The Case for AIA Committee on the Environment's Obsolescence
The AIA/COTE Top Ten represent the profession’s leading edge. But why hasn't that edge permeated the profession in the age of “mainstream green”?
Author: Kira Gould
No Such Thing as Bad Publicity? Why Clickbait is Bad for Affordable Housing
The headlines covering Rural Studio’s 20K Project suggest the project is revolutionizing affordable housing for the masses, but ignore the vital differences between student work and building in the real world.
Lessons on Expanding Diversity From the Field of Sustainable Design
Activist designers at the U.S. Green Building Council's annual conference prove that equity happens when you take the lead, engage, design a plan, and follow through.
New App Allows Employees to Personalize Temperature Control
Physical comfort and energy savings come together in a new app by Building Robotics.
What If Buying a House Were More Like Buying a Car?
Architects recognize that modern families care about the environment and aesthetics.
Remembering the Life and Work of Ecological Artist Jackie Brookner
Jackie Brookner was a pioneering ecological artist, designer, writer and educator. Here, she is remembered for her passionate work with ecologists, design professionals, and communities on water remediation/landscape restoration for parks and wetlands, among many other projects.
A Workspace for Wordsmiths: Inside Medium's San Francisco Offices
Sara Morishige Williams and Huntsman Architectural Group design a space for Medium employees to find inspiration in themselves as well as others.
Ayse Birsel: How I Learned to Design the Life I Love
Designer Ayse Birsel keynoted an IIDA chapter event with a fascinating lecture that instructs you how to refocus your life via a series of exercises.
Advocates Stand up for the Built Environment's Material Health
Healthy products advocates collaborate, see a growing market
Librii: A New Kind of Library for the Developing World
A network of libraries in Africa feed communities with knowledge, creativity conduits, and revenue
A Card for Keeps
KieranTimberlake sends out a holiday greeting card that is both informative and beautiful
AIA's Robert Ivy on Committing the Profession to Public Health
The American Institute of Architects is committed to creating solutions for public health.
Women in Green: Simran Sethi
I’ve written about Simran Sethi here before. She’s an inspiring, energetic green diva—a strategist, educator, and journalist. She’s had a worldwide career, yet somehow she landed in Lawrence, my hometown in Kansas, and taught for some time at the University…
A Taste of the Bay Area's Green Architecture
Boucher Grygier Shipping Container House, Innovation and Transition tour Courtesy Jan Grygier From giant redwoods to adaptive reuse, San Francisco is chock full of memorable sights – green buildings and beyond. At USGBC’s annual Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, held…
Women in Green: Austin's Chief Sustainability Officer Lucia Athens
I first met Lucia Athens when I interviewed her while working on Women in Green: Voices of Sustainable Design with Lance Hosey. She has been a leader in the green movement for many years and is currently a member of…
Q&A: Jerry James Stone
I was recently asked to join the Advisory Board for SXSW Eco, an offshoot of the huge SXSW conference now in its second year and coming to Austin in early October. In my new role I have organized one panel…
Cultivating the Present
We talk, endlessly, it seems, about the impact of technology on our lives, our relationships, our work, and workspaces and we worry about what it’s doing to our physiologies. Now the inimitable writer, Diane Ackerman offers, in her blog in…
Voices of Sustainability
Five years ago, Women in Green: Voices of Sustainable Design was published after Lance Hosey and I spent 18 months interviewing hundreds of people and trying to understand why it seemed like there was a preponderance of women doing “green”…
If we love it, will it last? Lance Hosey's Inspirational Book on Green Design
If we love it, will it last? This is a question at the heart of architect Lance Hosey’s new book, Shape of Green: Aesthetics, Ecology, and Design (Island Press, 2012). Because the book is just out I want to offer…
Applying the Occupy Model to Sustainability
There’s something daunting about a speaking slot called “15 Minutes of Brilliance.” At the Living Future (un)conference, these speaking engagements took place before the keynotes each day, a nice way to give individual speakers a platform. But the “brilliance” and…
