Manual of Biogenic House Sections by Paul Lewis reframes the architectural section as an instrument for interrogating embodied carbon, material life cycles, and the environmental consequences of how we build houses today.
About This Book
Structured around material rather than geography or typology, this book presents newly generated cross-sectional drawings of 55 recent, modestly scaled houses from around the world — each selected because the house remains architecture's most persistent site of experimentation. The drawings are developed alongside life cycle diagrams tracing raw materials through to building components, revealing how material choice is never neutral. Exploded axonometrics, construction photographs, and colour documentation of exteriors and interiors accompany each project. Introductory essays address embodied carbon, the lessons of vernacular plant-based construction, and the failures of contemporary building practice. For architects and designers grappling with the material economy of sustainable residential design, this is a working reference with genuine critical ambition.
Key Features
- 352 pages of newly generated sectional drawings, life cycle diagrams, exploded axonometrics, and construction and colour photography across 55 houses
- Author: Paul Lewis
- 55 modestly sized recent houses drawn from an international range of projects
- Published by Oro Editions, 2023
What You'll Discover
- How organising houses by material — rather than style or region — exposes the environmental logic embedded in every construction decision
- Life cycle diagrams that trace each raw material from extraction through to its role as a finished building component
- The sectional drawing as an analytical tool for understanding how biogenic and plant-based materials shape spatial and structural form
- Essays connecting vernacular construction traditions, embodied carbon accounting, and the systemic problems of contemporary house-building
About the Author
Paul Lewis is the author of the Manual of Section, the methodological forerunner to this volume, which established the cross-section as a primary lens for architectural analysis. Manual of Biogenic House Sections extends that project into the territory of material ecology and climate-responsive construction.
Specifications
- Format: Softcover
- Pages: 352
- Dimensions: 27.9 x 19 cm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9781957183091
- Publisher: Oro Editions
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Architects and architectural students working through questions of sustainable residential design, researchers in material ecology and embodied carbon, and practitioners seeking a rigorous visual reference for biogenic construction methods.