A Clean and Tight Checklist

 

"If everyone is super, then no one is."

This one liner from the first Incredibles movie is pretty badass. It also turns out that it is super applicable to many facets of life. For this blog post I am using it as it pertains to the growing trend of sustainability in architecture. The S word seems to be used as much as other hot terms like hierarchy and cantilever. As more and more buildings yearn to be mentioned in the same breath as this word, to me it just becomes more bland. I even google image searched sustainability and  above you can see how washed out and general the term is becoming. In architecture it now acts as a clean and tight checklist for designers and builders to check to allow their clients to brag about the environmentalist they have become. I think this new connotation is really damaging what real sustainable architecture attempts to do. I believe projects like the Schindler House embody the correct practice of sustainability in our field. It directly responds to the climate with its open layout and its ability to avoid using any HVAC system at all. Designing for sustainability instead of just placing solar panels on tops of roofs is where I believe the profession of architecture should be focusing their energy.