Built Environment Compendium

The inaugural volume of the Built Environment Compendium (BEC) is the first in an ongoing series of concise books covering topics that define our built environment. We all enter a world that existed well before any of us. We are the heirs to what was built before us. We are the benefactors of its future.

The BEC is intended to act as a springboard for further exploration. Across subjects, the objective is to address three questions.
Where did we come from?
Where are we now?
Where are we going next?

The architect’s craft is one as ancient as hunting, fishing, farming and exploring. After the search for food … came the search for home. At a certain point, dissatisfied with the refuge provided by nature, man became architect.
— Renzo Piano

Read Chapter Leaders

• The Art of Information Hoarding
• Photovoltaics
• The Fifth Mode / Part 1
• The Fifth Mode / Part 2
• Urban Agriculture
• Tall Timber
• Two Carbon Targets
• Plastic Structures
• Micromobility
• Batteries
• Green Concrete