Challenge Accepted?

 

    Over the course of this semester I have found that a large part of sustainable design are simply put- the products. It's one thing to specify and call out thermal mass insulated floors or double skin glazed facades, but on the contrary, actually being familiar with knowing the sourcing and lifecycle of said product will give your designs so much more substance.This is the type of information that is needed with more insights on the nuances behind structural change over time in order to achieve actual sustainable change, and not just “talk” about it for good press and publicity. 

    

    Real sustainability truly lies in building a good durable and resilient building that is also aesthetically pleasing with guaranteed usefulness. There should be no middle ground between the to. As a future designer I often tend to wonder if architects should publish performance data on all of their projects like they do with performance data with cars. Would your opinions of your fav architects such as Foster or Zaha be different if you knew they performed like gas guzzlers and in lieu were actually terrible for the environment? This would be telling for professional including students all around because they would in turn know which professional designers to keenly study. Is this a challenge were are ready to accept, or will we just blindly follow the visionaries we look to without constructively opposing the lack of environmental attributes we are all intently moving towards.