WC Archive

It is... encouraging that progress, so long the enemy of the natural world, is increasingly being put in the service of saving and restoring nature -- and that this new partnership is producing some of its most significant dividends in the realm of architecture, where modeling programs, to pick one example, now help designers measure the efficiency of their buildings with remarkable accuracy while they are still on the computer screen. As a result, green architects of all kinds are ditching their old reputation as regressive Luddites who were content to labor in isolation from cultural -- and architectural -- developments. "At the beginning of the [twentieth] century, technology was like a big train breaking everything, a killing machine," Plano has said. "It was really an adversary to nature. But today you can being to see that technology and nature are not so far apart."

Despite this, I have some mixed feelings while looking through a book like The Green House. On the one hand, the design of many of the homes is breathtaking; the book has page after page of luxurious, glossy pictures of architecture that is almost surreally gorgeous. Swoops of (high-efficiency) glass, abundant (drought-friendly) greenery, carefully wrought (recycled) wood... these are homes in which neither style nor sustainability has been sacrificed. But on the other hand, few of the buildings seem readily replicable, even in part; nearly all seem to be the kind of ultra-expensive, one-off architecture that wins awards and fills magazines, but few people ever really get a chance to experience for themselves. The green homes are almost too amazing to serve as triggers for emulation.

At the same time, while I look forward to the day that building efficiency and environmental sustainability are just assumed to be intrinsic to the design of homes and offices -- one doesn't see books celebrating "The Electric House" these days -- I recognize the importance of books like The Green House in leading a sea-change in architecture. I would much, much rather see high-end designers and ostentatiously wealthy buyers competing for who can build the greenest home than who could build (say) the biggest or the most filled with irreplaceable natural materials. It's particularly important that the criteria of sustainability aren't simply a superficial nod to what looks "green" (such as buildings filled with all sorts of exotic plants... requiring far greater water and energy use to keep alive than native flora), but are well-thought-through and integrated into the design from the outset.

Few people will buy The Green House as a way of figuring out what exactly they should do with their own homes. But that's not its purpose. The value of The Green House is in helping to change the assumptions of what goes into aspirational architecture, and in emphasizing the growing correspondence of beautiful design and concern for the future.