Add On Architecture and Eco Trees
Today’s lecture on sustainability has caused me to
reevaluate my COTE competition project from a few semesters back and I’m not
really happy with what I found. My project suffered the same fate as many other
projects both real and conceptual that so desperately strive to be sustainable.
That is, it became ad hoc architecture. We more or less designed a building and
then threw a bunch of PV panels and green infrastructure onto and into it to
make it appear sustainable. Sustainable design should have been much more
thoughtfully integrated into the design but it was not until the lecture today
that I understood how it could be. Architecture as I have learned in school is
the design of the physical as well as the nonphysical and we were not even
considering the atmosphere of our project and the role that sustainable design
could play in creating it. Live and learn I guess, but it is disappointing to
fall so short on something so important.
I would also like to add that the trees on the Eco Boulevard
might be one of the ugliest things I’ve ever seen. While it is a great example
of how integrated sustainable technology and architecture can be it is it falls
so short aesthetically that it might as well not have been built. Just plant
some real trees instead because no matter how hard we try we will never be able
to design anything more sustainable than that.
I feel the same way about my COTE competition. Integration of sustainability in the early stages of design is not emphasized enough in our education. Or maybe we're just not developed enough as designers understand what that means exactly.
ReplyDeleteI love the honesty at the end of your post. I believe that the statement they did with those structures was great but very disruptive on site.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Tyler and think it is hard to integrate some of the more sustainable features into the building seamlessly, especially working them into the form; sun shades and louvers are relatively easy but some of the energy producing active systems such as photovoltaics or wind turbines have such a defined form they often clash with the building itself.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it does seem to be quite the eye sore but so are wind turbines for most people. I am just glad that people supposedly use these as public gathering areas because it creates a livable environment.
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