Declining Detroit

There is no doubt in some ways that Detroit is one of the cities which have, in the 20th century been one of the greatest contributors to greenhouse gases, due to its once thriving car manufacturing industry. The onslaught of globalisation and offshore manufacturing has however seen this once awe inspiring industrial powerhouse struggle to transform and diversify, its failure to do so resulting in its eventual collapse and now, ongoing bankruptcy proceedings, buried in the city’s US$ 18 billion debts (Davey et al, 2013). Today its depopulated inner city suburbs are representatives not merely of a bygone era, but a shocking indictment of our waste and willingness to simply abandon resources rather than consider attempts of revitalisation and re-urbanisation.

SustainabilityHugo Chan15 May 2014architecture, design, detroit, sustainability, ruin, urban decay

Revisiting 'Green' Architecture // New York, New York

Back in mid-March, I wrote on a post centred on Mehaffy & Salingaros and Peter Buchanan in their description of the end of Modernism and the need to move toward a radical rethink of Green architecture. While that analysis centred on the ‘façade’ of green architecture, this post hopes to present an alternative investigation, understanding that under current circumstances, Modernism is not the solution to sustainability.

SustainabilityHugo Chan12 May 2014architecture, design, newyorkcity, modernism, utopia

Hang On! It's Not Even Finished Yet...

It would seem that sin city has added a new sin to its catalogue, continuing and furthering waste and damage to a resource limited world. It was for me perhaps somewhat heart breaking to find that Foster + Partners, a firm which has in many ways been at the forefront of ecologically sustainable buildings, balanced with delicate steel systems and wonderful repetition and logic and design should be involved. Caught in legal limbo since 2008, when construction defects were discovered, ensuing legal battles between different parties revealed falsification of engineering reports and negligence by contractors and other members of the construction team (Illia, 2014).

SustainabilityHugo Chan9 May 2014sustainability, design, architecture, foster+partners

Unhappily Ever After

When we think of Disney movies, we think of an idealised world, where the search for love is an ultimate goal and true love and eternal happiness is at the end of the pathway. As with many things however, the wish is farther from the thought. In a sad new retrospective series, New York animation artist Jeff Hong has created a new series that is arguably more realistic a representation of where our world is headed today. While we may not necessarily see an immediate connection as architects and designers, for me, this photo series represents a reminder of the implied damage to the environment our work often has.

SustainabilityHugo Chan6 May 2014architecture, design, sustainability

EcoLuxury // Minimising Waste - Maximising Luxury

While winter has officially arrived in full force in Australia, the height of summer sun is beginning to wash over the Swiss Alps. In considering where to travel to over the summer, it is perhaps possible to keep sustainability in mind. One such potential destination for the increasing market of so-called ‘eco-tourism’, focusing on natural landscapes while minimising human damage and intervention is the WhitePod Hotel in Les Giettes, Switzerland. Describing itself as “low impact accommodation in an untouched and pristine alpine environment” (WhitePod), a series of self-contained geodesic domes sit over a series of timber plinths. Marketed as a form of luxurious and comfortable camping, these domes are equipped with bathrooms, fireplaces and full size beds, while retaining sustainable measures such as water control and filters over the small wood-fire stove/fireplace.

SustainabilityHugo Chan5 May 2014architecture, design, sustainability, switzerland

Sin in Suburbia

Sydney is a beautiful city. Of this I have no doubts. Indeed this city has been blessed with an endless expanse of blue skies and golden shorelines running from its northern shores to its southern reaches. But for me, this city also has a dark secret. Within a city of 3.6 million people, is a metropolitan area over twice the size of Hong Kong, a city of 7 million people. The desire for backyards, for individual homes and for large gardens is in my opinion this city’s single largest problem to achieving sustainability. There is great sin in developing suburbia.

Sustainability, ArchitectsHugo Chan1 May 2014architecture, sydney, hongkong, design, sustainability, suburbia

The Sustainable Desert Paradox // MASDAR City

As exotic as the desert is, alluding to the mystical tales of Arabian Nights, a sustainable carbon-neutral project is certainly not the first thing one would associate with the landscape of folding sand dunes. To heighten the paradox, carbon neutrality is certainly not associated with a city which has grown wealthy from exporting black gold. Indeed cheap oil has facilitated urban sprawl across the United Arab Emirates and accounts for 70% of the nation’s gross domestic product (Crot, 2013, p. 2812; Reiche, 2010, p. 378). The newly completed Masdar City, designed by Foster + Partners therefore stands as a hopeful testament against all the stereotypes we have placed upon the Arabian Gulf.

Sustainability, ArchitectsHugo Chan29 April 2014architecture, design, normanfoster, sustainability, masdar, dubai

Material World

Furthermore, these centralised economies and globalisation have additional impacts, favouring industrial enterprise, which operate on global scales and forgetting that ecosystem management sometimes occurs at the local scale (Norgaard, 1997, p. 222). In essence therefore, the “fossil-fuel-driven economy” has had a direct impact on how we have developed our economies and marginalised our protection of the environment.

SustainabilityHugo Chan27 April 2014architecture, design, sustainability, nature, materialism

Setting an Example to Follow // One Bligh Street

A stone’s throw away from Sydney’s iconic monuments, the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, is a seemingly unremarkable elliptical tower known simply by its address: One Bligh Street. Completed in 2011 by Architectus and Ingenhoven Architekten, this structure is certainly more than what it seems, having been praised as “Australia’s first ‘green skyscraper’” (Philip, 2012).

Sustainability, ArchitectsHugo Chan26 April 2014architecture, design, ingenhoven, sustainability, sydney

Unintended Consequences // The Artificial Islands of Dubai

We often think that our small day to day habits and actions have no direct impacts on the environment. When compounded however, as this image above which caught my attention shows, our scale of impacts increases, our unintended consequences may magnify and prove to be far more unpredictable, as seen in the case of Dubai’s many artificial shoreline and island projects.

SustainabilityHugo Chan23 April 2014architecture, design, sustainability, dubai

Vertical Vanity

The emergent economies of the world are urbanising and developing at a rate unprecedented in human history and as such, they have sought new monuments to solidify their place in this brave new world. It has been clear that in the last thirty years, there has been “the increasing trend towards extreme spires and other extensions of tall buildings that do not enclose usable space” (CTBUH, 2013). The recently completed Burj Kalifa standing with a total height of 828 metres has a vanity height of 244 metres, 29% of the building is in fact unusable space devoted solely to achieving the height (CTBUH, 2013).

SustainabilityHugo Chan20 April 2014architecture, dubai, vanity, design, sustainability

Sustainability // Via Psychiatrists and Breastfeeding

In a rather enjoyable yet confusing keynote speech in 2013, Chiliean architect Alejandro Aravena proclaimed that the key to sustainability would be achieved “in this generation, more psychiatrists, in the next generation, more breasts.” (ArchDaily, 2013). It was also for me, not at all evident in the commencement what the connection to therapy and breasts sustainability would have, and so I have decided to use this blog to decode his alternative explanation for achieving sustainable construction.

Sustainability, ArchitectsHugo Chan18 April 2014architecture, design, sustainability, alejandroaravena, lecture

Curious to Discover More?

Contact Us

Musings

Curious to Discover More?

Contact Us