Green ArchiTEXT

BBC: How biomimicry is bringing buildings to life | Biology merging with traditional architecture

via www.bbc.com

Canada's SFU child care building gives back to the Earth

By Randy Shore

The new child care building at Simon Fraser University is designed to collect more water than it flushes and generate enough energy to sustain itself and have some left over for its neighbours.

More than just sustainable, the UniverCity Childcare Centre is poised to be a net contributor rather than a consumer of energy and precious resources.

“We thought if we are going to put anybody in the greenest building in Canada we should start with the kids,” said project leader Dale Mikkelsen. “That way what is weird to us just becomes normal to them. They will move on and wonder why they aren’t flushing the toilet with rainwater.”

SFU’s Community Trust, which develops and administers the on-campus sustainable community, opted to attempt a Living Building-certified structure, a standard that when fully achieved goes beyond the industry’s usual sustainable building standards.

Most buildings in the neighbourhood are built to silver and gold LEED standard, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design green building rating system.

But the sustainability knob on the Living Building standard goes up to 11. READ MORE >>

via www.vancouversun.com

"Jungleland" or LEED Platinum Land? (via Storify)

"Jungleland" or LEED Platinum Land? The Lower 9th Ward Struggles Toward a Sustainable Future

The recent NY Times Magazine cover story, "Jungleland", explored how New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward continues its slow, often painful recovery nearly seven years after Hurricane Katrina - with abandoned lots, blighted housing and stray pets reclaiming some of the most hard-hit areas.

Storified by Green ArchiTEXT · Sun, Apr 08 2012 15:24:44

The Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans Gives New Meaning to ...Mar 21, 2012 ... Jungleland. The Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans Gives New Meaning to ' Urban Growth'. Andrew Moore/European Pre...

Bestofneworleans

Lower 9th Ward has evolved unique ecology, New York Times reportsBy The Times-Picayune The cover story in the New York Times magazine this week is about the Lower 9th Ward and the oddball ecology it has...

This story, and its focus on the continued takeover by nature of block after empty block where 1,500 people died, the homes, churches and businesses long bulldozed away, and where many evacuees still live in Houston, Birmingham, Atlanta or other parts of the city, struck a chord throughout the U.S. and beyond...

RT @jcheiffetz: In case you missed it, Nathaniel Rich's stunning NYTM piece on New Orleans Lower Ninth Ward, "Jungleland" http://nyti.ms/GOPfY4 #longreadsAmy Thompson

Weird piece about Lower Ninth, with a Hitchcockian finish (birds, birds, birds). Aliens who land on Planet New Orleans either a) see things with new eyes that the locals have left in the nostalgia bins or at the corner bar or buried under something somewhere, b) become New Orleanians as soon as the soil covers their shoes, or c) remain completely clueless (although, to be fair, I remain completely clueless about this city even after ??? years here-except to know that time is irrelevant here, of course). I have no idea where this article falls.http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/magazine/the-lower-ninth-ward-new-orleans.html?scp=1&sq=jungleland%20lower%20ninth&st=cseDean Thomas Ellis

And a number of measured responses - and plenty of outrage in print, on line and on the airwaves - about the way the Lower 9 is still depicted so long after this disaster...

Jungleland or Grassroots Recovery? The Lower Ninth Ward as a ...Mar 28, 2012 ... Tom Wooten is the author of We Shall Not Be Moved: Rebuilding Home in the Wake of Katrina, forthcoming this summer fro...

Sustain the NineNathaniel Rich described weeds, bushes and trees growing at former homesites in the Lower 9th Ward. Fair enough in the NY Times in his ...

April 2012 - Sustain the Nine3 days ago ... WBOK's Crosstown Conversations: On "Jungleland" & the Real Story of the Lower 9th Ward. Crosstown Conv...

What Cities Looking to Shrink Can Learn From New OrleansThat singular place is the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. After Hurricane Katrina, skeptics assumed the worst. Officially, the city did...

Jungleland - NYTimes.com1 day ago ... For those who say that the Lower Ninth Ward shouldn't have been ... on page MM 10 of the Sunday Magazine with the head...

jungleland | Tumblr“Jungleland: The Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans Gives New Meaning to ' Urban Growth'”, the cover story of the New York Times ma...

For Encouragement and Pondering"Jungleland: The Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans Gives New Meaning 'Urban Growth'." In New York Times Magazine. 1 lik...

Rich's detailed piece on the Lower 9's current state describes a state of wildness mixed with illegal dumping throughout these historic neighborhoods still trying to return. Yet he misses (on purpose?) an array of encouraging developments over the last 6+ years that would astound most visitors. Brad Pitt's amazing Make It Right project continues to expand - now totalling 76 green, affordable, LEED Platinum homes - only blocks from "Jungleland".

Aerial America - Rebuilding New Orleanssmithsonianchannel

A LEED Platinum/LIving Building high school has been proposed on the [bulldozed] site of the old Alfred Lawless High School property...also in "Jungleland". And the Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development (CSED) has erected an incredible platform into Bayou Bienvenue - a cypress tupelo wetlands now undergoing a restoration that will take decades and provide a natural hurricane barrier for residents in the future.

The Cypress Graveyard - Restoring the Bayou Bienvenue Wetland TriangleUWNOLA

Bayou Bienvenue, NOLAdelrandall

"Apartment Complex"Lower9CSED

Back towards the Mississippi River, to the south, community gardens, community centers and returning churches are spreading throughout the rest of the Lower 9th Ward. Global Green's Holy Cross Project - the first Brad Pitt effort in the Lower 9 - represents five more LEED Platinum, affordable houses...ready for occupancy, next to a new Global Green designed and built community center.

