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