Urban Energy Shift
Zachary Colbert | Carleton University Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism
Antonio Gioventu | Condominium Homeowners Association of British Columbia
Shelby Hagerman, James Nguyen, Jasmine Sykes and Connor Tamborro | Carleton University Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism

The built environment is the largest contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, and professionals of the built environment must contribute to a shift in thinking about energy infrastructure. How we use and acquire energy is directly linked to some of the most pressing issues facing humanity, including climate change, access to clean water, adequate food supply and geopolitical stability.

Imagine a near-future city, where individual buildings operate as clean-energy power stations—self-sufficient energy nodes that store, capture and produce energy. These buildings will act together with other buildings and other energy-generation infrastructure in an energy internet that creates ever-increasing energy efficiency in the built environment. The design of buildings will change to consider new spaces of energy infrastructures that are tuned to cycles of energy demand and that participate in real-time energy exchange with the grid.

Public policy addressing the built environment will be reshaped by this new infrastructure in tandem with their real-world application. This work is a collaborative and interdisciplinary endeavour between industry and academia.