Throwing away the Green House

Chase: Throwing away the Green House and sustainability Thomas Chase – Yale Daily News October 27, 2009

Given my work as an ecologist and environmentalist studying environmental impacts and the built environment, that the school’s gallery was hosting “The Green House: New Directions in Sustainable Architecture” should have warmed my heart. However, on a routine salvage visit to the loading dock behind Paul Rudolph Hall, I was surprised to find the entire exhibit, eight-foot-tall stands, display boards, tables and all, in a dumpster awaiting its one-way trip to the landfill. So much reusable material was being discarded that an extra dumpster, in addition to the one normally present, was on-site to receive it.

-Tanya

NY Times review of “The Green House”

Buildings Easy on the Earth, and the Eyes FRED A. BERNSTEIN September 18, 2009 New York Times

Building a green house is about as easy as unfrying an egg. One goal is to reduce “indoor air pollution” — fumes from paints and other possibly hazardous materials. Another is to minimize energy expended on heating and cooling. The first goal requires that the house have lots of ventilation; the second requires it to be tightly sealed.

“It’s a conundrum,” said Alanna Stang, a writer who helped create “The Green House: New Directions in Sustainable Architecture and Design,” an exhibition at the Yale School of Architecture.

-Tanya

Yale’s Rustic Kroon Hall Fits Carbon Neutral Technology

The new Kroon Hall at Yale University strikes a rustic note with its barn-like form and thick vaulting roof, as if made of thatch. It’s not about quaint, since it is among the few buildings in America that can claim to be almost carbon neutral — the Holy Grail in the battle against global warming. That “thatch” supports photovoltaic panels.

Yale’s Rustic Kroon Hall Fits Carbon Neutral Technology: Review James S. Russell Bloomberg 7/20/09

-Chris

Turnbull’s Truly Tiny House

Student Builds Tiny House With Big Sustainability May 26, 2009 Fox News Dan Duquette

Think your apartment is small? Don’t try to tell that to Elizabeth Turnbull.

While studying for her master’s in urban ecology and environmental design, the 24-year-old graduate student at Yale University is living in a truly tiny house.

It measures just 8 1/2 feet wide by 18 1/2 feet long, for a cozy total of 144 square feet.

The goal? Limiting her impact on the environment.

-Tanya

Kroon Hall opening celebration, May 8

Covering Kroon’s south-facing roof are dark panels that generate electricity. Rainwater running off the roof is collected into a courtyard pond, where after being filtered by aquatic plants, it’s used for flushing the building’s toilets and watering the grounds. Four wells, each 1,500 feet deep, extract warmth from underground water to help heat and cool the building.

Because of these and other resource-conserving technologies, Kroon uses half the power of a conventional structure, and is expected to earn the highest rating (platinum) of the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED program.

Innovative Building Brings Focus To Yale’s Science Hill Philip Langdon Hartford Courant 4/26/09

The $33.5 million building atop Science Hill at 195 Prospect Street will host a grand opening celebration at 4 p.m. May 8.

Designed by Hopkins Architects of Great Britain and Connecticut’s Centerbrook Architects & Planners, Kroon Hall uses natural materials such as Briar Hill stone and red oak from Yale’s own forests

Educational Edifices Business New Haven 5/4/09

Read more about the greening of American Universities here.

-Chris

New Forestry School Building, Kroon Hall Approaches Carbon-Neutrality

Helioscribe @ Flickr

Early this year, a new building opened on the Yale University campus that set out to achieve the architectural Holy Grail in the age of global warming — getting to carbon neutral.

The biggest savings came not from sexy new technologies but from figuring out how to make the design function like an old-fashioned cathedral, with a slender profile for maximum daylighting, an east-west orientation for greater solar gain on the long southern exposure, careful use of shading, and plenty of stone and concrete to store thermal energy.

Pursuing the Elusive Goal Of a Carbon-Neutral Building Richard Conniff Yale Environment 360 3/3/09

Read more here and here.

-Chris

Tsien and Pelli recipients of the 2009 AIA/ALA Library Building Awards

Minneapolic Public Libraries

Former Dean of the Architecture School, Cesar Pelli and visiting professor, Billie Tsien have both been named recipients of the 2009 AIA/ALA Library Building Awards.

The new Minneapolis Central Library is a vital civic landmark and cultural center for downtown Minneapolis. The highly sustainable design, which arose from a collaborative, public process, reinvigorates the idea of the grand urban library for new generations.

Read the full press release here.

-Chris

Environmental artist inspires Yale College students

Environmental artist Tim Pugh visited Yale College to cultivate creative ecological ideas with students as they showcased their curriculum theme for Art, Media and Design.

