Green development has been the hot topic for developers, architects, city planners, engineers, and car makers and in the classroom that's all I heard about. What does it mean to be green? Green = in sync with the environment in some way. A green design for an architect may not be involve the green colour at all, but instead be a wavy sort of building that aesthically blends in with the mountains and landscape behind it. A green initiative for someone may be to build a backyard compost, organic garden, and/or recycle their grey water. What's not green is brown. Brown developments are those that require heavy use of non-renewable resources (i.e., gas), result in pollution, and offer very little to the collective macroenvironment. A new phase in development I see going on is folks are starting to rebuild old, rundown brown sites with green infrastructures and buildings. Tomorrow I'm going to head downtown Cincy to attend a seminar on Cincinnati's green development with my grandpa and amigo Drew. What are your plans for Earth Day?
Cincinnati is just starting to get a whiff of the 'green revolution'. Below is a picture of a $175,000 house built by Cincinnati Northside Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation. ~50% energy savings with passive solar design and high R-value insulation for sides and roof. These new green houses sit ontop the foundation of old, yucky looking, non-enviro-friendly houses. Tis evolution in the making.
Before I even got word about the green building seminar Drew and I spent a good chunk of this morning going over a proposal for a sustainble design project in New York City. We're hoping to win this international contest for architects that involves out-of-the-box thinking and brown site redevelopment. Everything from urban agriculture skyscrapers ('vegitecture'), alternative energy systems, offices, and living spaces will need to be incorporated into our design. When I got back home my gramps called me and asked me to go to the seminar with him tomorrow for Earth Day. Haha not a problem, we could use a lesson or two before we start making sketches. Coincidence? Na, just synchodestiny.
Here's an example of a green building from weburbanist.
If we work hard our proposal should end up looking something like this, just with different building designs and math.
Ontop of todays green fun I went to go pick up Beaner from school. Playgrounds are still a blast.
And last night I put the dog to bed with some music. Ol' Daisy the Chubby Dalmation.