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We are in the habit of discussing Green buildings as technical objects that should and must be quantified. How much energy does it save? What is the return on investment? Can it be certified with an assessment tool? And while these are important questions, they miss out on an important attribute of Architecture: that it shapes perception and behaviour. The exchange between us and the built environment is a lively two-way street. We call the act of designing for this exchange place-making.
We started this issue by examining the notion of the building as a cultural object, as an entity that speaks to its users. Initially many of the projects that came our way were also cultural buildings (art galleries, museums, etc.) which have an explicit role as communicators. Where they also strive for Green outcomes, the combination of art inside and the building as moderator of environmental impact is interesting. We also began to encounter projects that were a bit more everyday (schools, clinics, community centres) that spoke eloquently of where they are and what they do.
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FuturArc proudly presents our new publication:
GREENING ASIA
Emerging Principles for Sustainable Architecture
Nirmal Kishnani
In the past decade Asia's building sector has slowly come around to the idea of the Green building. The movement has picked up pace since 2005 with the introduction of, at last count, 13 national Green building assessment tools. Despite a steep rise in the number of certified buildings, the approach to Greening is fragmented and cautious at best. The Asian Green building does not do enough to mitigate impact nor do the conventions of Greening address the diverse needs of the region and its people. An urgent rethink is needed. Asia must get past the current do-less-harm approach—often coupled with a case for short-term returns—towards long-term, locale- and community-specific outcomes. The author investigates over 30 recent projects, extracting from them six principles for sustainable architecture that are Asia-centric and scalable. This book is a must-have guide for building professionals, developers and operators—essentially any stakeholder in Asia's building industry—and a reference text for academia. The well-illustrated layout will also appeal to the non-technical reader interested in the rising tide of Green in Asia. 336 pages featuring over 30 projects from: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
Online ordering of the book is available now. Please click here.
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The FuturArc Interview
CAMERON SINCLAIR
Co-Founder, Architecture for Humanity
"When you have an economist or a researcher who goes into these underserved communities, they see nothing but poverty—they see social problems. But when a designer goes in, they see nothing but opportunities and you know the way that we think—we imagine the future. As you begin to work with the clients, the users of the structure, you realise that you're making tangible realisations of hope." – Cameron Sinclair
The subject of The FuturArc Interview this issue is Cameron Sinclair, 2006 TED Prize winner and co-founder of Architecture for Humanity (AFH), a volunteer non-profit organisation set up to promote architecture and design to seek solutions to global social and humanitarian crisis. FuturArc Editor-in-Chief Dr Nirmal Kishnani caught up with him at the World Sustainable Building Conference 2011 in Helsinki.
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Main Feature
BETWEEN THE TOWER AND THE HUT: (GREEN) BUILDINGS AS CULTURAL OBJECTS IN AN AGE OF OPPOSITIONS
New buildings, Green or not, will reflect the enormous cultural and economic tensions of the new century. These are already apparent, as the newly networked world's need for change and identity twists traditional glass-and-steel frames in breathtaking ways: witness the Beijing CCTV tower, like a conventional skyscraper bent out of shape by an angry giant; or the "Absolute World Towers" in Ontario, Canada, which suggest a giant woman, perhaps the giant's wife, penned in by an office tower (from above they also resemble a man struggling to escape a sweater, or a cat trapped in a canvas bag). Such feats of form, the high arts of the CBD, represent intensification, hierarchy, and technology. They speak of the continuing power of global capital, its ability to transform itself under duress.
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Projects
BINH DUONG SCHOOL
Located in an outlying district of Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong School sits nestled within the landscape. The architect had an Eden-like vision for the school. Taking inspiration from Binh Duong's still relatively relaxed, recently agrarian lifestyle and semi-rural topography, they proposed a building that would create an ambiguous and porous border between inside and outside, between "school activities and the surrounding nature". The school is designed as one "continuous volume", the fluidity "inspired by the endless raining of the typical tropical climate".
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PRIMARY HEALTHCARE CENTRE
Set in the agricultural lands of rural southern India, the Primary Healthcare Centre is designed as a 'building within a building', in response to the extremely hot semi-arid climate of the region. A light outer layer wraps an inner building that houses core clinic functions. The climatic 'buffer' in between serves as circulation and waiting spaces. Consultation rooms are open on both sides, allowing for natural light and cross ventilation. The outer layer features locally grown vetiver grass thatched panels that cool and humidify air passing through it.
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