Help Holy Cross: Holy Cross Project: A Look InsideMay 17, 2008 ... The Front Room ALL PHOTOS: Ariane Wiltse Global Green's Holy Cross Project unveiled on Thursday features sustainab...

#NewOrleans friends: Our Holy Cross Project is part of the Louisiana Solar Energy Society #Solar Tour http://bit.ly/GSfu2nGlobal Green USA

Thanks to ongoing efforts by CSED, GreenLight New Orleans, the Alliance for Affordable Energy and the all-volunteer group Historic Green, the Lower 9's Holy Cross Neighborhood boasts the largest concentration of some of the most energy-efficient historic properties in the nation. Still a work in progress, via radiant barriers, weatherization measures, even a few rooftop solar panels, yet the groundwork is being laid.

Historic GreenHistoric Green assists and leads in the transformation and restoration of under-resourced communities through education and service and w...

"Jungleland"? Sure, there's much work to be done. But this is also "LEED Platinum Land", with the highest concentration of LEED Platinum homes in the U.S., in North America, even the world.

This is also a community that's teaching the rest of us how to change, to embrace our past, and to live courageously in a more sustainable world - block by block, resident by resident...even with a the overgrown lots, snakes, tires and stray pets thrown in.

First Two Projects Earn Living Building Challenge's Net Zero Energy Building Certification

Painters Hall, community building for Salem's Pringle Creek. (© 2010 Pringle Creek Community)

Painters Hall in Salem, Ore. and IDeAs Z2 Design Facility in San Jose, Calif., have been awarded third-party certification, just five months after the International Living Future Institute launched the Net Zero Energy Building Certification option

Two projects, both existing building retrofits, have completed the first full set of third-party audits for Net Zero Energy Building Certification from the International Living Future Institute.

© 2010 Pringle Creek

Painters Hall, a community building in the Pringle Creek community in Salem, Ore., and IDeAs Z2 Design Facility, an office building for Integrated Design Associates in San Jose, Calif., each earned certification as net zero energy buildings. Painters Hall also achieved ‘Petal Recognition’ under the Living Building Challenge.

Net Zero Energy Building Certification is linked to the Living Building Challenge, widely considered to be the world’s most stringent and progressive green building program. As with the Living Building Challenge, certification is based on actual performance rather than modeled outcomes. Buildings must be operational for at least 12 consecutive months prior to evaluation. To earn Net Zero Energy Building Certification, three of the Living Building Challenge’s 20 Imperatives must be met completely, and elements of two others are included.

“With recent research and news reports putting the net zero energy market at more than $1 trillion by 2035, third-party certification is critical. Until now, it’s been impossible to know if projects claiming to be net zero are performing as expected,” says Jason F. McLennan, the Institute’s CEO. “Our sincere hope is that those who pursue the net zero energy path seek to further transform the industry -- and the world – by pursuing Living Building Challenge certification as the next logical step in project evolution. The Painters Hall project exemplifies this effort.”

The developers of Pringle Creek Community converted an 80-year-old existing building into an ecologically and socially progressive community center within the 32-acre mixed-use redevelopment in Salem. A 20.2kw rooftop array of solar panels produces enough energy for the building’s needs. The project achieved the Energy, Equity, and Beauty Petals of the Living Building Challenge. The Net Zero Energy Building Certification requirements are encompassed within these petals.

The Ideas Z2 Facility transformed a U.S. Bank building constructed in the 1960s. It is designed to meet 100 percent of its net energy requirements using renewable energy from photovoltaics. The building has a net-metered rooftop photovoltaic system that provides enough electricity for the building’s needs.

Find out more about Net Zero Energy Building Certification and how to get started by visiting www.living-future.org/netzero. Case studies can be found at https://ilbi.org/lbc/casestudies

IDeAs Z2 Design Facility, San Jose, California

Introducing Zygote Quarterly: devoted to biologically-inspired design

Open publication - Free publishing

Autodesk's Dawn Danby on Life-Cycle Thinking (VIDEO)

Designer Dawn Danby of Autodesk explores life-cycles thinking as a design principle (via The Designers Accord)

Public Interest Design: Need, Opportunity and Generosity

Great piece on BNIM's blog:

By Sam De Jong

Seek out the place where there is a great need. Often in this place we find an absence of design, yet here exists the greatest opportunity.

This provocation has been with me for a number of seasons, and has resurfaced in a whole new light this weekend after engaging with a community focused on Public Interest Design.

It was at the Structures for Inclusion 12 Conference in Austin, TX hosted by Bryan Bell and his team at Design Corps, where projects from around the globe best exemplifying the mission of the SEED Network (Social Economic Environmental Design) were being honored. The theme of the conference, “Design is Relational”, allowed the attendees to explore impact is on the relationships, the empowerment, and the activities created by Public Interest Design, in addition to the bricks and mortar aspect of design and construction.

The projects were diverse. They ranged from a hospital in Rwanda, to a youth farm in New Orleans, to a Native American Pueblo in New Mexico, to our very own Bancroft School in Kansas City. But the theme of each project was consistent: there was a need that someone saw as an opportunity to serve the needs of the public. READ MORE >>

via www.bnim.com

Bancroft: Structures for Inclusion

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