Edwin Zea EscamillaETH Zurich | ETH Zürich · Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering
Edwin Zea Escamilla
PhD, MSc, D-ARCH
About
41
Publications
46,929
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641
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
Edwin Zea Escamilla currently works at the Chair for Sustainable Construction, ETH Zürich. His main focus is LCA of Bio-based materials and sustainability assessment of buildings
Additional affiliations
February 2021 - present
August 2016 - June 2021
January 2010 - present
Education
August 2014 - June 2016
November 2013 - March 2014
January 2006 - February 2009
Field of study
- Urban Environmental Management -- Sustainable Construction Materials
Publications
Publications (41)
The use of small diameter whole culm (bars) and/or split bamboo (a.k.a. splints or round strips) has often been proposed as an alternative to relatively expensive reinforcing steel in reinforced concrete. The motivation for such replacement is typically cost—bamboo is readily available in many tropical and sub-tropical locations, whereas steel rein...
The forest and building sector is of major importance in climate change mitigation
and therefore construction materials based on forest products are of
great interest. While energy efficiency has had a large focus in climate change
mitigation in the building sector, the carbon footprint of the construction
material is gaining relevance. The carbon...
PurposeThis research presents a methodology to characterize life cycle impact data (LCIA) of alternative construction materials outside of the European context. Methods
This methodology was based on the characterization of data and life cycle assessment (LCA) using geographic information systems (GIS), which has been proposed as an effective altern...
The number and intensity of natural disasters is growing every year, with 394 major events affecting over 268 million people worldwide in the past decade. The objective of this study was to identify whether it is more appropriate to use local or global materials in post-disaster reconstruction projects. Twenty transitional shelters were identified...
The growth of human populations in urban areas has introduced an increasing demand for housing solutions. The housing demand in the Philippines is further increased by the severity and number of natural disasters afflicting the country every year. Organizations that focus on social housing programs tend to use conventional construction materials. T...
2021 International Collaboration on Bamboo Construction was held from September 1 to December 1, 2021. The practice was held by the College of Civil Engineering of Nanjing Forestry University, University College London, International Bamboo and Rattan Organisation (INBAR) and co-organized by 6 international institutions and national companies of Ch...
Reducing the embodied emissions of materials for new construction and renovation of buildings is a key challenge for climate change mitigation around the world. However, as simply reducing emissions is not sufficient to meet the climate targets, using bio-based materials seems the only feasible choice as it permits carbon storage in buildings. Vari...
The construction industry's high contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions is well documented. This has driven many countries to develop strategies aiming to achieve net-zero emissions in their built environments. Currently, the development of near-zero construction materials is still a niche, especially for insulation materials. In this pape...
The provision of sustainable housing solutions is one of the main challenges in emerging
economy countries. Furthermore, it is clear that a sustainable solution should be based on renewable bio-based materials. Scientific and practical evidence clearly suggests that the use of bamboo in the provision of housing solutions provides communities with b...
The construction sector is one of the main contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and consumers of energy, making it one of the most relevant sectors when planning reduction strategies and policies. The use of timber in the built environment has been identified as a key strategy to reduce the carbon footprint of the construction sector. In this p...
The provision of sustainable housing solutions is one of the main challenges in emerging economy countries. Furthermore, it is clear that a sustainable solution should be based on renewable bio-based materials. The scientific and practical evidence clearly suggests that the use of bamboo in the provision of housing solutions not only brings environ...
• Timber buildings can potentially generate additional cashflows from CO2 credits, which can increase attractiveness of timber real estate investments.
• The attractiveness is however highly dependent on the assumed carbon credit price and developments on the regulatory level.
The role of carbon credits. FINANCING THE LOW-CARBON ECONOMY Instruments, Barriers and Recommendations. Timber buildings can potentially generate additional cashflows from carbon credits, which can increase the attractiveness of timber real estate investments compared to traditional building materials, such as concrete and steel. This attractivenes...
This report examines policies promoting wood as a building material in three Nordic countries; Finland, Norway and Sweden. It is based on 22 interviews conducted by the Center for Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability (CCRS) in 2019, in conversation with representatives of various bodies responsible for running programmes and projects aimed a...
Buildings and infrastructures are the main prerequisites for sustainable development. They are the base on which economic and social development occurs worldwide. At the same time, the production of construction materials and operation of buildings are some of the activates with the highest contributions to climate change. This situation poses a co...
To steer towards sustainable development we require buildings and infrastructure. As consequence to the production of conventional construction materials large amounts of CO2 are emitted to the atmosphere. Thus, to achieve sustainable development it is necessary to find construction technologies able to supply the demand of buildings and have low C...
![Figure 2. Uses of bamboo depending on its transformation degree [1]](profile/Edwin-Zea-Escamilla/publication/332774087/figure/fig1/AS:756581151043584@1557394411191/Uses-of-bamboo-depending-on-its-transformation-degree-1_Q320.jpg)
Bamboo is the only Graminea adapted to the life as forest. Bamboos can be found around the globe and are naturally occurring in Africa, America and Asia in tropical, subtropical and warm temperate areas around the equator. Bamboos are giant grasses that propagate rapidly by the expansion of underground rhizomes. In general, bamboos are known for th...
