GreenClips.221 08.13.03 METROPOLIS SURVEY TAKES PULSE OF SUSTAINABLE DESIGN EDUCATION Intuitively and anecdotally, it seems that grassroots environmentalism is making an impact on the world of design and architecture. But how well is sustainability being integrated into design education? To find out, Metropolis magazine conducted an Internet survey of design educators. Between April 13 and May 21, Metropolis received a total of 371 responses from deans, department chairs, and professors in nearly all fifty states and Canada. The survey revealed that a mere 14 percent say that their schools are developing programs to educate their teachers about sustainable design. And only 25 percent say their school has a faculty advisor on sustainable design. Ninety-three percent of respondents completely or somewhat agree that sustainability is relevant to their design curriculum, but the number of studios that each school dedicates to sustainable design is only 2 out of an average total of 11. Barriers to working in an interdisciplinary manner toward understanding sustainable design include funding (60 percent), faculty attitudes (53 percent), and administration (41 percent). Resources needed to improve the teaching of sustainable design include visiting lecturers (73 percent), books (66 percent), websites (55 percent) and advisors (50 percent). View complete survey results at http://www.metropolismag.com/html/content_0803/sus/index.html Metropolis, Aug-Sept 2003, p 104, by Susan S. Szenasy. EARTHCRAFT HOUSE PROGRAM EXPANDS TO COMMUNITY PLANNING LEVEL Atlanta is commonly associated with things like environmental degradation and sprawl, but the city has also generated one of the country's most successful green building programs, the EarthCraft House. And it's now providing a laboratory for the planning of whole neighborhoods that will embody sensitivity to conservation and healthy design. "We don't want smart growth with dumb buildings," says Jim Hackler, who directs the EarthCraft House program for the Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association and Southface Energy Institute. Prompted by developers, the institute is now devising a template for sustainable communities. The program will merge principles from New Urbanism -- like mixing uses and building types, and promoting walkability -- with environmental concerns such as preserving biodiversity, minimizing erosion, and educating people. Four current developments -- ranging from a city-center brownfield project to a new rural "hamlet" -- are prototypes. In the latter project, called Serenbe, all 220 dwelling units will be EarthCraft Houses, and commercial structures will meet LEED standards. Developed areas will be clustered and fit to the topography, preserving 75 percent of the site and requiring minimal grading or other disturbances during construction. A non-chemical, low-energy-consuming sewage treatment plant will be located on the site, as will be community gardens and a sorting center for recyclables. Metropolis, Aug-Sept 2003, p 68, by Jonathan Lerner. [About EarthCraft House: http://www.southface.org/home/ech/earthcraft_home.htm ] FUTURISTIC BUILDING SKIN TECHNOLOGY ON DISPLAY IN NEW YORK An exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City features "SmartWrap," a new concept for a customizable building skin that would incorporate emerging technologies in heating, lighting and solar energy into a building's facade. Created by KieranTimberlake Associates, a Philadelphia architecture firm, the exhibit includes an eight-foot working SmartWrap panel and a 16-foot-square and 24-foot-high pavilion constructed of a nonworking representation of the material. SmartWrap is made by printing onto PET plastic (what soda bottles are made of) flat devices that will insulate, heat and provide power and light. SmartWrap goes up quickly, is extremely light, and has no seams that can leak. The plastic skin incorporates ultrathin solar panels to collect energy and flat chemical batteries to store it. Phase change materials can help control temperature, and organic light-emitting diodes (OLED's) could allow a building constructed of SmartWrap to display any image desired. While the history of architecture is littered with visionary proposals for revolutionizing building technology, the prospects of SmartWrap may be rosier because of interest shown by companies like DuPont, the sponsor of the Cooper-Hewitt exhibition. Schedule: Aug. 5-Oct. 10. More: http://ndm.si.edu. The New York Times, 7 Aug 2003, p D8, by Phil Patton, and Architectural Record, Aug 2003. DESIGN STUDIO TEACHES STUDENTS TO SOLVE PROBLEMS ON GRAND SCALE At the Rhode Island School of Design, Charlie Cannon's interdisciplinary Innovation Studio offers something unique among design programs nationwide. "We take large-scale environmental or infrastructure problems and approach them from a design perspective," says Cannon, an industrial design and landscape architecture professor. This year students brought design perspectives to bear on New York City's looming garbage crisis. Since the closing of Fresh Kills landfill in 1999, New York has been trucking its waste to out-of-state landfills. Despite an overburdened freeway system, increased diesel fuel emissions, and rising landfill costs, the city has been slow to invest in long-term trash reduction strategies. The students of Innovation Studio talked to garbage experts and community groups, and brainstormed tactics that could reshape the garbage problem through better design strategies. Their design solutions included a series of billboards showing the relationship between diesel emissions and asthma; remanufacturing corridors for industrial waste; and a vertical composting, recycling, and gasification facility that would tower 60 stories above the waterfront. Rebecca Silver, a recent graduate of RISD's industrial design department, hopes the thinking from the studio filters out into the real world. "We know how to make stuff. We just don't know how to dispose of it well," she says. "There aren't jobs yet to do this kind of work, but there should be." Metropolis, Aug-Sept 2003, p 58, by Tess Taylor. EXHIBIT FEATURES WORK BY ARTISTS ENGAGED WITH THE ENVIRONMENT In Connecticut, nine artists have responded to environmental problems affecting the state in an exhibit titled "A River Half Empty: Artists Engage Connecticut's Environment." Works include sculptures about endangered species and issues of water flow, a Victorian-style greenhouse powered by an artist-designed solar energy system, a photographic essay exploring the impacts of development and poor environmental policy, and a video about Americans' dependence on cars. Through Aug. 31 at Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut. More: http://www.aldrichart.org . Metropolis, Aug-Sept 2003, p 154. FURNITURE DESIGNER GIVES NEW LIFE TO JUNKED AIRPLANES What becomes of airplane parts dumped in Arizona junkyards? Some are recycled into furniture by Giancarlo de Astis, a designer in Los Angeles. In his hands, scrap becomes stylish but it doesn't come cheap. Wings become desks ($8,900), cockpits turn into chairs ($12,000), and a hinge on a C-119 transport is transformed into a desk lamp ($1,200). More: http://www.deastisdesigns.com . The New York Times, 7 Aug 2003, p D3, by Marianne Rohrlich. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 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