Who Needs Green Architecture

Nowadays it is all about ‘green’ Architecture. It is in the papers, in the magazines, in television. Many of my colleagues are baptized overnight to ‘green’ architecture ‘experts’, while their clients, suddenly ‘care for the environment’ as they commute to work in their (hybrid) SUVs. Communities, who want to go ‘green’, are often also reluctant to commit to the sustainable lifestyle it translates to.
Elias Messinas, Founder and Chairman of ECOWEEK
12/06/2009 09:45
It is very difficult to instil common sense and ‘green’ practice in a world of consumption. In a world that knows no limits to how much one can take from the global commons, how much one is allowed to pollute and how much one can apply their carbon footprint on other people’s resources. It is very difficult to instil a sense of responsibility to those who have the means to make a difference, but loving money, are very cynical when it comes to protecting children, women, the environment or to helping make the world a more just and healthy place to live.

In a world of careerist architects and starchitects, who are paid a % on the cost of their buildings, it is okay to spend millions on LEED certified buildings, when the wealth accumulated to build such buildings, is immensely more than what these buildings will save in energy over their entire life-time. We also don’t think twice when ordering expensive HVAC systems - when the consultant is paid as a percentage of the cost of the system; when opening a window or applying proper shading and thermal insulation may often be more effective (and certainly less consuming, let alone, healthy).

When one sees what is being built nowadays in most parts of the planet, or how contractors and architects relate to our profession in the 21 st century, one feels like they live in a different planet. They may label themselves ‘green’ for placing a bucket under the gutter to collect rainwater, but they will still keep their buildings poorly insulated – since the client, who will pay the heating and cooling bill every month, will never really know the truth.

I am not talking about regulation, since in the countries that I practice, the regulators seem to be not only in a different planet, but also in a different Age. Their policies are often so irrelevant, that it is hard to speak of sufficient regulation, when there is no sufficient intelligence, let alone common sense. Therefore, issues such as energy consumption regulation in buildings, or life cycle assessment of buildings, or construction waste management are often recommended but not required; they are nice’ ideas to add in their election agenda, but certainly not a priority to implement, at least in their 4-year-term.

So, it is not surprising that buildings today consume almost half of the produced energy in Europe and are responsible for a large percentage of the CO2 emissions in the Earth’s atmosphere. Every item specified in a building, and every day the building’s HVAC system operates for the life-time of the building, makes the building a contributor to the problem, not only of climate change, but worse, of postponing the solution.
But what is the solution? I have been asked many times, always followed by the question: ‘But isn’t ‘green’ architecture more expensive?’

It is the wrong question, since I do not believe that the solution will be generated in the same mindset that has created the problem. ‘Green’ building may actually be cheaper if properly planned and specified; adding insulation and shading, for example, may reduce the need for oversized air-conditioning. It is a matter of professionals moving to the next phase. It took the Jews 40 years to reach the Land of Israel after they left Egypt as slaves. Today, although slaves of consumption, we cannot keep our architects in the desert for 40 years, so we have to give them a different kind of education; one that will help them make different choices and become better and more environmentally conscious professionals. Not only better architects, but also more active and responsible citizens as well.

To quote David Orr ( Earth in Mind, 111) in our specialized educational system, institutes of education should ‘equip young people with a basic understanding of systems’ to ‘seek out “patterns that connect” human and natural systems; to teach young people […] cause and effect; to give students the practical competence […] to solve local problems, and to teach [them] the habit to [roll] up their sleeves and [get] down to work’.

Education, to quote Ortega y Gasset ( in E.F. Schumacher ‘Small is Beautiful’, 66) ‘is the transmission of ideas which enable man to choose between one thing and another’. We have to give our young architects new types of choices and new ways to solve the problems that our generation has created.

NGO ECOWEEK has been raising public awareness on environmental issues since starting its activity in Greece in 2005. Today it operates in Europe, the US and the Middle East, bringing together schools, young professionals, and students of Architecture, with the goal of intervening in the education of those who will shape our (architectural) future. The Modern Movement did not just happen. Fossil fuel dependency did not just happen. These are conscious processes that took place in our generation. It is our generations’ task to prepare the new generation for the new processes; those that will balance between intelligent and sustainable building practices, and the natural processes and limits of our biosphere.