A shift in design? Or change in culture?
Sustainability has been a large concept in design all the
years I have attended architecture school. Pushing for designs that make you
think how your building is affected by the sun, wind, water, etc. We now have
the technology to easily see how shading on a design affects the temperature on
the inside. Long story short, we can design sustainable quite easily; it’s engrained
into our brains. What stood out to me in the lectures was this idea of how our
culture is holding us back. Compared to Europe, the US has a very short window
for comfort levels. We design sustainably, but as long as it fits in to this
narrow box of US comfort limits. Thinking about in practice, this idea of
sustainability goes out the door. Either this is because the people calling the
design shots were not taught to take sustainability as a priority when they
were in school, or it is because of cost…or the wants of the client. This may
not be the case in large firms in big cities. For those working in residential or
medium sized commercial (these are the two I’ve had experience in, I can’t
speak to others) sustainability is most likely never brought to the table and if
it is, it is an after thought where you will probably see solar panels slapped
onto a roof. Not only is sustainability a comfort issue in our culture, it just
is not a priority yet in most of the country.
Mady I totally agree. I think culturally we hold ourselves back as a society and that is why a lot of times in school, we tend to look at European architecture as an example. For me personally, I tend to navigate towards Norwegian architecture as a functionalist style and vernacular form for the context. In the states, we get lost in the concept of money and just producing and we loose sight of the context and the influence nature provides that equates to a more sustainable design.
ReplyDeleteIt is crazy how culture puts a limit on sustainability. We have been taught that comfort and the "I want it now" mentality is ok.. and that is why we are where we are and why our environment is declining. While living it Italy, there was no AC, so opening windows and enjoying natural ventilation was a norm there. The design of the structure made this possible. Architects used their design thinking to make that happen, so can we.
ReplyDeleteMady, I think these are great points. I talked to a lot of firms this past semester about their efforts in sustainability and most discussed how they wish they could do more but that the client and cost kept them from really pushing forward with sustainable projects.
ReplyDeleteHey MADY,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with with standards of how serious we take sustainably in the US. We highly rely on comfort zone instead of adapting of more normal room temperatures like rest of world.
Hey Mady! I totally agree that sustainability as interpreted in America is largely hitting the mark. Not only will the profession need to change but the culture and legislation will also. It's difficult to pin point how exactly this country is going to make a change. If you look at the Dutch Dialogues, they had to change their ways/built environment to become more flood resilient after a determinantal incident largely effected their country. So when will this "incident" by to make America change? What will it be?
ReplyDelete