Carbon Sink Studio

This studio explores the complex issues of designing with carbon, including the possibility of reimagining architecture as a carbon sink. Students work from the scale of the molecule to the scale of global flows. They employ both systems of measurement and practices of aesthetics. They invent new forms of drawing. They model time. The studio also partners with the Columbia Department of Computer Science in a two-day workshop. It engages Brazil, indigenous people, and biodiversity. Students research key architectural precedents in the region, determine measurements of carbon emissions seen over the lifespan of the building, and establish their own carbon goals that include scale, site, program, and material systems.