Beyond Net Zero: Design to Absorb Carbon from the Atmosphere
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At this year’s COP27 event, held at the Building Pavilion under the auspices of the United Nations Climate Change Association in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) proposed a groundbreaking building design. Developed by the company’s interdisciplinary branch, the proposed structure has the ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere throughout its operational life cycle, while also being compatible with existing technologies. This concept reflects SOM’s commitment as a global architectural firm, ready to go beyond Net Zero: reducing carbon, absorbing carbon from the external environment, and extending the building’s lifespan to over 60 years according to standards.
"We recognize the need to change the trajectory of global warming by surpassing current Net Zero standards. We need to eliminate carbon content through urban infrastructure designs, and we’ve developed a design to do exactly that," said Chris Cooper, a partner at SOM.
This experimental design will be able to reduce more than 70% of the carbon compared to a conventional building during construction. In the first five years of the building's life cycle, the structure will isolate enough carbon to offset all emissions, and over a planned 100-year life cycle, the building will absorb more than 300% of the carbon emitted during construction and operation.
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The proposal rethinks all construction strategies, avoiding typical infill methods. Instead, the new approach represents a streamlined process to optimize building functionality and space, even eliminating concealed mechanical systems like air ducts or MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing) equipment. These strategies help optimize floor area, maximize ceiling heights, and minimize material use.
With underfloor ventilation becoming a passive ventilation strategy, elevated gardens will act as wind catchers while also providing modern conveniences. By using open spaces within the building, cool air from the elevated gardens can circulate through the structure and accumulate at the roof. The carbon present in the air will be filtered out and used for various industrial applications. This design will become an integral part of the future carbon elimination economy.
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According to SOM, the design concepts and applications can be applied to various types of buildings, regardless of scale or location. Alongside available technologies, the building also uses carbon-isolating materials such as wood and eco-friendly concrete—materials with low embodied carbon content. Globally, more and more companies are recognizing the urgency of the climate crisis and are working to develop new building materials and find optimal solutions to minimize the negative impacts of construction on the broader ecosystem.
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