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…
Oyster-tecture is one of several emerging practices that are shifting the way we think about infrastructure. The old ideals behind public works projects were focused only on enhancing people’s lives. Oyster-tecture provides needed services to people while also fostering vibrant,…
Recently at the Living Future event in Portland, Oregon, I had an opportunity to explore “lives of green” with eight other women working in the sustainable design space, as it is often called. We followed the Pecha Kucha format (my…
The college experience, a quintessential right of passage, has always been about camaraderie, experiences, and learning. Whether your experience was full of all-nighters, hair-pulling group projects, or last page computer crashes; in the end college prepares us for the “real…
“Patchwork”, Living City Challenge Entry The sustainability rating systems—Passive House, Living Building Challenge, and Net Zero (a subset of the Challenge)—appear in isolated new construction projects. The promise and perversity of trying to pick out sustainability targets, building by building,…
Courtesy SERA Architects and GDB Architects Disappointment has become an everyday feeling since 2008 for those of us in the design and construction fields, as we saw too many of our pet projects dematerialize. But the loss is especially painful…
"Apple Alert" Joseph G. Brin © 2012 In response to Stephan Clambaneva’s remarks about Apple’s recycling efforts, I mostly disagree with what he’s saying, not because I think he’s wrong, but I tend to have a different meter for sustainability…
On my second week in New Orleans, on a sweltering August day, I went on a bus tour of the Lower Ninth Ward, sponsored by the local AIA chapter. It was a dispiriting experience. While much of the city had…
“The greenest building is… one that’s already built.” We have heard this before. It’s often spoken in response to the argument for shiny new buildings with LEED plaques in their lobbies. For those who advocate the reuse of buildings, especially…
It would be impossible to speak of sustainable architecture in the United States without acknowledging Bob Berkebile. The principal of the architecture firm BNIM has been at the forefront of dragging the profession into environmental consciousness, putting in place the…
Sustainability must be much more than a collection of “bolt-on” mechanisms and the parts have to be continuously adapted.
How did green design go from a fringe concern to a mainstream crusade? Three of the movement’s pioneers discuss this remarkable transformation—and what comes next.
Why the funny title? Well, I went to a conference a few weeks ago in Burlington, Vermont and came away wondering if the Passiv Haus movement is really accessible to the mainstream. The phrase is a play on words from…
The heyday of the McMansion has been on its way out for quite some time – perhaps more by economic circumstance than by fashion of choice – but Treehugger.com founder Graham Hill is out to actively sway our consumption preferences.…
The blogosphere is buzzing with Frank Gehry’s derogatory remarks about green design. In a recent public interview, the starchitect summarily dismissed the movement that’s working to make the built environment more responsive to our deteriorated natural environment. With buildings known…
You think LEED Platinum is hard? The Living Building Challenge is sustainable design’s new cutting edge.
An acclaimed architect and curator, a self-proclaimed father of sustainability, a poet of structure and form, a man of myth and mystery—Emilio Ambasz is surely his own greatest creation.
After designing offices for some of the leading environmental groups in the country, Envision Design takes on its biggest challenge yet: creating a new headquarters for the U.S. Green Building Council that puts the organization’s ideas—and ideals—into action.
Three young French designers hatch an ingenious plan to use existing infrastructure to create clean energy.
Eric Chan’s bamboo armchair is not only a tribute to his native country, it’s a primer on the physical properties of one of our most renewable materials.
