Designerly ways of decarbonizing: A case study on integrating embodied carbon data in early-stage urban design

In the urgent context of climate change, embodied carbon data has become critical to the decarbonization of the built environment. This research examines the integration of embodied carbon assessment into urban design practice, with a focus on early-stage design. Based on a 3-month practice-based case study in a Dutch architecture office, the study identifies persistent challenges in applying Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) at the urban scale, including the definition of system boundaries, reconciliation of heterogeneous levels of detail, and communication of data omissions. The findings reveal abductive reasoning, visualization, and tacit knowledge enable designers to transform fluid design artefacts into workable protocols—what is here defined as designerly ways of decarbonizing . The study redefines early-stage design as an operational category for carbon assessment and demonstrates the codification of tacit knowledge in data-enabled tools, advancing understanding of design processes in the low-carbon transition.