There are times when sustainability takes the back seat in political address, earning only brief glimpses amidst purportedly grander plans for our country’s direction. Tonight was no such occasion. President Obama made sustainability a fixture in his State of the Union address to the country, touching on numerous points as priorities for how we should utilize sustainable goals to strengthen the economy and improve our quality of life. Though some of the mentioned goals were admittedly very tenacious, it is encouraging to see that the White House is willing to put sustainability center stage. Continue Reading…
Archives For January 2011
[Editor’s Note: Below is a guest post from colleague, blogger and fellow architect Brandon Specketer. With years of experience in sustainable architecture and graphic design, Brandon is currently a resident of New York City’s Upper West Side and works as an Associate at Cook+Fox Architects.]
A question has been rattling around in my head because of the holidays – is our current consumerist culture incompatible with the larger goals of sustainability? While the atmosphere of the holiday season has subsided, what remains among the drifts of accumulated snow are piles of trash. Bags filled with empty boxes of computers, clothes, books and other gifts that had been given and received. All of this is because of the heavy influence cultural conventions have on our behavior. While the consumer culture may be the elephant in the room when it comes to bigger environmental and social discussions, I do believe that there are businesses like the Paris shop Merci that use consumerism to serve larger environmental or social goals. Continue Reading…
Last week the Environmental Protection Agency got an ear full of backlash from politicians and jobs proponents after it revoked a water permit for a mountain top mining site for Arch Coal Inc. Such criticism has become more commonplace as the agency takes on a seemingly new role that more directly challenges the practices of companies and municipalities. It may seem like the current EPA administration is abusing the federal weight of its office, but the fact is that it simply has a staff that is living up to the mission that the office was created for. Continue Reading…
Though the era of McMansions and its resulting explosion of constructed square footage may have been abated in the aftermath of the recession, suburban American homes still suffer from bloated, inefficient floor plans. Even without architectural training, most of us can look at the high volume/low quality constructs of overnight, palatial residences as the hallmark of excess in our culture, but even many of our average homes suffer from a prolonged reversion to an antiquated formula of planning that no longer reflects how we live. High on the list of such traits are formal living rooms and dining rooms: amenities that people seldom use but routine tells us that we need. We need to begin the process of working these components out of the American archetype to save energy, materials and money. In the process we could open up home ownership to more people while taking an important stride to a more sustainable lifestyle. Continue Reading…
Allow me to wish Happy New Year to all new arrivals and faithful patrons alike. I think most of us would agree that 2010 was better than 2009. It certainly was for Intercon. The discourse on the site exceeded my expectations in both volume and quality, making it a pleasure to post new material as well as read the responses. Continue Reading…