If one more person says plants I'm going to lose it
OK fine I’ll be the one to say it. Covering your site with plants isn’t a sustainable practice. Besides all of the potential problems you might face down the line that will increase a building’s carbon footprint, it would be a pain in the ass to maintain. Every greenroof will leak, your building has to be extra structured to continue to carry the load of growing plants, plants can destroy structural members, need I go on? The aesthetic is beautiful in theory, but will never end up looking the way it’s supposed to. The money to maintain the plants and to buy the number of plants needed to make a place not feel sparse wildly exceeds our expectation. True sustainable strategies don’t rely on an early definition of sustainability where sustainable practices = plants. For the amount of money you would spend on maintenance and initial costs of the plants, buy better windows or make the roof more expensive or collect water or spend the money on solar panels. Don’t waste the little bit of expenditure a client gives to sustainability to use on a flashy, ineffective version of a sustainable practice. While we’re at it, don’t avoid chopping down trees in the name of sustainability just replant one somewhere; it’s more sustainable in terms of carbon sinking anyways.
Tate,
ReplyDeleteBe careful, you’re treading in dangerous territory with this hot take! But I could not agree more! I’m not quite sure who established the notion that “sustainable architecture” = more plants, but I’d like to have a chat with them. In undergrad, my classmates in my agriculture classes would all joke about how misinformed architects are regarding basic plant knowledge. i.e., maintenance, cost input, what their actual advantages are. (If we’re talking about improving quality of space or user experience, this would be a different conversation.) It may serve all architects well to go take a class at their local Ag college.
Tate, This is a great point. I think it is easy to equate "environmentally friendly" with "vegetation" without doing the mental work to check and make sure your solution is indeed efficient and sustainable. This takes me back to a lot of our class discussions about ethical approaches to design. I feel like we have come to a place where it is absolutely necessary to factor in the environment. This means that we, as architects, have to prioritize research and engagement with people outside of our field.
ReplyDeleteGreat commentary on meme architecture. This is the big move in those competition winning skyscrapers on all the architecture websites and Instagram pages. The way the grass circles up the side and the nice outdoor decks every few levels up that have planters. This is the classic move to say you're thinking about the environment and the human experience, its also a hack someone must have thought up there first year of architecture school that everyone in the industry sees through. The big takeaway here like Brittany is touching on is that we don't know what we're doing. The result is a plain expression that we aren't utilizing enough consultants and we're not being taught the information we need to combat this ourselves.
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