Designing the Green New Deal: Thin Shell Umbrella Structures for Low-Carbon Public Housing

Abstract

Green New Deal advocates have called for the construction of safe, affordable housing as a necessity in meeting the needs of an overwhelming number of climate refugees. Yet, with 39% of US energy consumed by the building sector alone, it is unclear how a massive homebuilding project can be conducted both rapidly and sustainably. While the intersecting crises of climate change and housing insecurity have been well-identified, their structural solutions have not been thoroughly explored or enacted. This thesis thus explores how thin-shell hypar umbrellas might be used as an actionable, carbon-minimizing structural solution to the growing need for urban housing. This thesis design considers the structural behavior of precast concrete umbrella elements at different phases of construction; road transport, lifting by a crane, and self-weight. The ability to use transportable precast elements offers several advantages, such as lower embodied carbon emissions, minimized cost and specialization of labor, and greater control of material and structural behavior. Finite element analysis was used in the approach. The results of this analysis indicate that using thin-shell concrete umbrellas, rather than using conventional concrete slabs, has the ability to significantly reduce concrete usage, and thereby carbon emissions, associated with construction. The findings of this thesis provide guidance for the structural, architectural, and environmental design features of public housing built with thin-shell hypar umbrellas.