Livable Low-carbon City – Details, episodes & analysis

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Livable Low-carbon City

Michael Eliason

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Frequency: 1 episode/11d. Total Eps: 13

Michael Eliason is a Seattle-based architect who has lived and worked in Germany. The Livable Low-carbon City explores the stories, places, and people working to make our buildings and cities more sustainable, enjoyable, and humane – in the face of a changing world. New episodes every other Friday. ish.

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Data updated on 04/07/2026

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https://www.larchlab.com/what-we-do/
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https://www.larchlab.com/baugruppen/
6 shares
https://www.larchlab.com/city-of-vancouver-report-on-point-access-blocks/
2 shares

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13: the future of single family homes

Season 1 · Episode 13

Friday, January 27, 2023 • Duration 21:32

Two years ago, a German newspaper ran a piece hinting that Green Party Bundestag member Anton Hofreiter was calling for a ban on new single family homes. Hofreiter had not been calling for a ban on single family homes, but rather an end to subsidies that cater to sprawling detached single family homes, as well as the lower energy efficiency standards they were required to meet, compared to attached homes.

After this, the Wuestenrot Stiftung - a foundation focusing on arts, culture, education, and questions around the future - published criteria for a design award on future-oriented single family homes.

In this week’s episode, we’ll be talking about some of these projects, and what we believe the future of single family homes in the U.S. will be.

Further reading...

Catch Mike Eliason's piece on Seattle's single family zoning history on the Urbanist.

Larch Lab's page on Baugruppen, with several links and examples.

Bauen im Luecke, a single family home slotted into an 11'-6" wide parcel between two buildings in a perimeter block in Koeln, by Wolfgang Zeh.

Alles Unter einem Dach - a 24 home family friendly, multigenerational, low energy mass timber baugruppe in rural Bayern, by Arc architekten.

Oosterwold co-living, a 9-unit baugruppe outside Almere, by Bureau SLA and ZakerMaker.

The Wuestenrot Stiftung's publication on the winners and entrants for the future-oriented single family home (pdf, German).

Lastly, to stay up to date with what Michael Eliason is doing at Larch Lab, be sure to sign up for newsletter updates.

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12: Strike Zone

Season 1 · Episode 12

Friday, January 13, 2023 • Duration 17:19

Strike. Verb. A disaster, or other unwelcome phenomenon that suddenly occurs and has harmful or damaging effects on something.

Zoning has afflicted our cities - some might say even damaged them - through their lack of flexibility and sterility. A hundred years on, the experiment of zoning is a massive failure.

However, it doesn't have to be this way. Other countries don't even have single use zoning like single family zoning in the US... Many others have zoning that is dictated at the federal level.

In this week’s episode, we’ll be talking about the absurdity of zoning in the USA, and why other countries are able to see better outcomes in their versions of zoning.

Further reading...

Catch Mike Eliason's piece on Seattle's single family zoning history on the Urbanist.

Larch Lab's page on Baugruppen, with several links and examples.

‘Cities across America Question Single Family Zoning,’ Emily Badger, New York Times.

‘Japanese Zoning,’ Simon Vallee, Urban Kchoze.

Lastly, to stay up to date with what Michael Eliason is doing at Larch Lab, be sure to sign up for newsletter updates.

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11: Better living through Baugruppen

Season 1 · Episode 11

Friday, December 30, 2022 • Duration 20:59

Housing prices in the US are completely out of balance. Affordable housing is difficult to attain in entire metropolitan areas. There are few options for middle class households, and even fewer for working class residents.

We need a reset on the American dream.

From one that is sprawling, unaffordable, lonely, carbon intensive, and exclusive – to one that is community-oriented, multigenerational, family-friendly and sustainable. One that is inclusive and accessible. Perhaps most importantly, one that is climate-adaptive and resilient to events exacerbated by climate change: energy spikes, heat domes, cold snaps, and extended wildfire smoke events.

