Embodied Carbon and Energy Efficiency Tool
The set of Grasshopper components we created to calculate and visualize embodied carbon contents of structures.
A building structure is made up of many different material combinations. It is not always intuitive to understand which material combination for a specific building type is more efficient, when it comes to embodied carbon and embodied energy impacts. Furthermore, a typical concrete structure still contains about 8 to 10 psf of structural reinforcing steel, and vice versa, a steel structure contains large amounts of concrete. This calculation becomes even more complex when trying to compare different building typologies, say a low rise building with a column grid spacing of 30ft, with a high rise building with a column grid of 25ft, even if the net floor area is the same. And to further complicate these equations, one can also bring different concrete strength values into the mix, or consider supplemental cementations materials or recycled steel.
