Integrating Building Performance with Design
An Architecture Student’s Guidebook
There was recently a lively email exchange among our faculty regarding the granting of a scholarship from an alumnus who wanted to reward a student for the “sustainable” qualities of his or her design. Architecture faculty tend to be very protective of the education of their students, and, quite rightly, are careful about what sorts of awards they hand out for design work. Ultimately, it was decided that a faculty jury would choose a prize winner based on “work that demonstrates well-reasoned responses in architecture with the promise of enduring qualities.” Which of course meant that we, the faculty, would need to determine precisely what that meant.
That’s when things got lively. Certain buildings, among them the pyramids at Giza and Gothic cathedrals, were held up as paragons of sustainability. Let’s examine these claims for a moment. Yes, the pyramids are sustainable, for what that’s worth, except that pyramids are for dead (or immortal, depending on whom you ask) people and were built by armies of workers (or aliens, depending on whom you ask) with lots of labor and material.
It can be argued that they aren’t really buildings for mortals, they are giant gravestones for rich, famous demi-gods. They provide a comfortably cool space for the mummies they encapsulate, along with their dead cats, at enormous social and economic cost.