In this week’s episode, we’ll be talking about one solution that could provide a path towards boosting middle class housing opportunities: Baugruppen.

Further reading...

Catch Mike Eliason's 2014 series on Baugruppen over on the Urbanist.

Larch Lab's page on Baugruppen, with several links and examples. ‘,’ Michael Eliason’s Ignite Seattle #33 video.

10: Re-compaction with Aufstockungen

Season 1 · Episode 10

Friday, December 16, 2022 • Duration 16:05

Aufstockungen is the German term for vertical additions. These are rooftop additions common throughout European cities - where many structures were built with concrete, block, or stone.

Vertical additions offer a really interesting path towards re-compacting (densifying) existing neighborhoods in an incredibly sustainable manner.

They preserve more affordable, existing housing.

They reduce sprawl.

They allow the incorporation of new housing without sealing new surfaces - thereby reducing the urban heat island effect, and allowing more area for mitigating storm inundations and flooding.

It is also an approach that can be utilized to add to a number of different building types - not just housing, but schools, offices, institutions, etc.

Further reading...

Aufstockungen: Innovative Density, Mike Eliason's 2014 piece on vertical additions, via the Urbanist.

Viel ungenutztes Potenzial: Dachgeschoßwohnungen am Gemeindebau (Untapped potential: Attic apartments in municipal buildings), Der Standard article on the potential for vertical additions and attic housing in Vienna's municipal housing.

Wohnraumpotenziale in urbanen Lagen: Aufstockung und Umnutzungvon
Nichtwohngebäuden, (pdf) TU Darmstadt study on the potential for new housing via vertical additions and office conversions, in the cores of German cities

Sauerbruch + Hutton's mass timber addition to an existing DDR Plattenbau, for the Berlin Metropolitan school, .AO Architekten's mass timber addition to the HTL in Graz, Austria, . Lastly, to stay up to date with what Michael Eliason is doing at Larch Lab, be sure to .

09: On Lost Opportunities

Season 1 · Episode 9

Friday, December 9, 2022 • Duration 16:51

Our cities are full of ghost projects. Lost opportunities. Potentialities that could have prioritized safe streets or public health. Transit station with homes for cars, instead of a neighborhood for people. Streets that prioritize speeding cars, instead of safety and sustainable mobility.

But the reality of our cities, at least in the U.S. – is that we don’t realize those opportunities.

Often, these ghost projects were eliminated or watered down to preserve single family zoning or parking.

We waste these opportunities - opportunities to make our cities better, more equitable, healthier... And we do it largely to preserve a deeply unsustainable and inequitable status quo.

And so…

I see ghost projects.

I see dead districts.

They haunt my dreams.

They’re… everywhere.

Further reading...

Schumacher Quartier - the mass timber, social housing ecodistrict underway outside Berlin's Tegel Airport and the Urban Tech Republic.

Fort Lawton Redevelopment Plan (pdf), via the City of Seattle.

The Case for Guerilla Crosswalks, by David Zipper, via Bloomberg.

Envisioning a Car-Free Aurora Avenue, Mike Eliason's piece on a visionary transformation of a local highway, via the Urbanist. , Stephven Fesler's piece on lost opportunities to address our regional housing shortage around transit stations in wealthy areas. . , the city of Hamburg's Bauforum on re-envisioning its arterials (Magistralen) as urban living rooms. Lastly, to stay up to date with what Michael Eliason is doing at Larch Lab, be sure to .

08: housing and single parents

Season 1 · Episode 8

Friday, November 4, 2022 • Duration 27:24

Several of our friends and colleagues are currently going through divorces and other changes in their family household structure. Many of them were homeowners. However, Seattle - as many other cities in the US, has a pretty severe housing shortage. There are very limited options for housing that is affordable for single parents or those co-parenting... Let alone housing specifically designed for single parents. Over the last year, I have had numerous discussions like this – by and large parents with younger children – who, until their divorce, had been homeowners and housing secure. In the process of getting divorced, they found themselves on the other side of housing precarity. Some even being technically homeless.

