to the places they occupy.
Placemaking
“Placemaking can be a variety of forms, from wayfinding elements to shelter to infrastructure,” says Nic Goldsmith, founding director of the Lightweight Structures Group at Silman, “so the first question to a client is ‘What are the program requirements that need to be addressed?’ Climate has a big impact, so designing a similar placemaking structure in Phoenix for sun is significantly different than one in Seattle for rain.
“Often, the community is brought in to respond to different designs,” Goldsmith continues, “and in my experience, the community likes the soft elements [of fabric structures] as long as they are convinced that vandalism won’t degrade their project.”
Counting carbon
Working hand-in-glove with placemaking, designers should always include the impact of their material choices on their projects. Counting the embedded carbon units of every material specified can be burdensome, but there are more tools created every year that help with this task.
One great tool is the free online website called Transparency Catalog. A recent check of the site by this author found many fabric manufacturers whose products fit within the CSI MasterFormat numbers 09 77 00 (special wall surfacing), 12 05 13 (fabrics), 12 24 13 (roller window shades), 13 31 00 (fabric structures) and 13 34 00 (fabricated engineered structures). (See resources listed at the end of the article for websites.)
Another useful tool is the website LOT21—created to help the design community decarbonize the world. The site has numerous case studies from around the world that provide strategies architects can apply to their own projects to reduce the carbon footprint of each project.
Lew Epstein, founder and CEO of LOT21, says “tensile fabrics (with their relatively low embodied carbon footprint), have shown their capability to replicate the essential services that nature inherently provides, such as shade and rainwater runoff collection. These well-established design and engineering solutions can also coexist with nature, enhancing each other. Additionally, distinct properties such as transparency, opacity or integrated photovoltaic surfaces can be tailored to meet the needs of each location in ways uniquely addressed through fabric architecture.”
The challenge of heat
Recent years have been some of the hottest on record in many regions across the world. UN Secretary-General António Guterres recently issued a call to action on extreme heat, with a focus on urban areas, in response to rising temperatures. Three of the six case studies in this guide feature creative shade solutions that help establish a strong presence of place.
A major crowd pleaser for the 2023 Australian Open tennis match was the cluster of six giant tree-form shade structures for a central food and beverage hangout for visitors to the games. Spanning a 20-lane motor freeway and a parallel light-rail corridor is a fabric-covered bridge in Redmond, Ore., that links two campuses for software giant Microsoft, giving a gentle, pleasing and dramatic counterpoint to the traffic beneath. On the windswept plains of Aurora, Colo., a major fabric shade canopy brings focus to the performance venue at the center of a burgeoning park system with multiple minor parks nearby, each with fabric shade elements.
“Running under a tree canopy in a summer rain to dry off is a most pleasing experience,” says Goldsmith. “Often, these placemaking uses are part of an outdoor landscape or hardscape environment. Tensile fabric forms and shapes are soft, pleasing shapes, which remind us of nature and in an outdoor setting, act as a relaxing refuge in contrast to another hard box with glass where we spend so much of our lives.”
Other strategies
Reducing carbon footprints can involve adapting existing structures while offering shade. This approach can give architects an option when a new building isn’t absolutely necessary. “Today’s extensive building stock will benefit more from adaptive reuse than new construction,” says Epstein. “According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), global building stock will double in floor area by 2050, with existing buildings making up about 40%. Consequently, adaptive reuse offers a significant opportunity to incorporate tensile structures, effectively aiding in decarbonizing the built environment moving forward.
“The tools are available to compare the carbon footprints of adaptive reuse with new construction,” Epstein continues, “offering essential data to make climate-positive decisions now. The data shows that lightweight, high-performance tensile structures provide measurable benefits alongside their architecturally striking outcomes. For these reasons, adaptive reuse strategies should regard this decarbonization option as a standard practice.”
The remaining three studies address decarbonization from a cladding perspective. The Oicho Challenge Shop case uses ETFE membrane as the primary exterior skin, making it a crystal-clear assembly that can change, grow and reduce size as needed, while keeping a minimal overall CO2 footprint.
Giant wing-like forms protectively wrap the exterior buildings at an environmental education center in León, Mexico, bringing attention to the center while keeping an impressively low carbon footprint. In Jacksonville, Fla., a parking garage for a major credit-union HQ is enmeshed in a delicate scrim of fabric for its public face.
The carbon counting challenge is not easy. However, there are many good examples (some shown here in case studies) on the LOT21 site and throughout Fabric Architecture’s online publication resource. As Lew Epstein says, “the tools are available.”
As architects, we need to advocate for these options and keep them in the forefront of our decision-making. “It is often the fear of many architects that are not familiar with this [fabric] technology,” says Goldsmith, to “resist bringing them into a project. And
when they do, they will treat them as a ‘delegated design.’”
We hope the Specifier’s Guide is useful and compelling as another tool to improve your next building’s design and performance.
Bruce N. Wright, FAIA, the former editor of Fabric Architecture, teaches architecture and construction management at Dunwoody College of Technology and is a consultant to architects and designers. He is a frequent contributor to Specialty Fabrics Review and Textile Technology Source.
Resources
AGC [ETFE foil] | agcchem.com
Bruce Enterprises | ghbruce.com
Chukoh | chukoh.co.jp
Dunn Lightweight Architecture | dunn.lwa.com
LOT21 | lot21.org/about
Mehler | mehler-texnologies.com
Pattons | pattons.com.au
Polyfab | polyfabusa.com
Pro-Knit | monotec.com.au
Serge Ferrari Group | sergeferrari.com/us-en
Structurflex | structurflex.com
Transparency Catalog | transparencycatalog.com
TYLin | nic.goldsmith@tylin.com