I am attending the ACADIA conference in Chicago this week and am impressed by the both the city and the innovative projects presented there. ACADIA, the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture has held a conference in a different city and with a different theme each year for the past 29 years. This year’s theme was appropriately “Building a Better Tomorrow” and the projects demonstrated how hardware, software and middleware technologies can transform the way buildings perform, act and operate. One thing that really stood out to me about the work was a nearly ubiquitous bottom-up approach where the designer started with the material, technology or unity, developed a mock-up to explore its potential, subjected it to various experiments and then made adjustments or second and third versions based on their findings in an iterative design process. This approach seems like a natural one for scientists, but also signifies a return to craft that has profound implications on both the way architecture is taught in schools and the relationship between architects and fabricators in practice. Ultimately, the prospect of architects actually making things is exciting. Well at it’s least more exciting than drawing lines on an Autocad screen. But this bottom up approach also seems like a much more fluid way to achieve innovation and makes me wonder if architects haven’t been swimming against the current for the past couple of decades.
Thinking about taking the LEED exam but discouraged by the compounding cost of all the study materials required to take the test? While studying for the LEED AP for New Construction exam a few months ago, I discovered a bunch of free resources of LEED study materials. Read more…
Unlike the previous generation of sustainability manifestos that pit the economy against equity & ecology, Cradle to Cradle “sees commerce as the engine of change” and allows one to embrace their inner capitalist by proposing a sustainable world of guilt-free growth, prosperity and abundance. Instead of viewing consumer waste through the austere lens of the 3 R’s (reduce, reuse and recycle a.k.a. downcycle), McDonough and Braungart, inspired by the abundance of nature, propose the visionary idea of designing consumer products as either biological nutrients or technical nutrients. Read more…
Diana Leafe Christian, author and activist, gave an enlightening presentation about ecovillages at the Brecht Forum early this month. She explained what an ecovillage consisted of and described the lifestyle and principals of various ecovillages around the world, including the one in which she currently resides, Earth Haven in North Carolina.
In simpler times there was only one credential that could be earned from the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), and once merited you were known as a LEED Accredited Professional (LEED AP). There are now two possible designations that can be earned, known as “Green Associate” and “LEED AP+”. The new designations, what they are, who they are meant for and how to earn them can get confusing so I tried to clear it up a little here.
I keep hearing that many LEED certified buildings actually burn more energy than those that claim no “green” status. While studying for the LEED AP exam, I came across at least one obvious reason for the energy glut of buildings prizing a LEED certification and thought I would share it here.
For those of you who [...]
The Acme Brick Company has a handy tool that architects and designers can use to see how various brick patterns, designs and colors may look. They call this tool the “Acme Brick Masonry Designer” and it is downloadable for free at http://www.brick.com/md/index.htm . Although not originally meant for this purpose, I have been using this tool for [...]