Contemporary Design in Detail: Sustainable Environments

9

 e fi lm Powers of Ten, by designers Charles and Ray Eames, begins with

a view of a man napping on a picnic blanket in lakefront Chicago, then

zooms out to a point in the universe ten million light-years away, and

back in again to reveal a single proton contained within the man’s hand—

a shift in the scale of things that forges a connection between the minut-

est object and the world at large. Sustainable design suggests a similar

relationship. Contrary to so much of architecture—especially residential,

whose mandate stops at the property line—sustainable building recog-

nizes that the social, economic, and environmental eff ects of each detail

lie far beyond the bounds of the object.

Sustainable architecture is a broad categorization, with no single

formal, spatial, or theoretical typology. A wide spectrum of design phi-

losophies may be included, from the scientifi c, which strives for self-

suffi ciency in zero-energy systems, to the poetic, which seeks to create

meaningful spatial contexts for experiencing nature.  eir commonality

resides in the ethical intent of sustainable design’s twofold objective: the

well-being of the inhabitant and the conservation of the environment.

Even then, the notion of intent may become murky when sustainability

occurs as a byproduct of design. Consider how the act of reuse derived

from aesthetic or theoretical decisions drives many projects today that

reincorporate into buildings the cast-off components of an industrialized

society.

Once seen as being outside of the design mainstream, sustainable

architecture is now the fastest growing segment of the industry. More

and more, sustainable monographs urge us to rethink how products are

designed and manufactured.

1

Practices such as prefabrication and modu-

lar assembly promote aff ordability—a social facet of sustainability often

overshadowed by the environmental benefi ts. New materials and technol-

ogies based on renewable resources off er improved building performance

in the areas of safety, durability, and material strength. Competitions

at every level, from local to international, have captured public interest

Introduction

10 Sustainable Environments

and generated momentum toward making sustainability the norm. Since

many of these competitions result in commissioned buildings, they not

only encourage designers to adopt environmentally conscious practices,

but also serve as testing grounds for the cooperative eff orts of the con-

struction trade, designers, and clients in realizing innovative ideas.

2

Increased public awareness of environmental problems (both pres-

ent and anticipated), coinciding with a movement away from formalist

theories in architecture, has created advantageous conditions for sustain-

able design. Founding thinkers in the eff ort to build sustainably focused

on processes rather than questions of representation, but their ideas

about mass production, thermal mass, and ecological communities have

prepared the way for contemporary projects with similar ideals that take

advantage of newer technologies and methodologies. In these new works,

formal and conceptual principles are often integrated with environmen-

tal technology to produce truly avant-garde designs. Yet quite as often,

these projects do not require complex advancements in building science

to present original, contextual solutions.

 is volume examines recent architectural investigations into sustain-

ability in the context of residential environments—urban, suburban, and

rural—around the globe. Rather than present the work of these leading

and emerging practitioners project by project, we have organized the

material according to the strategies by which they have explored sustain-

ability through design.  ese categories form a progression from the

broader conceptual concerns of siting to the immediacy and tactility of

materials.

3

 e fi rst two sections, “Response to Place” and “Connection

to Habitat,” include projects that focus on architecture’s relation to the

physical context, whether by reducing the design’s impact on vegetation

Shim-Sutcliff e Architects, Island House