Today, on the Livable Low-Carbon City podcast – we’ll be talking about some housing solutions for single parents that I think cities should be prioritizing, so that they have a good economic and social mix of residents.

Further reading...

Gender in Mainstreaming Urban Development, via the City of Berlin.

Apfelbaum, an innovative housing project centered on radical inclusivity and accessibility in Vienna. via IBA Wien.

Affordable Housing for Single Parents (German), via MeinBezirk.at.

Baugruppen, via Larch Lab.

Bring on the Clusterwohnungen, Mike Eliason's piece on cluster apartments, via the Urbanist.

. via . (Through the eyes of others), a (stunning) short film highlighting life in Mehr Als Wohnen. Lastly, to stay up to date with what Michael Eliason is doing at Larch Lab, be sure to .

07: Freiburg, a Model Green City

Season 1 · Episode 7

Saturday, October 29, 2022 • Duration 24:21

Nestled at the southwest edge of the Black Forest, close to where France, Germany and Switzerland all come together - is the Green City of Freiburg. I spent a year living and working in Freiburg in 2003-2004, with a really amazing architecture firm ( Pfeifer.Roser.Kuhn Architekten) doing incredible things around low energy buildings and dowel laminated timber. The city, despite its smaller size - with a population of roughly 220,000 - is one of the most livable cities I have ever experienced.

Literally all of the things that I am interested in as an architect - Mass Timber, Passivhaus, ecodistricts, pedestrian zones, baugruppen - all have extensive roots in this region. Many of you many know about the car-light ecodistrict of Vauban - a family-friendly quartier. What you may not know, is that a number of the projects here are baugruppen - self-developed urban housing. There are also several Passivhaus projects here - and in fact, the first Mass Timber Passivhaus project - which also happens to be a Baugruppe. Mind Blowing? Indeed.

In today's episode, I reminisce a little about some of the things that made this such an amazing city - and how nearly 20 years later, those same subjects are central to who I am as an architect, a husband, a father. And those ideals, those concepts are foundational to Larch Lab.

Further reading...

The Freiburg Charter - Requirements on Urban Development and Planning for the Future, Wulf Daseking, et al.

In German Suburbs, Life goes on without cars, via NYT.

Stadtteil Vauban, project website.

Ecoquartier of Dietenbach, via the City of Freiburg.

Baugruppen, via Larch Lab. Lastly, to stay up to date with what Michael Eliason is doing at Larch Lab, be sure to .

06: Smoke Signals: Passivhaus mandates now.

Season 1 · Episode 6

Saturday, October 22, 2022 • Duration 18:22

Here in the Pacific Northwest, we have had fairly significant wildfire smoke for the last six weeks. For the most part, wind patterns have kept much of the Seattle Metro from experiencing the worst of it. That changed this week, as weather patterns shifted and the dense wildfire smoke cloaked our region for several days, thrusting both Seattle and Portland into the cities with the worst air quality globally.

Unfortunately, this pattern is likely to worsen as the western slopes of the Cascade Mountains continue to dry out. Due to their rugged, steep terrain and abundant fuel - fighting wildfires is going to be significantly different than on the dryer, and eastern slopes of the cascades. Containment and mitigation will be the main strategies in dealing with this smoke.

However, cities have not prepared for this new normal to the extent they should have, with studies predicting this very issue for decades. We already utilize public buildings for weather that is extremely warm or cold - the next logical step is to utilize public buildings as fresh air centers for smoke and air pollution events. The region has also added over a hundred thousand homes in just the last decade. Unfortunately, weak energy codes that failed to mandate Passivhaus only ensured that there was significant carbon lock-in with these, and an inability to adapt and mitigate climate change to the effect they could have.

