Regional Associate Directors who sit on the National Associates Committee share their thoughts on the “greenness” of the recent AIA convention.

Emily Fahner-Vihtelic graduated from the prominent Carnegie Mellon University and decided to become a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia, where she had a significant role in designing and developing a green tourist center. Her journey in South America brought her to understanding green architecture in the way that many cultures have understood it for centuries.

Vasso Kampiti, Assoc. AIA muses on the things that bloom in the city in the spring: flowers and construction. “New York City currently has one hundred ninety-one structures that stand at least five hundred feet…I feel like Alice in Wonderland: small and tiny, gazing up at strips of blue sky peeking out between skyscrapers.”

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg, Ph.D, is a former English professor who now writes for green blog, GreenOptions.com. He asks, “Has ‘green’ gone mainstream, or is the current focus on environmental awareness…a passing fad?” Strasburg considers this question in the context of the rising trend of sustainability’s presence in higher education, particularly in that of future architects.

This research was presented in 2007 at the Architectural Research Centers Consortium Spring Research Conference in Eugene, Oregon. The abstract begins, “While generally discussed in terms of economics or technology, sustainability is a behavioral problem rooted in the unsustainable lifestyles of the Western world. A cultural paradigm shift is necessary to truly address this issue. Recnt psychological research suggests that this paradigm shift can be brought about through connectedness. This paper examines both how architecture can foster connectedness and how connectedness can influence architecture.”

The Green Studio Handbook: Environmental Strategies for Schematic Design
(2007, Contributed from the American Institute of Architects)
By Alison G. Kwok, Ph. D., and Walter T. Grondzik, P.E.
Another juicy piece of research, pulled out of the AIA’s information network, Soloso, we point out another research paper intended to offer strategies for planning green design during the schematic design phase.

This paper was also presented in 2007 at the Architectural Research Centers Consortium Spring Research Conference in Eugene, Oregon. Kwok and Grondzik write, “In design studio projects we often see schemes with inspired, yet unvalidated gestural sketches related to wishful green strategies. Yellow and blue magic arrows represent hypotheses about the behavior of daylight and/or air flow in and about buildings. This paper provides an overview of The Green Studio Handbook, recently published as a resource for designers seeking clear guidelines for integrating green design strategies into the conceptual and schematic phases of design.”