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Emerging Green Builders, a student initiative within the School of Architecture,
has started the blog, greenarkiesnd.blogspot.com.
It's the School's go-to online resource for
interesting links, articles, and resources on green architecture.
Green Architecture, Green Building Design, Sustainable Design, Ecological Design and Environmentally-Conscious Design are various shades of the same thing. They reflect a growing awareness that the nonrenewable resources of energy that fuel the construction process and heat, cool and provide light and ventilation throughout the life of a building are finite. (Image: Kerri Bergen's analysis of passive energy systems)
The availability of raw materials that provide the basic stuff of building materials and manufactured building components are finite as well, while their procurement, shipping and fabrication into building components consumes energy and produces pollution long before they take their place as integral parts of a building.
Principles of green building design are incorporated into a broad range of courses in the School of Architecture. Sustainable building practices begin with site selection, climatic conditions and the urban or rural setting of a design; then proceed to the selection of building materials and components, and are finally reflected in the refinement of the completed design in the form of passive-energy considerations.
The environmentalist’s adage “think globally, act locally” rings true among the critical ethical responsibilities of an architect. So-called "Green Building" design is a humanist enterprise as well. It includes how a building influences our awareness of the world in all its dimensions — how it insures our comfort and our sense of well-being, and how it performs its role among many buildings that make up an urban setting that in turn nurtures the life of a community — all are part of the broader realm of green building design.
— Professor Norman Crowe
