I quit my job to pursue this most necessary ambition called sustainable architecture. Once in a while you come to a point when the thing you are doing stops being the right thing. William McDonough says that there is a difference between asking the question "Am I doing it right?" and "Am I doing the right thing?" I've been asking myself the second question since I graduated from architecture school in 2012. My thought back then was I'll learn this profession, the ins and outs, the ways of construction, and then I'll transition to the sustainable way of doing things. This would allow me to understand conventional construction and to be able to make a case for doing things differently. I don't know if that was the best way, but it's what I did.
Seven years in, I finally hit that point. If you are keeping track, that was two years ago. (2021-2012 = 9 years.) Yeah, writing that out was for my benefit... despite a very good architectural education, my math is... passable.
Anyway, a couple of years ago, I signed up for this new sustainable building standard called Passive House, and my views about how we construct buildings changed forever. Passive House is a German standard of building developed by building scientists. The developers understood that there are very obvious ways that buildings gain and lose heat, and those directly impact the energy use of the building and the comfort of those living inside of it. If you can keep a building from losing heat, then theoretically you don't really have to heat it because humans, appliances, etc. are all producers of heat. Scientists came up with all kinds of equations to calculate heat loss through the building envelope (walls, roof, floor).
There are five components of Passive House. I'll list them and then move on, but you can find more information here.
Super-Insulated Envelope
Air-Tight Envelope
Thermal Bridge-Free Construction
High-Performance Glazing
Heat Recovery Ventilation
So I went to school; online and then to NYC where a firm was hosting a week-long class to get certified as a Passive House Consultant. (I had previously been LEED certified, but the highest rating on that system does not require a net zero building.) The online portion was easy enough, but the in-person class was the most difficult week I have ever had in architecture education. This is mostly due to the fact that it was actually mechanical engineering education with LOTS of math. (My favorite, remember?) I passed the test though, and am now a CPHC (Certified Passive House Consultant). You can see my name listed on the PHIUS (Passive House Institute US) website under Massachusetts.
Fast forward to 2020. After two years of trying to convince my architecture firm that we needed to push the envelope (pun intended), I had reached the tipping point. All of the projects going on around me seemed inappropriate. Nobody was moving in a direction toward sustainability, and I felt like it was no longer "the right thing" to work on projects that didn't take the environment into consideration. So I quit my job and figured out a way to work on more sustainable projects. I'm currently working freelance for a couple of different architects and pursuing sustainability at all costs.
So here are my thoughts:
I use the word appropriate quite often. It is not appropriate to leave a place worse than I found it. I learned that in preschool.
I don't think it is appropriate to design a structure that uses more energy than it can produce, or at the very least, more energy than absolutely necessary. Our resources are finite, and furthermore, they are dirty.
The building occupants have to pay for the energy a building uses for as long as the building is standing, and it is inappropriate to design something that gives them a higher cost of living or of doing business. (Passive House, despite its name, is not limited to residential structures.)
I don't think it is appropriate to specify materials that, in the process of construction, expose the builder to harmful chemicals that will likely cause cancer later in life.
I do think it is appropriate to create shelter from the elements. I think design has an amazing power to change the way people live their lives, or at least to help them live comfortable, healthy lives.
I do think there is an appropriate way to create that shelter, using the sun, the environment, and the building to mutually benefit each other.
I think that by existing, I have an impact on the things around me. As William McDonough says, design is a signal of intention. What then, is our intention, and what kind of an impact can that have?
I think Passive House is a good baseline for design. Start with a building that produces the same amount of energy that it needs to consume, and that is the starting point. Then the design is not about reduction and conservation, but about how we want to live our lives.
The above statement should be available and accessible to everyone. It should not cost two or three times as much, because the right thing should also be the easy thing.
If being environmentally conscious does cost a little more, we have to find a way to prioritize it.
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