What is Urban Disinvestment

It is only in the case of fire that materials are considered by the American International Building Codes across an aggregation of scales (i.e., a building, a block, a district) leaving many other essential factors of material performance neglected. Mostly ignored are environmental and social parameters that also present forms of risk. This chapter uses the cities of New York and Chicago and three performance characteristics as case studies to examine additional material impacts at the city-scale. Case studies analyze material maintenance requirements against urban disinvestment, moisture absorption capacity against mold rates within flood-prone communities, and embodied carbon against material lifespan averages across cities. Findings reveal connections between material performance and economic, health, and energy implications across the city, suggesting the need for more broadly defined urban material performance standards.