The effects of urbanization and climate change are dangerously converging. The most affected populations are the urban poor, settled in informal settlements vulnerable to increasingly frequent disasters. This severely contributes to the existing housing gap of these regions, already struggling with housing demand. The speed of shelter delivery beco...
The consequences of urbanization and climate change are dangerously converging. The most affected populations are the urban poor, settled in informal settlements, vulnerable to increasingly frequent disasters. This severely contributes to the existing housing gap of the affected regions, already struggling with housing demand. The speed of shelter...
The past five decades have witnessed an unprecedented growth in population. This has led to an ever-growing housing demand. It has been proposed that the use of bio-based materials, and specifically bamboo, can help alleviate the housing demand in a sustainable manner. The present paper aims to assess the environmental impact caused by using four d...
The consequences of urbanization and climate change are dangerously converging. The most affected populations are the urban poor, settled in informal settlements, vulnerable to increasingly frequent disasters. This severely contributes to the existing housing gap of the affected regions, already struggling with housing demand. The speed of shelter...
Over the past few years major earthquakes have affected the population of Ecuador, Nepal, Italy and Vanauato. Nepal was the most affected country with a seism of magnitude 7.8 in the Richter scale, striking in April 2015 in Kathmandu region. This lead to three million displaced people and about half a million houses destroyed. The main challenge of...
This study aims to assess alternative materials withstanding low capital investment, with the potential of providing housing affordability for low-income communities. By combining Life Cycle Assessment and Return on Capital Employed techniques, it has been found that glue laminated bamboo housing projects and low carbon cement-based construction ma...
The last fifty years have witnessed an unprecedented growth on the human population. At the same time the number and intensity of natural disasters has been escalating, due both to climate change and the growth of urban settlements in unsafe lands. This situation is unceasingly increasing the existing housing gap of the affected regions, already st...
![Figure 1.3 Planetary system boundaries[10]](profile/Edwin-Zea-Escamilla/publication/312874833/figure/fig1/AS:454411341307904@1485351514027/Planetary-system-boundaries10_Q320.jpg)
![Figure 1.6 Worldwide distribution of bamboo resources [24]](profile/Edwin-Zea-Escamilla/publication/312874833/figure/fig4/AS:454411341307907@1485351514093/Worldwide-distribution-of-bamboo-resources-24_Q320.jpg)
The global human population had been growing at an unprecedented rate for the last five decades and it is expected to keep this trend for the coming century. United Nations, estimates that the current world population of 7.6 billion will reach 9.5billion by the year 2050 and estimates a global human population of 10.9 billion by the year 2100.
Furt...
The present research aimed to develop a methodology to regionalize the environmental impact associated with the production of bamboo-based buildings by integrating life cycle assessment methodologies and geographic information systems for a case study in Colombia. The data were regionalized at three levels: Global – representing three levels of pro...
This data article presents the life cycle inventories of 20 transitional shelter solutions. The data was gathered from the reports 8 shelter designs [1]; 10 post-disaster shelter designs [2]; the environmental impact of brick production outside of Europe [3]; and the optimization of bamboo-based post-disaster housing units for tropical and subtropi...
The rapid population growth and urbanization had created an unprecedented need for housing solutions worldwide. It has been estimated that more than one hundred thousand housing units are needed every year. The housing demand in the Philippines is further increased by the severity and amount of natural distress afflicting the country every year. Ma...
The urgency for energy and material efficiency in the building sector increases every day. In the case of Switzerland, a building's main energy demand occurs during its use/operation phase and is mainly related to heating demands during the winter season. As a means of reducing these demands, current building practice in Switzerland is to insulate...
With regard to the resource depletion and the global climate change, the construction industry is important for the realization of a sustainable society. In this study, a wooden envelope system for subtropical regions was investigated in order to find the optimal wood fiber insulation thickness. The analyses were done by weighting the initial inves...
The growing interest in sustainable construction materials has brought back the spotlight to the
use of bio-fibers as reinforcement of concrete. Bio-fiber reinforced concrete elements can
achieve mechanical properties comparable to traditional products with added values as coming
from renewable sources, being less expensive and opening new possibil...
The growing interest in sustainable construction materials has brought back the spotlight to the use of bio-fibers as reinforcement of concrete. Bio-fiber reinforced concrete elements can achieve mechanical properties comparable to traditional products with added values as coming from renewable sources, being less expensive and opening new possibil...
Projects
Projects (5)
Gather the papers related with the use of biobased materials in construction and the potentials they can provide as regenerative materials
In this Special Issue, we would like to have an interdisciplinary view of the opportunities for bio-based materials to support the achievement of a net-zero carbon built environment. We will invite authors to contribute papers from different disciplines ranging from material science and structural engineering to life cycle assessment and policy. We aim to present relevant information that could be used to support decision making processes in the built environment and government..
This special issue of ATDF journal focuses on the role of appropriated construction materials used in the Built Environment in the African continent. Primarily we look at those materials and techniques for designing and constructing buildings, and we argue why these are a pre-requisite for Sustainable Development in the region.
http://atdforum.org/special-issue-of-atdf-journal-the-role-of-appropriated-construction-materials/