Over two days Tim encouraged the development of temporary environmental art installations from everyone at Yale College, Wrexham, as part of the college’s art programme to raise awareness of recycling and sustainability.

Environmental artist inspires Yale College students Garth ApThomas Evening Leader 10/3/08

Posted by Chris

Balmori and Sander’s Rooftop Classroom

Laurie Lambrecht for The New York Times

When Matthew Blesso, 35, a real estate developer, bought his 3,100-square-foot apartment in Lower Manhattan two years ago, he turned it over to two Yale professors, the architect Joel Sanders and the landscape architect Diana Balmori. Together, they teach a course called Interface, about integrating architecture and landscape design. And so, with Mr. Blesso’s blessing, they turned his $4 million apartment into an extended classroom.

In the Penthouse, A True Garden Apartment Fred A. Bernstein NYT 9/24/08

Slideshow here.

Posted by Chris

2008 Building Project Dedicated

Aileen Agricola/Staff Photographer

Less than four months ago, a wood-and-metal home on 20 King Place was nothing more than a dream of 64 Yale architecture students.

Yesterday at 5:30 p.m., the Yale School of Architecture dedicated the building as its 2008 first-year building project. The house, designed for occupancy by a low-income, disabled veteran, is the 20th affordable home the architecture school has built for members of the New Haven community, School of Architecture Dean Robert A.M. Stern ARC ’65 said.

“We, as a school, hope to make a positive, cohesive impact on the King Place neighborhood,” Stern said.

Homeward Bound Alex Plana Yale Daily News 9/26/08

Posted by Chris

Yale Student To Bring Her Own Little House To Campus

Her new home-to-be is 8 feet by 18 feet and was built atop a flatbed trailer. It has a tiny sleeping loft, a storage loft, a study nook, a kitchen area, a living area and a bathroom. Sometime in the coming weeks, she will tow it to New Haven for the start of the academic year. The house is so compact, she expects to light it and power her cellphone and laptop computer with the energy generated from three solar panels that total about 18 square feet of surface. That’s renewable energy, totally free, off the grid.

Yale Student To Bring Her Own Little House To Campus Steve Grant Hartford Courant 8/12/08

Posted by Chris

Buildings That Can Breathe

Architect William McDonough draws his green-building techniques from the world around him. Before attending architecture school at Yale, he worked on a redevelopment project in Jordan and observed the clever way the Bedouins’ tents utilized natural materials to protect them from the elements. His most ambitious project, a redevelopment of the Ford Motors complex in Dearborn, Mich., incorporates a “living roof” that features nearly 11 acres of vegetation to purify storm water and provide natural air conditioning.

Buildings That Can Breathe Fareed Zakaria Newsweek 8/9/08

Check out a gallery of McDonough + Partner’s work here.

Posted by Chris

Green, Greener, Greenest

Vince Palermo/Arizona State University

HIGHER education can’t resist a ranking: best college, best cafeteria, biggest endowment, biggest party school. It says something about what’s important on campus, then, that when the Princeton Review releases its annual guide to colleges this week, it will include a new metric: a “green rating,” giving points for things like “environmentally preferable food,” power from renewable sources and energy-efficient buildings.

Green, Greener, Greenest Kate Zernike NYT 7/27/08

Some related posts:

Yale Sculpture Building 1 of the Top 10 Green Building Projects

Carbon Neutral U

Debating the value of LEED certification

Forestry Building to Set New Sustainability Standard

Posted by Chris

Green Architecture in the World’s Least Sustainable City

“…while the rulers of Dubai are interested in sustainability, any near- or even medium-term changes will be superficial at best, as more significant programs would likely jeopardize Dubai’s status as a celebration of consumption. This belief would be confirmed, time and again, as I explored luxury and leisure in Dubai.”

A Futurist in Dubai: Green Architecture in the World’s Least Sustainable City Matt Sollenberger Changewaves 3/11/08

Posted by Chris

David Fisher’s dynamic architecture plans unveiled

David Fisher, the Israeli architect who is designing a rotating skyscraper, held a press conference yesterday and launched a new web site today, promoting what he calls Dynamic Architecture.

“Along with swimming pools and gardens, the buildings will also be fitted with car elevators so that residents can park right outside their homes.

The towers are expected to generate enough electricity for themselves and other nearby buildings from solar panels and wind turbines fitted horizontally between each floor.

People who own an entire floor will be able to simply speak to control the rotation, with speeds varying from an hour to three hours for each full rotation.”

Rotating skyscraper plans for Moscow, Dubai — N.Y.? Sinead Carew Reuters 6/24/08

More here and here.

Posted by Chris