AIA Launches “GreenStep” Video Series
The American Institute of Architects has launched a series of short videos designed to educate their clients on the principals of green building and how architects can help them achieve their goals.
The American Institute of Architects has launched a series of short videos designed to educate their clients on the principals of green building and how architects can help them achieve their goals.
If you can’t tell, we’re pretty hooked on the latest and greatest in green prefab design. One big problem, though, is that there’s a huge amount of noise and not all that much action - plenty of fabulous prefab designs and museum / conference exhibits, but very few actual installations (and even fewer mid-market installs, which is where prefab has to go in order to make a true difference in our housing stock).
Finally, the log jam seems to be breaking. Several firms have begun to produce green prefab homes for real people in small but growing numbers. This past month, Marmol Radziner, a prefab company here in Southern California, made a splash with some pretty showy installation videos on local media outlets. These homes are either a) high end or b) for the firm’s founders, so they’re still a ways away from mass-market. But, the videos do a good job of showing what elements make prefab homes unique (factory construction, rapid installation, modular components) and at least to me suggest that they’re not all that far away from being able to replicate these installations on a larger and thus less expensive scale.
Recently I had a chance to ask a few questions of Kim Nadel, NCIDQ certified interior designer, LEED Accredited Professional, and co-founder of the Brooklyn-based NICHE environmentally smart design group. Kim is currently on the MFA faculty of the New York School of Interior Design teaching Green Design, and co-authored The Green Pages: The Contract Designer’s Guide to Environmentally Responsible Materials and Products.
Kim was chosen by Hospitality Design magazine as one of the top 20 leaders in the industry to influence design in a positive direction. She has enjoyed lecturing throughout the country to designers and architects on green living since 1995 and her work has been published in a variety of publications including Interiors and Natural Home and Garden. Kim’s broad knowledge allows her to work within a diverse range of creative projects that promote green living and inspire others to create in a sustainable way. Presently Kim is incorporating the principles of Vastu into her work, and her designs are featured in Kathleen Cox’s Vastu book Space Matters.
What is the single most important thing individuals can do (in terms of interior decorating) to improve the feng shui or vastu of their home, if budget is a primary concern?
I love discovering new companies that feature eco-friendly clothing for kids, and the market for green children’s gear is growing in both supply and demand. I recently was led to Toby and Rei: eco friendly clothes + accessories for you and baby. This Massachusetts based company, founded by designers Alanna Mallon and Kate Browning, features adorable t-shirts and lunch bags made from organically grown cotton, among many other green products for your child.
The elephant graphic tee is my favorite shirt! I’ve always had an affinity for elephants. The elephant tee is hand sketched and printed on American Apparel’s 100% organic cotton t-shirt. These sweatshop free shirts made in LA are then dyed at Red Fish-Blue Fish Dyeworks in NH “in the most environmentally friendly way possible without harsh fixing agents or formaldehyde.” This is a hip green tee for your child!
Scary news: Electronic waste is growing at three times the rate of other household waste, and at a higher toxicity. With the rapid and widespread use of computers and electronic technology in the past thirty years, the impact of all the heavy metals (arsenic, mercury, cadmium, copper, lead, etc.), batteries, plastics, LCD and other screens, etc. going into our landfills and water tables has yet to be determined.
What we do know for sure is [...]
Feel free to add to the list:
As Kristin Dispenza wrote on our sister blog Green Building Elements, one of the largest circulation home and design magazines, Metropolitan Home, has gone green. The April issue is all about green (the practical and the beautiful) design.
In an email to Ecopreneurist, Donna Warner, Editor in Chief of Metropolitan Home said, “For our April special ‘green’ issue, we wanted to sort through the hype and offer readers smart ways to incorporate green design into their homes. The issue provides tips and ‘how to’ advice from eco-experts on topics such as green renovation and also celebrates products for the home that will last forever, thanks to their extraordinary quality and enduring design.”
Although I love to flip through “shelter publications” as they are called, focusing on the pictures, my favorite feature in Met Home’s green issue is a five-way discussion called “Met Eco” among green architects, designers and planners about the products and techniques they recommend.
I am always on the look out for smaller companies whose time has come (now that almost all media sources are focused on the environment and green lifestyles). Some of the companies who caught my eye include:
As green design becomes mainstream, it faces the challenge of having to appeal to an ever wider audience. To do so, it must adopt a diverse vocabulary, and not remain limited to — or associated with — a subculture. It is invaluable, then, when designers who are working to reinvent green are showcased in traditional publications that reach a broad readership.
In April, Metropolitan Home is introducing its first entirely green issue. One of the feature stories, “Sustainable in Seattle,” details Greg Smith’s remodel of a downtown penthouse. According to the article, project architects Kyle Gaffney and Shannon Rankin “tried to avoid the burlap-and-Birkenstock earnestness that can afflict green projects.” And Smith, a developer himself, said, “The goal was for visitors to walk in and not recognize that it was a sustainable, green space.” To this end, attention was lavished on the selection of interior materials, with an emphasis on stylish as well as sustainable design.
How green is Walmart? So green, apparently, in the case of one soon-to-open “high-efficiency” store in Illinois, that the decorative floorboards and moldings are made from parts of disposable diapers.
Photo courtesy of Rolf van Melis.
Last Thursday I had the opportunity to attend a conference at Design Continuum’s Boston Headquarters office. I attended on behalf of Ecolect with co-founders, Joe Gebbia and Matt Grigsby, as a team materials correspondent. For those of you who don’t know about Ecolect, it is a free community-based website for learning about and sourcing sustainable materials. I serve as a materials correspondent and help to generate community relationships and material information. The site is intended for architects, designers, engineers, graphic artists, but more specifically everyone! The conference was focused on Green Design- the impact of the field of design, and lessons on how to solve problems while helping the world, not hurting it.
Director of Design Continuum, Mark Bates opened the event with a presentation of the design firm’s overall footprint. He estimated that they’ve added about 500 million parts to the world during their 25 years of practice. These parts are anything from screws to Intel processors to cellophane package display windows- anything included in the overall manifestation and presentation of a product. Considering these facts coming from a design consultancy that tends to take a conscious, all encompassing design analysis approach to everything they work on, it makes me wonder about the impact of the companies designing toys for McDonalds.
He sent us with the message of- think of design in terms of aiding the efficiency and health of our earth and future. To begin to understand the perceptions of “sustainability” and “green” to the average consumer, Design Continuum has launched an internal study project called Color Blind. They are obtaining comments from everyday consumers about products and life to hopefully design from both sides- sustainability and the consumer.
The day long conference was broken down into hour-long presentations during which Q&A was included. “Their approach was a model other conferences could learn from - one day, comfortably paced, intimately sized, focused on one topic, inviting speakers with different views, and …free,” says Joe Gebbia.
I hope this is of interest. Please contact me for more info…Jerry
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