Built Environment

MArch, Hines Professor of Architecture at the Yale School of Architecture, Yale School of the Environment, Founding Director of the Yale Center for Ecosystems in Architecture

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The Built Environment: Soil Sisters – An Intersectoral Material Design Framework for Soil Health

A SOM Foundation and Yale School of Architecture supported project at Yale’s Center for Ecosystems in Architecture

Karen Seto

PhD, Frederick C. Hixon Professor of Geography and Urbanization Science, Yale School of the Environment, Director, Hixon Center for Urban Ecology

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Global ambition: ‘Reinventing the DNA of the built environment’

Buildings account for 40% of global energy use and 25% of water consumption. The Yale Center for Ecosystems in Architecture hopes to change that.

Imagine a small house whose exterior is covered with planters full of ripe radishes, carrots, and lettuce. Indoors, another wall of plants stretches floor to ceiling. Their microbe-rich roots capture harmful air pollutants. If you touch the plants, beneficial microbes cross to you, possibly prompting a subtle shift of your own microbiome toward better health.