Had we mandated Passivhaus levels of construction, with airtight buildings and fresh, filtered ventilation - many more of these buildings could adapt to these types of events, and ruggedized against an increasingly dangerous normal. We need climate leaders who will take these issues seriously, and act swiftly.

Further reading...

Passive House: Climate-Proofing Against Disease and Smoke, Hayley Cloona in Passive Buildings Canada.

Will blankets of wildfire smoke be our new seasonal normal?, via KUOW.

via , via ., report (pdf) via , report (pdf) via . , roundtable hosted by , Lloyd Alter over on . Lastly, to stay up to date with what Michael Eliason is doing at Larch Lab, be sure to .

05: An ARPA for Climate Adaptive Urbanism

Season 1 · Episode 5

Saturday, October 15, 2022 • Duration 39:08

A few months ago, Larch Lab was contacted to start discussions of an ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) focused on climate adaptive urbanism, influenced by the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act.

With the effects of climate change becoming more frequent and intense than anticipated – we can no longer wait ten to twenty years to adapt to this new normal. Larch Lab believes we need an ARPA-esque project to facilitate the research and development necessary to rapidly roll out high performance, decarbonized buildings, ecodistricts, and cities.

This episode of the Livable Low-Carbon City is a download of themes and topics that we will be discussing in detail over the coming months...

Further reading...

Car-light Ecodistricts:
The 5 coolest trends in urbanism ... in Europe, Michael Eliason's guest op ed in Dave Roberts Volts Substack.

Let’s Build a Dense, Climate-Resilient EcoDistrict in Seattle’s Interbay, Michael Eliason's op-ed in the Urbanist.

Passivhaus:
What is a Passivhaus, the Passivhaus Trust's intro to the standard that should be the baseline of all buildings.

Seattle Must Require Public Buildings Meet Passivhaus Standards to Lead on Climate, Michael Eliason's op ed in the Urbanist.

Zoning reform:
The Impact of Upzoning on Housing Construction in Auckland, Ryan Freenaway-McGrevy and Peter C.B. Phillips paper on upzoning effects.

, Henry Grabar's piece on effects of focusing housing on arterials. Building Code reform:, Larch Lab's report on Point Access Blocks for the City of Vancouver. , UCLA Lewis Center's roundtable on unit access and code reform. Active Solar Protection/Climate Adaptive Buildings:, Michael Eliason's in Treehugger on climate adaptive buildings. Prefabrication & Robotics:, the Dutch retrofit masters utilizing prefabricated exterior panels. New forms of Collective Urban Housing:Larch Lab's page on . , Michael Eliason's op-ed on cluster apartments.Productive Cities:Radical mix of uses incorporating production and industry in cities ().Sponge City/Blue Green Infrastructure: ACEEE's report:

04: Let's unf*ck TOD!

Season 1 · Episode 4

Saturday, October 8, 2022 • Duration 35:20

Transit Oriented Development (TOD) in the United States lacks the vitality, affordability, access to nature and open space, and high quality urban spaces found in new European ecodistrics/TOD. They are also much more auto-centric than would be found in EU cities - leading in part to a lower quality of life than should be possible. This is in part due to poor building and land use practices.

In today's episode, we discuss some of the problems with TOD (yep, the double loaded corridor plays a role!). As well as trends in European TOD - and some examples that US cities interested in creating walkable, family-friendly, mixed use TOD with a good economic and social mix of residents should be studying. All of these districts are filled with buildings that would not be legal to build anywhere in the U.S.!

Subjects discussed in this episode include:

Transit Oriented Development

The wonderful Sonnwendviertel Ecodistrict in Vienna - including a great video by Open House Wien (German, hit that translate button for English subtitles)

Munich's Freiham district, presently underway in western section of the city. (German)

Heilbronn's new Stadtquartier - Neckarbogen - surrounded by incredible landscapes.

Lastly, to stay up to date with what Michael Eliason is doing at Larch Lab, be sure to sign up for newsletter updates.

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Livable Low-carbon City – Details, episodes & analysis

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