ABSTRACT
What if builds were more like trees and cities were more like forests? The concept of Urban Sequoia combines optimized structural design with low embodied carbon materials, efficient construction, and carbon-capturing technologies to transform carbon producers into carbon consumers. These carbon-capturing approaches allow buildings to start their service life with an ultra-low embodied carbon and sequester additional carbon over time, becoming net carbon negative. The structural approach to Urban Sequoia incorporates nature-based, living materials that embody far less carbon than conventional structural solutions while absorbing additional carbon over time. When combined with non-structural systems such as exterior wall systems that incorporate biomass and algae and technologies including Direct Air Capture (DAC), tall buildings could absorb three to five times the amount of carbon emitted at the time of construction. Urban Sequoia includes ideas that can be applied to buildings at all scales and uses. The floor framing system, for example, could be used in a building with only a few floors or one that has a hundred floors. The strength of the concept is enhanced when buildings that make up a city combine to become a source of biofuel that can be used to power heating systems, automobiles, and aircrafts and create bioprotein. An even broader impact could include using carbon byproducts for infrastructure.
