Talkustainability like talkitecture

[Lily-Love Toppar]

Is it not hypocritical to advocate sustainable designs and not implement them into the design of A BUILDING OF A FIRM?

 

Many clients are beginning to have an immense interest in green projects and it is the responsibility of all designers to integrate the sustainable concepts into buildings and environment they are designing. However, the building or firm that nestles and nurtures those great sustainable ideas in itself is not sustainable! Water, energy and the like are mismanaged! Elements such as daylighting and natural ventilation are not incorporated into the firm building design. Yet, we ‘force‘ clients to integrate sustainable principles into their building.

 

A few firms have implemented into their firm buildings green practices. A firm such as EHDD, Esherick Homsey Dodge and Davis (EHDD) Architecture has embedded into its firm design sustainable strategies such as daylighting, natural ventilation, and thermal comfort. This does not only demonstrate the firm’s culture but distinctively communicates the firm’s values.

 

I ask again, “Is it not hypocritical to advocate sustainable designs and not implement them into the design of A FIRM’S BUILDING?

[Alan Ray, RLA]

Huh?

[Lily-Love Toppar]

Alan, what is wrong? I don’t understand your comment.

[Alan Ray, RLA]

I didn’ understand your comment…..I tried but just couldn’t get it. Please elaborate…..

[Lily-Love Toppar]

You are right! Guess I was taking evening nap when I wrote this. LOL. I apologize. Please stay tuned for an update. Thanks for the comment.

[Jon Quackenbush]

I think she is referring to the building in which the firm works espousing the same sustainable principals that the firm advocates…

I think firms are happy just making payroll right now instead of investing in building renovations.

[Lily-Love Toppar]

Hello Alan,

 

I added few sentences to the discussion to help elaborate on the matter. Hope this helps. Thanks

[Lily-Love Toppar]

Well said Jon. Just what I was thinking. Hope the few sentences I added in the discussion helps clarify and elaborate the point. Thanks for the explanation.

[Alan Ray, RLA]

So, how many firms do you think own their own buildings?

Most seem to rent space in a building……I rented space in a building for over 20 years and could have not altered the building….so………how would you make that work?

[ALEX P]

what would you say to a client who rents their space and has the same question?

[Danny Pritchard]

I agree with this, but what if the firm was established before sustainable practices became more mainstream? I would think that in this case it would be rather expensive to renovate/move a firmly established company. That said, perhaps over time and with the right funding the proper implementations could be made. 

[ALEX P]

can you be grandfathered into to sustainability?

[Danny Pritchard]

Does the pope wear a funny hat?

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

Is it not hypocritical to advocate sustainable designs and not implement them into the design of A BUILDING OF A FIRM?

 

I think that we are way more conscious of energy and environmental conservation as each decade rolls forward to the next. However, we are also very image conscious as a society as well. And as is true with every creature on this planet, we also want the most comfort that we can have at the same time – transportation, food, shelter, etc,…

 

There are dynamics between these three things. First, the reason that we hear the mantra of sustainability so much is clearly because society is concerned with it, or at least is concerned about the image of it. Why do so many with no jobs and big student loan debts spend even more to tag on “LEED -abcdefg” after their names? Clearly, they believe that they will be more marketable. If that is true, it absolutely must be because the consumer is so inclined to follow this philosophy that he is going out of his way to find specialized people to help keep him on track (he or she, don’t mean to be sexist, just habits fro my education – old school). So the good news is that throughout society we have a raised understanding of the benefits and consequences in these regards.

 

The second part of this is that to a varying degree between all individuals both as consumers and as designers, part of this “desire” is responsibility driven and part of it is image driven. Image and economics are non-separable when it comes to sales and/or getting a job on the design/construction end. Image and ego are non-separable on the consumer end.

 

What is all to separable is the effect of the third part of the dynamic – comfort. That can mean selling out for money or a job. It can mean airconditioning your home or office. It can mean having a full sized luxury 1-ton van that seats twelve while only having a family of three (guilty).  A great example of this crossed my desk in the last year as I was reviewing a LEED accredited LA’s plan for a summer seasonal (open in the summer only) resort. The two large gas fired fire pits made me giggle, but the large Roman Emperor-like gas fired torches on the columns made me actually laugh out loud. Don’t get me wrong. It was an excellent design and I have no problem with any of it. It was just as Lily is saying that the emphasis (more than just in the name suffix and even more so by the lead developer) of marketing sustainability vs. the excesses (these are two easy examples of many) that were introduced into this project almost seemed like a parody.

 

Everything comes down to how far you want to take it. How far are you going to “talk the talk”? Truly, nothing is sustainable or pure if you are altering the land to make it. Hypocracy needs to be measured against the benchmark of what YOU define by the “talk that you talk”. If your talk goes a long way, but your walk does not go as far because your lack of commitment then you are a hypocrite. If your “talk” is limited and your “walk” meets or exceeds it, you are not a hypocrit.

 

I vacation with friends at a lake each summer in Maine. One delightful woman is obsessed with being the queen of sustainability. She is constantly bragging about the minimal volume of trash their household produces, how she burns wood in an efficient fireplace instead of oil, compares her “carbon footprint” to everyone else ….. and runs a 500 horsepower ski boat each night all summer at home and each day all day for two weeks on the lake. I have no problem with her boat use, but she is clearly giving herself a pass on the boat. That is a hypocrite. It is also the classic self pass almost everyone of us does when we cross the line. We somehow justify that we make it up somewhere else so it is OK.   

 

We somehow justify that we make it up somewhere else so it is OK. – this pegs the bul$hit meter every time.

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