Clark’s Crow is underpinned by both emergy and circular material economy analytical methods, which aim to consider all the energy, material, and information flows of a system to understand the environmental impacts on social and technical systems, as well as the impacts on irreplaceable ecosystems that have developed over millennia. Both the work of the techno-sphere in constructing our urban environments and that of the geo-biosphere in sustaining such development are symbiotically considered. A detailed Life Cycle Analysis allows us to understand and compare analysis regarding the inputs from the techno-sphere into the wider ecosystems.

Technical Significance, Innovation and Impact

Holistic strategies to transition buildings and cities towards more sustainable models have been hindered by a lack of interaction across the different phases of the built environment process from the initial design choices of materials and systems onwards.

Architects working with city planners and developers in the shaping of urban environments typically consider multiple factors in isolation from each other, from urban design and socio-economic relationships to data analyses. Clark’s Crow aims to address this shortcoming by promoting awareness very early in the process of the potential environmental impacts of different design options, with the support of a biophysically-based ecological accounting method in the early stages of urban design-development.

The tool is used within existing computational environments to provide data in support of socio-ecological analysis during the design decision-making process. Clark’s Crow facilitates emergy analysis in the early stages of urban design, thereby allowing queries regarding material and energy flows to be addressed in conjunction with design choices at this initial stage.