Sustainable Design for Uncertain Futures

The inability of our buildings and cities to adapt to shifting circumstances such as economic and climate change has led to significant cultural loss and unsustainable amounts of waste. A growing number of antidotes have been offered over the past century with varying levels of success and acceptance. These include systematic customization, spatial flexibility, adaptability, smart materials, dynamic facades, transformable structures, transportable environments, open building, adaptive reuse, persistence, resilience, weathering, preservation, design for disassembly (dfd), and circular economy.

Sustainable Design for Uncertain Futures surveys these strategies and helps establish areas of theoretical and practical boundaries and overlaps. The structure of the book is based on a popular course at Carnegie Mellon University taught by the editors. In addition to key readings and case studies, the book includes contributions of dialogues with and between thought leaders around the globe aligned with each strategy. Through the book, this assemblage of experts in discussion highlights productive alignments and salient disagreements as key intersections within this rapidly expanding field.

For academics, practitioners, or others interested in change in the built environment, Sustainable Design for Uncertain Futures is a reference organized across the current range of building and city design strategies. These strategies can then be used in combination, regardless of the phase in the building project lifecycle, to help designers align their work with the appropriate forces of change.