Green Design as Great Design: The Architecture of Sustainability

For its organizers, “The Architecture of Sustainability” conference co-sponsored by the AIA
Committee on Design (CoD) and Committee on the Environment (COTE) promises to open new
forms of dialogue between design excellence and environmental innovation. The unprecedented
collaboration between the two committees speaks to the theme of the event. “The combination
creates a perfect synergy,” remarks Greg Mella, AIA, LEED AP, one of the conference co-chairs
and a COTE representative. “Sustainability enriches design just as much as design enriches
sustainability.”
Green, Vitruvius; or, Est Viridis?
The conference evolved out of separate events held by the groups last year, reports the
conference steering committee, which also includes current CoD chair David Brems, AIA, and
CoD advisory group member David Greenbaum, FAIA, as well as Lance Hosey, AIA, LEED
AP, of COTE. The cross-committee cooperation also reflects their belief that the combined
concerns of CoD and COTE comprise entire architectural agenda: is it durable, is it useful, and is
it beautiful?
Sea Ranch, the setting for last year’s CoD conference, brought issues of sustainability into sharp
relief. “It’s arguably the only sustainable building among the AIA’s 25-Year Award winners,”
Brems remarks. In July, discussions at the AIA’s green building summit in Washington turned
toward the architect’s role in sustainability. “Like it or not, designers often distinguish between
the science of building and the art of architecture,” says Hosey. “In recent years the construction
industry has done a great job of raising the level of debate about the science, but what of the art?
Regardless of how efficiently we use resources, if design doesn’t inspire people, it will not last.
If we get it right, sustainable design promises to bring art and science together.”
By treating green design as an architectural concern rather than a solely technical matter – “the
junior chemistry set of methods and materials,” they joke – the organizers hope that “The
Architecture of Sustainability” will create fresh ideas about the ethical and aesthetic implications
of design. The speaker list, which includes Will Bruder, Jeanne Gang, James Timberlake, and
Andrew Whaley among others, embodies the merger of technical ingenuity and compelling
design.
House and Home
An important piece of the puzzle is the competition being held in conjunction with the
conference. “House for an Ecologist” looks to build on the success of CoD’s 2004 New Home on
the Range competition (juried in part by Brems, Greenbaum, and Hosey), which expanded the
committee’s outreach efforts toward younger participants. The current competition challenges
designers to develop a residence for a fictitious Ecologist in Residence at the National
Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, West Virginia – the site for two days of the
four-day conference.
Organizers hope the exercise’s straightforward site and program will draw more entries by
emphasizing non-technical approaches to sustainable design and enabling entrants (in Hosey’s
words) “to get to the form quickly.” COTE’s Top Ten Measures for Sustainable Design,
developed as the basis for the AIA’s annual green building awards program, serves as a loose
guide for the competition. The organizers hope this approach will encourage architects to
consider such guidelines as a driver for design and not just a tool for evaluating performance
after the fact. The competition jury – Peter Bohlin, Allison Ewing, Susan Szenasy, and James
Timberlake – speaks precisely to this combination of aesthetic and ecological integrity.
Process of Evolution
Both the competition and the conference anticipate the need for architects to adapt to changes in
the design process that alter the traditional role of the designer as a singular visionary. After
Mella noted, “We have great design ideas coming from engineers,” the others laughingly
expressed the need to suppress this bit of apostasy. “Let’s not get carried away,” Greenbaum
admonished.
Brems cited one of his projects as testimony to the strength of integrated design. The goal for the
Utah Olympic Oval, site of the 2002 Olympic speedskating events, was to create the world’s
fastest sheet of ice. Working within a tight not-to-exceed budget, the design team recognized that
creating ideal conditions for athletes required an unprecedented level of climate control. As they
studied how to minimize the volume of the building to the greatest extent possible, project
engineers at ARUP evaluated several possible structural designs. In the typical course of events,
the most expensive option – a cable suspension system only 3 feet deep – would have been
discarded, but the benefits it brought to the mechanical system and a reduction in the amount of
steel required led to a surprising conclusion: the lowest cost building was the one with the most
expensive structural system.
Experiences like this, not to mention the ones that lie ahead in the conference and competition,
offer only an initial glimpse of the insights required to “make green an inboard aesthetic,” as
Greenbaum describes it. By beginning to change the premises of the discussion and chart the
shifts in attitude over time, “The Architecture of Sustainability” could change how designers
think of green building.

MORE INFORMATION
“House for an Ecologist”
Registration deadline March 17th. Entries due March 31st.
http://www.aia.org/br_cfe_cod_ideascomp06

“The Architecture of Sustainability”

May 4-7, Washington, DC, and Shepherdstown, WV
http://www.aia.org/ev_cod_may06

PROGRAM SPONSORS

The American Institute of Architects

Committee on Design (CoD)
Committee on the Environment (COTE)

COMPETITION JURY

Peter Bohlin Bohlin Cywinski Jackson Wilkes-Barre, PA

Allison Ewing Hays + Ewing Design Studio Charlottesville, VA
Susan Szenasy Metropolis magazine New York, NY
James Timberlake Kieran Timberlake Philadelphia, PA

COMPETITION ORGANIZERS / CONFERENCE CO-CHAIRS

CoD
David Brems, AIA Gillies Stransky Brems SmithSalt Lake City, UT
David Greenbaum, FAIA SmithGroup Washington, DC
COTE
Lance Hosey, AIA, LEED AP ATMO / Atelier Modern
Washington, DC
Greg Mella SmithGroup Washington, DC
AIA staff
Kathleen Lane Project Manager, AIA CoD