Friday, March 30, 2012

The Philosophy of Sustainable Design Ch. 1-2


The Philosophy of Sustainable Design Chapter 1

“Sustainable design is often used as an umbrella term to describe a set of strategies, components and technologies that lower environmental impact while in many cases improving comfort and overall quality.”

The Philosophy of Sustainable Design Chapter 2

The Evolution of Sustainable Design

The Origins of Sustainable Design

-Sustainable Design might be a reaction to the current problem of effect on the environment, but it has its roots in cause and effect from the very beginning.

-The four stages:
The Biological Beginning of Sustainable Design
The Indigenous Vernacular Beginning of Sustainable Design
The Industrial Beginning of Sustainable Design
The Modern Beginning of Sustainable Design

The Biological Beginning of Sustainable Design

-At the very root of our being, we desire comfort and protection from the environment.

-We are like all species who seek our own good until the system self regulates.  We need to find a better more efficient way to live before the system self regulates.

The Indigenous Vernacular Beginning of Sustainable Design

-The architecture of the world shows sustainable design

-Nomadic structures that were movable, reusable, yet protected against the elements.

-Regionalism is seen by using local materials to construct with.

-Current solar income uses any energy source that is currently available and renewable.

-Nature has solutions for comfort

-Ancestors had no way of knowing there larger impact on the environment

The Industrial Beginning of Sustainable Design

-We were not content with the fact that our control is limited , and we worked to make moves toward top comfort at any cost.

-New technologies and the lack thereof has shaped our architecture

-Solutions are usually, more like band-aids instead of true solutions looked at from the root.  Ex. A region was receiving too much pollution so they built a giant smoke stack that would distribute the pollution over a wider area to lessen the pollution in one area.  This is crazy!

-“Sustainable design is a conscious reaction to the consequences of unsustainable practices.”

-People started to care about sustainable design because they finally realized the link between industrial forces and human health.

The Modern Sustainable Design Movement

The Environmental Backdrop

-“In the early nineties an unprecedented list of Nobel laureates signed a declaration of warning to humanity that told us that we had only a few decades to change the course we were currently on.”

-“Despite the historical nature of the document, signed by the most respected list of scientists from around the world, it was almost entirely ignored by the media.”

-“We are continually encouraged to consume more, as if our current habits were not enough.”

The Seventies- The Green Design Toddler

-“1. Architects and engineers revived passive, climate responsive, bioregional strategies, which still form a foundation for sustainable design.”

-“2. Architects and engineers adopted appropriate technologies into architecture.’

-“3. A public perception formed regarding what energy conservation design looked like and how it functioned.”

-“4. Many of the leaders in sustainable design experienced their sustainability initiations.”

The Eighties- The Neglected Green Design Child

-“By the end of the eighties, little had been accomplished across the country in terms of environmental impact and buildings used more energy than ever.  However, key people and ideas came together and would, in just a few years, make significant change.”

The Nineties- The Screaming Green Pre-teen

-“Almost as powerful as the creation of the US Green Building Council itself were the improvements that were happening to the built examples of sustainable design.”

-“At the beginning of the decade, Sustainable design was a fringe movement.  By the turn of the century, ‘Green’ became cool.”

The 2000 Decade- The Temperamental Teen

-“This decade will likely be known as the decade that green became mainstream, as people from all walks of life and from all backgrounds began to adopt the principles of sustainable design.”

-LEED was starting to pick up use

-“In this decade, many are now going green because they see economic rather than moral reasons to do so.”

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