“Ten Shades of Green,” a highly acclaimed exhibit of green buildings from the U.S. and Europe, is traveling around the country over the next year. Organized by the Architectural League of New York, its title reflects the various degrees of ‘greenness’ in architecture today as well as the 10 key issues the field addresses: low energy/high performance; renewable sources; recycling; embodied energy; long life, loose fit; total life cycle costing; embedded in place; access and urban context; health and happiness; and community and connection.
The buildings – mostly from Europe – represent a variety of building types and architectural and engineering approaches. The buildings were chosen as examples of “complete works of architecture: buildings in which environmental responsibility is fully integrated with an enlightened vision of community life.” The UK’s Jubilee Campus, for example, brings together a wide range of green strategies. Built on a brownfield site, it combines mechanical and wind-driven ventilation. The building is embedded into the landscape such that it filters and cools the air approaching the buildings, improves insulation and prevents build-up of reflected heat.
The exhibit demonstrates the myriad faces of green design and its compatibility with the highest levels of architectural excellence. It shows that green design is much more than features like non-polluting paints and water-conserving toilets. Rather, it is a confluence of the best in art and science; it opens generative opportunities to create buildings that support community, a much richer sensual experience of the environment and an intensified sense of place.
The curator, Peter Buchanan, points out that European government support for green building such as research sponsorship and stringent environmental standards for new buildings has left the U.S. trailing behind. Some of the challenges for U.S. clients and architects are to learn to think in the long term, rethink measures of the impacts and profitability of a building, and more collaborative relationships between architects and engineers.
Washington DC.: opens December 2. The National Building Museum.
Baltimore, MD: January – March. University of Maryland.
University of Houston: March – April.
Denver, CO.: May. In conjunction with the AIA Convention.
Berkeley, CA.: October-December. Berkeley Art Museum, University of CA.
Los Angeles, CA.: opens April 6, 2002. Orange County Art Museum
Check the website for the schedule: [sorry this link is no longer available]
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