[Greenbuilding] The Coolest Buildings Aren't Green

Mon Dec 1 09:22:33 CST 2014

Very good points with regards to location.  Another part of that is the lifestyle of the occupants.  If you are in a rural location, work at home and produce most your own food, that green field location can indeed be green.  Also, that reduced density reduces the problems of runoff, allows natural vegetation cooling and allows the diverse natural ecology to manage the adjacent forest from which we can harvest meat and forage food from.   However, the same location where you are commuting, not so much.  Reciprocally, if you are in an urban location such a Brooklyn, you are in a setting that has no natural ecology.  Therefore, all products need to be brought to you.  Stability must be maintained by human managed systems such as sewers, utility water, storm drains (very rapid runoff), roads, police, et.  There is also the heat island affect of concrete without vegetation.  These footprints have to enter to equation.

I live in the country and work at home in my pretty efficient retrofitted thermal envelope and grow most of my food.  However, my wife is not as content to stay at home and is volunteers with benevolences in town.  I am the husband, not the dictator.  Therefore, fair enough,we loose points on our location score.  

Another part of the location score relates to extended family that you choose to maintain periodic in the flesh reunions with.  If they are far away, the travel footprint is significantly increased.  

I think the sweet spot is small towns with high density multifamily units (low ratio of thermal envelope area/occupant) facing green spaces that allow good day lighting, solar energy production, natural ecology, separation from vehicles, with home gardens, limited shopping, cultural events, schools and employment within walking distance with professional farmers just outside of town managing the ecologically grown food with human waste recycling. Extended family lives with the region.  This has the potential of giving us a greenhouse gas neutral sustainable niche in the ecology.

It would be even better if these settlements evolve from existing communities that upgrade and replace existing buildings.    

Eli 

From: sanjay jain 
Sent: Friday, November 28, 2014 5:11 PM
To: Green Building 
Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] The Coolest Buildings Aren't Green

Indeed - very good presentation. Interesting use of the words "Green Bling"

He asks us to ask 3 questions:

1) How good is it?
2) Where is it located?
3) What does it replace?

I'd add a 4th, the Zero'th question if you will - how does it make people behave greener?

For example does a home in a good walk score actually encourage it's occupants to give up their cars?

~sanjay

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From: Gennaro Brooks-Church - Eco Brooklyn <info at ecobrooklyn.com>
To: Green Building <greenbuilding at lists.bioenergylists.org> 
Sent: Thursday, November 27, 2014 8:40 AM
Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] The Coolest Buildings Aren't Green

Very Nice. 

On Wednesday, November 26, 2014, Bruno M. <brunom1 at telenet.be> wrote:

  imo a must see video for the real greenbuilder, ... & beyond

  greets
  Bruno M.
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  The Coolest Buildings Aren’t Green | Bryn Davidson | TEDxRenfrewCollingwood

  The Coolest Buildings Aren’t Green | Bryn Davidson | TEDxRenfrewCollingwood

  Published on Nov 26, 2014

  This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Creating 'greener' buildings will help address climate change... right?
  Green buildings can make a difference, but only if we start asking the right questions. If we can start to see the whole story of how our buildings impact the climate then we can start to make strides toward real 'net-positive' change. The technology isn't new, the strategies aren't rocket science - the hard step is shifting our thinking about what it means to build 'green'.

  Bryn Davidson wears many hats. Sure, he’s a LEED-accredited building designer, sustainability consultant and small business owner with degrees in Architecture (UBC) and Mechanical Engineering (UC Berkeley). But he doesn’t stop there. He’s also one of the co-founders of Lanefab Design / Build; a Vancouver-based design and construction company that built the city’s first laneway house in 2010. Since then, Lanefab has continued its specialization in energy efficient green homes and infill ‘laneway houses’ by completing over 40 of the small infill homes. Bryn Davidson has been on the leading edge of the laneway house industry, and we don’t see him slowing down anytime soon.

  Twitter: @lanefab
  Facebook: Lanefab
  Email: bryn at lanefab.com
  Website: www.lanefab.com
  ========================================================

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-- 
Gennaro Brooks-Church
Director, Eco Brooklyn Inc.
Cell: 1 347 244 3016 USA
www.EcoBrooklyn.com
22 2nd St; Brooklyn, NY 11231

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