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About Us |
The Philosophy of Sustainable Design:
JM: These terms refer to a philosophy of architecture and building that seeks to minimize the negative environmental impact of the built environment and help heal the earth while maximizing comfort and quality. Some people think that green architecture makes people less comfortable in order to protect the environment, but serious adherents of the sustainable design movement are never content with this – they want to enhance comfort while also restoring the environment. GF: Why is this movement important environmentally? JM: Our buildings make an enormous impact on the environment through their use of energy, water and other resources, through the waste they produce, and through their impact on human health. Most of our current building is contemptful of the environment, wasting natural resources and participating in the destruction of life. Architects and builders know how to do much better, and that’s what the sustainable design movement is all about. GF: What are the philosophical foundations of this movement? JM: There are six basic principles. The first is the Biomimicry Principle, meaning that buildings should be designed in a way that respects and learns from the wisdom inherent in natural systems. For instance, if one observes nature one sees that nature recycles everything– all waste in nature becomes food for another part of nature. The Sustainable Design field takes this as a standard which the building field should strive to meet. Additionally, this principle implies that nature can be an important source of inspiration and new discovery. For instance, a spider’s silk, ounce for ounce, is five times stronger than steel and five times tougher than the Kevlar used in bulletproof vests. Properly scaled, it could catch a 747 in full flight, stretch, and then return to its original state. The spider makes this material out of digested flies and crickets with no toxic chemicals or waste – a feat that our engineering hasn’t yet come close to matching. GF: What’s the second principle? JM: The Human Vitality Principle, which is about respect for people. The Sustainable Design movement wants to create uplifting, healthy habitats for people. So we seek to use materials that support human health – certain types of paint, stain, carpet and furniture, for instance, emit fewer noxious gases and create better indoor air quality. Green architects and builders also ask questions like, “What kind of built space makes people more happy, creative and productive? How can the design of buildings free and strengthen the human spirit?” If the Human Vitality principle is about respect for people, the Ecosystem Principle is about respect for place. Functionally, for example, adobe uses materials plentiful in the southwest while also helping maintain a cool indoor environment. And to get his students in tune with the spirit of the place they pl anned to build, Frank Lloyd Wright encouraged them to sleep outdoors and feel the passing of the seasons before they began to design a structure. Today, the same kinds of cookie-cutter structures are built in different parts of the country with no attention paid to the natural surroundings. Sustainable designers make their buildings respect the local ecosystem and connect the human spirit to the bioregion. GF: What are the other principles? JM: The Seven Generations Principle, which stresses respect for the cycle of life across generations. Green architects and builders try to create structures and use materials that will be “safe for all people for all time.” In practice, this would mean b anning the use of all severely toxic materials, because there is no way we can dispose of these substances without endangering future life. A fifth principle is the Conservation and Renewable Resources Principle, which means that our buildings must utilize energy and natural resources efficiently and make use of renewable energy. For instance, according to the UN, the average US citizen uses twice as much fossil fuel as the average resident of Great Britain, and two and one half times as much as the average Japanese. In regard to renewable resources, enough solar energy falls on the earth each day to power the entire planet at its current level of energy use for 27 years! Sustainable builders and designers make structures that make aggressively efficient use of energy, and use renewable energy wherever possible. The final principle is the principle of Respect for Process. Sustainable Design requires us to work collaboratively and creatively across lines drawn by traditional disciplines, to develop new processes of design and building to help achieve dramatically superior results. GF: Any closing thoughts? JM: The California architect Sym Van Der Ryn has said that “The environmental crisis is a design crisis. It is a consequence of how things are made, buildings are constructed and landscapes are used.” Sustainable Design finds new ways to design our built environment so that the earth can be restored and healed and the human spirit strengthened. If poor design is a major part of the problem, good design is certainly a key part of the solution. For more information about sustainable design, Jason's work, and The Philosophy of Sustainable Design, go to www.ecotonedesign.com.
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