Committee on the Environment

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Sarah Susanka, author of the "Not So Big..." series, spoke at the Green Prints Conference this past week in Atlanta, GA. She brought up a really interesting point, Beauty is Sustainability. Meaning a beautiful building will stand the test of time, while an efficient, ugly science project will not. On the other side of the argument, I have often said that Architecture gets downgraded to sculpture when it doesn't function. A beautiful leaky building will get repaired and the repair may need to be extensive if the forms of the building make it impossible to seal from the rain. Beautiful houses that are designed so specifically for one person's taste, that no other future owner finds it useful, then it gets renovated or demolished. Timelessness is not easy to achieve. The goal of Historic Preservation is not to create fake history, but to allow sensible modifications to extend the usefulness of an Historic structure without drastically altering the historic components of the building. If beauty is to stand the test of time, it must function and be flexible for future owners and visa versa. If a functional building is going to last, then it must be desirable, beautiful.

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Raymond Strang AIA
Raymond Strang & Associates, AIA
Stevensville MD
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Eric;

I truly appreciate architects who work to deliver good value to smaller residential clients.  There are many such practitioners around the country bringing their knowledge of sustainable design to their communities. If only more homebuyers recognized the added value of a home designed by such architects.

On a related note, one area of sustainable design that seems largely overlooked by architects is lighting.  Now that there are excellent lighting options that deliver very long life at low energy demand, with dimmability, no toxic content, and excellent light quality, I wonder why so few new and renovated homes incorporate these technologies?  

Life cycle costs are well understood by architects, perhaps less so by retail lighting salespersons and builders.  Perhaps many architects also are not aware of excellent recessed downlights and products available with LED sources at reasonable cost.  With considerable effort, the US Dept of Energy through its Caliper program are helping sort out the good products from the bad, and keep manufacturers honest about claims of high performance.  

If there was ever a good opportunity for architects to play a leading role in acceptance of a sustainable technology, and perhaps an expanding role in green residential design, this is it.   

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Donna Leban AIA, LC
Light/Space/Design
South Burlington VT
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Original Message:
Sent: 03-21-2011 08:15
From: Raymond Strang
Subject: Beauty = Sustainable?



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Raymond Strang AIA
Raymond Strang & Associates, AIA
Stevensville MD
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Eric;

Very well said. I have a very successful residential practice in Maryland. We have struggled with what constitutes acceptable deliverables up and down the spectrum, but it has almost always been possible to do good design work, with usable construction docs at a price mid-size home owners can afford. We work for Community Development Corporations around DC, and the focus of our services shifts from Construction docs, to Construction Phase services- they are much more inclined to piece together the construction team as they go in an effort to get the best price at each stage of the construction. If we understand what they need and deliver that, they will buy what they want from us for a price that seems reasonable to us both.

I wish you the best in your practice. I am anticipating another good year. I imagine that you are too.

Thanks,

Ray Strang

Raymond Strang and Associates, AIA

Stevensville, Maryland

Thanks to Eric Rawlings for a very clear and well said group of comments on residential design in the US, and the conflict between green design, traditional design, and perceptions of good design.
I have worked extensively with green building renovations to historic structures, but not with single houses, to date.  In general, it is not difficult to make a traditional building perform better, with good glass, insulation, roofing, and mechanical systems. 
For new constuction, especially residential, we are seeing a wide range of approaches to green design in the market place.  On the one hand are the modest and blocky Passive House envelopes, to traditional building design, and on the other extreme new buildings that are "all glass".  This fascination with as much glass as possible is mostly for the high end market, and yet they are documented as green buildings, with energy efficiency resulting from the high performance glass systems.  Hard to believe.
Hoping that we can continue to make well-designed houses, not overly traditional and not all glass, that the public enjoys and respects, that the public can afford to design and build, and that in the long run help us live better on the planet.
Thanks

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Sherman Aronson AIA
BLT Architects
Philadelphia PA
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