“MCC Buildings: The Future of Construction” is a collaborative research project that was created by MIT and HUD.
This publication offers guidance to federal, state, and local governments as well as to the private sector on how we can build better communities – with more inclusive places to live, work, and play – in an era of rapid demographic change.
The United States is relying on energy imports, which creates vulnerability for political instability and environmental degradation abroad.
The Obama administration has launched initiatives to address the issue, with a goal of 80% clean energy by 2035.
Most new power development is in suburban areas that require car travel, which contributes to sprawl and emissions.
In tandem with federal policies to promote greener building design and operation, state and local governments have implemented strict green building codes for both public- and private-sector projects.
Housing and retail availability are major challenges to creating vibrant communities.
This report presents our research on how to address these challenges by showing how MCC buildings can serve as the basis for vibrant, sustainable communities in ways not possible with conventional building types.
The MIT Center for Advanced Urbanism is a school for architecture and planning.
The center aims to rethink the way we build cities by bringing together faculty, students, planners, designers, activists, and community residents at the local, regional, national, international, and interdisciplinary scales. Through its projects – like this one – it investigates new ideas that aim to meet housing needs while also creating resilient places able to adapt to changes in economics, technology, and the environment.
Following an overview of how MCC buildings can serve as a foundation for green development, this report highlights emerging opportunities for MCC development in three communities: Chicago’s West Town neighborhood; Seattle’s Beacon Hill neighborhood; and San Francisco’s Hunters Point Shipyard project.
The housing industry has long been the largest consumer of natural resources nationally.
If you include office space then commercial building uses account for nearly 50 percent of all national energy consumption.
The Obama administration has made greening the building stock a high priority, including not only federal government facilities but also new construction and existing private sector facilities. The Climate Action Plan released by the administration in June 2013 includes strengthening codes and standards to reduce carbon pollution from all types of new and existing buildings through incentives, technical assistance, training, and public education.
It also includes helping communities adapt to climate change impacts like extreme heat, drought, wildfires, sea-level rise, severe weather, flooding, large-scale power outages, food shortages, water scarcity, increases in ground-level ozone pollution (smog), damage due to extreme weather events, and changes in the range of disease-carrying insects.
Buildings must now follow certain green building codes.
Buildings can be certified as “green” by getting a LEED certification. LEED is now widely accepted among architects and builders, but it serves as a catalyst to rethink how buildings are designed.
Architects should use energy efficiency measures in their initial designs to meet minimum standards, which can lead to better solar orientation, natural ventilation strategies, and daylighting.
