One small voice.
Not unlike one of my early posts in March (Tear it Apart), I was once again struck by the apparent waste and visual destruction at another construction site near my home in Kensington. This however was very visually different, for two terrace houses stood, hollowed out but nonetheless appeared to be retained in the future low-rise apartment complex known as The Stables.
Read MoreIt is I suppose becoming obvious that one of my sensibilities toward sustainability resides in an interest with restoration, adaptation and reuse. In my most recent posts, (With Age Comes Wisdom 20 May 2014, Declining Detroit 13 May 2014, Revisiting ‘Green’ Architecture 11 May 2014), I have investigated some of the issues of retaining old structures, as well as the virtues and energy savings in doing so. But today I have found further evidence to support this case. Nordic architectural firm, Snohetta has arguably moved to the forefront of sustainable development, having now completed the renovations “to transform an ordinary office building into a building that produces more energy than it consumes.” (Powerhouse, 2014).
Read MoreOriginally envisioned by Le Corbusier as the solution to equality, modernity and urbanism, the radial city provided the individual with autonomy, via the automobile (Merin, 2013). The vision became misinterpreted as the independent home, the separation between the urban commercial heart and a radial suburban household and led to the disaster we now recognise as urban sprawl. One of the precipitates of this urban sprawl is what we now call the Urban Heat Island effect (UHI). Characterised as the result of our built environment absorbing heat during the day and dissipating it overnight, the Urban Heat Island has generated uncomfortable inner city environments as well as contributing to increased energy consumption for heating and cooling (USEPA, 2013).
Read MoreThere 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.
Read MoreBack 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.
Read MoreIt 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).
Read MoreWhen 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.
Read MoreWhile 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.
Read MoreSydney 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.
Read MoreAs 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.
Read MoreFurthermore, 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.
Read MoreA 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).
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