After completing graduate school in Architecture at Ohio State (1993), I was gifted the opportunity to work for a former employer whom had moved back to Jamaica. I spent one year in the hills above Montego Bay (Kempshot, Jamaica) and six more years in the Capital City of Kingston where I operated my own firm, became the first American to be registered as a professional architect and taught at the Caribbean School of Architecture. I say this to emphasize that I can certainly attest to the fact that Green Design is a lifestyle and not merely the regulation of material toxicity and efficient heating and cooling, generally speaking.
Since my return to the States in 2000 and Al Gore's documentary, Green Design has taken off like wildfire. This is a positive development but I have several concerns including the cost for Green Design products and LEED Certification. As I am resolving my U.S. registration at this time I have not pursued LEED certification myself and likely will not in the future. Here's why:
1. Choice or Law - In California, all designs will be required to be Green by code in the near future! Capitalism requires viable markets but 'we' must be careful not to nurture yet another unsustainable system based on renovating past decisions that may prove to be ironically unsustainable.
2. Code conformance - Adding an addition to a house that is green will obligate a home owners to make the entire house conform to current code. This might be cost prohibitive to add even a single room if full conformity will be required with any Green addition.
3. New vs add-on - During the past few years I have learned that new construction is the only feasible way to achieve true Green.
4. Communities - New developments ought to be the focus if this movement is to have a substantial impact during the next two or three decades.
5. Green Philosophy - Several 'expert consultants' whom are working with myself collaboratively to develop a proper design philosophy for Green lifestyles question whether the Green Design goes far enough.
6. Off the Grid - There is ample technology to live 'off the grid' and to return to nature to a degree where homes include gardens and possibly geothermal HVAC systems that are designed for optimal health and residential independence.
7. Green design is about health - To be more specific, healthful architecture includes non-toxic materials, reuse where logical and possible to minimize deforestation, efficient heating and cooling, efficient energy production, air quality and intelligent building orientation that utilizes windows and insulation BUT, this is all an attempt to maintain our current lifestyles with replacement systems and materials. Green design lacks holistic thinking!
8. Green lifestyle is health - In addition to sustainability, reuse, air quality and non toxic materials which are mostly interior design issues, thoughtful building designers concern themselves with building orientation, roof shape, window size and location, floor materials for heat absorption, innovative insulation (low technology), indoor and outdoor gardens, spatial type and wall type, interconnecting indoor and outdoor spaces (courtyards, verandahs, trellises, breezeways, foyers, slide away doors etc.) and more esoteric but powerfully impacting effects including special room proportions and the relationship between the food preparation areas and the garden(s).
Health must include a sincere attitude towards informing oneself about food content, supplements, the dangers of pharmaceuticals, resonant spaces, living food as opposed to processed food and numerous other factors which suggests that our houses and communities must also change somewhat in order to accommodate a self-reliant lifestyle.
9. Green style - Architects are far more than blueprint makers though there are generally a small percentage of designers that truly innovate. Research into this point suggests that there are only about 300 architects in the world that most everyone else copies! Domestic architecture is generally a vernacular and developers are often far too concerned with profit to care much about authentic spaces and details. The question being posed here is whether there is an authentic Green style or if the entire movement is about replacing existing materials and technologies?
What about the shell? This is the form of the building that gives a building it's unique character. Given the dramatic changes to residences as a result of the television and computer gadgetry, it is reasonable to assume that a notion as sweeping as Green will also impact no less than the way we live and interact. The changes by the way are the near removal of the front porch, a token dining room or the merger of the dining and living room into the Great 'Entertainment' Room and the result is less family and community interaction as we are absorbed in our digital worlds that appear to be more desirable than Nature herself! Most children don't go out and play as much as they used to.
Are we willing to create communities again based on health and mutual support and what would a true Green house look like. Given the current trend, it would be a box entirely covered with reflective solar panels with it's inhabitants hermetically sealed inside a perfect simulation of Nature! Sorry for the sarcasm but this is the point of this blog.
10. Solution - Read the book based on the American Values survey and note that a huge percentage of the American population has already adopted a new lifestyle. We are poised not only to read labels and install paints and fabrics and lumber that does not off-gas, but an estimated $26B market exists based solely on creating something entirely new. Why not bail out the car companies with the proviso that a new engine type be available by 2012 and that all existing employees be trained and co-management be brought in to usher in a new era of American values. The same is true for building design of every type...building departments currently are not prepared to approve alternative energy solutions. Most communities demand design conformity and most cutting edge technologies and medical delivery systems are unknown by the vast majority of people in the U.S. and trust me on that, I've asked. Green has nowhere to go if we don't live a little differently!
This video is another reason that change beyond Green is required. http://www.storyofstuff.com/
11. Teams - This designer is seeking all innovators out there and I realize that teams will be needed in every state. There is hope indeed that President Obama will 'adjust' a few old school symptoms and usher in a new era of American inventiveness but 'we' cannot respond if not fundamentally prepared with a big picture to go along with the healthy material craze that has taken over. America is a nation of proud, hardworking people though I think we have become a little complacent with our material 'stuff' and have have lost the desire to constructively analyze our choices.
12. Games - In addition to teaming with exceptional special consultants, I am also developing a gaming venue referred to as immersive doming. For the truly brave out there who want to believe that there is truly more to life than the eye can see, combining bio-feedback technologies with holography will reveal no less than the very strong connection between ourselves and our environments! This is an exciting time. I am very much looking forward to working with forward looking people.
13. Customization - By the by, I rarely pursue clients directly anymore. I speak first with contractors and real estate agents whom are the experts and generally the first contacts of people who want a home. I remain very interested in custom projects for particular clients though I wish to define in real terms what Green means. I would love to hear many opinions on this and sorry for the length. This is a complex subject. Thanks for reading and hopefully it was informative and enjoyable.
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