Livable Low-carbon City

In a warming world, heat will increasingly be deadly.

The IPCC has stated that extreme heat events are due to global warming – and as we are failing to curb emissions – there is a high confidence they will only get worse. Even if your building doesn’t overheat today – it may well in the future.

 In this episode of the Livable Low-Carbon City, we'll explore the problems with overheating, and some of the ways we can mitigate this to make our buildings and cities more climate adaptive, more livable.

Subjects discussed in this episode include:

The British Columbia chief coroner's report on heat-related deaths due to the 2021 heat dome.

National Research Council Canada's report: Climate resilience buildings: guideline for management of overheating risk in residential buildings.

Business Wire report on the $10 million settlement for overheating in a new San Francisco highrise.

Passivhaus Plus article, 'Overheating - a growing threat that mustn't be ignored.'

ACEEE's research report: Cool Policies for Cool Cities: Best Practices for Mitigating Urban Heat Islands in North American Cities.

Recent research on mitigation of overheating in multifamily buildings in the Pacific Northwest: Improving the passive survivability of residential buildings during extreme heat events in the Pacific Northwest.

Stadt Wien's (Vienna) page on their solar protection subsidy program (German).

 Lastly, to stay up to date with what Michael Eliason is doing at Larch Lab, be sure to sign up for newsletter updates.  

US cities don't have a missing middle problem, they have a missing *mid-rise* problem. 

A problem that is reflected in the depths of our housing crises – and in the inability to meet climate goals. 

In this episode of the Livable Low-Carbon City, we'll explore the problems with Missing Middle housing and why it is inadequate to meet the demands of today's housing shortage - and why we need to be focusing on broad areas zoned for mid-rise districts instead. 

Subjects discussed in this episode include:

Missing Middle Housing

Mid-rise districts like those in Berlin, Amsterdam, Tokyo...

The stunning brownfield to ecodistrict development in Utrecht's Merwede, by OKRA + Bura Urbanism. 

Since we're discussing land use between the U.S. and Germany/Europe - I highly recommend Prof. Sonia Hirt's article on this subject, 'To zone or not to zone? Comparing European and American Land-use Regulation'

Lastly, to stay up to date with what Michael Eliason is doing at Larch Lab, be sure to sign up for newsletter updates. 

In this inaugural episode of the Livable Low-carbon City podcast, host Michael Eliason explores different types of vertical access for urban housing - and the effects these have on livability, sustainability, and climate resiliency. 

Projects discussed in this episode include:

• Vienna House, Vancouver. Public Architecture + Communication. 
• Gleis21, Vienna. Einszueins Architektur.
• Ørsted Gardens Apartments, Frederiksberg. Tegnestuen LOKAL.

You can also check out Larch Lab's Report on Point Access Blocks, for the City of Vancouver: Unlocking livable, resilient, decarbonized housing with Point Access Blocks

Lastly, to stay up to date with what Michael Eliason is doing at Larch Lab, be sure to sign up for newsletter updates.