elemental

Elemental is proud to announce that it’s award-winning historic reconstruction of Shepard Hall at The City College of New York is included in the current exhibition Buildings = Energy on view at the Center for Architecture in New York City as part of the month-long celebration Archtober.  The exhibition explores how critical choices and consumption patterns of professionals and building occupants can make positive energy changes in our cities.  Shepard Hall was selected as an exemplar of sustainability in historic reconstruction.  This is particularly evident in considering the use of Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete (GFRC) as the primary reconstruction material, in lieu of other materials.

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Elemental Architecture, a firm recognized for its pioneering work in sustainable architecture, design and advocacy is pleased to announce that founding principal Carl Stein, FAIA will be delivering a keynote address at the 16th International Congress on GRC in Istanbul, Turkey on September 6, 2011.

The four-day conference brings representatives from twenty nations to share knowledge and advancements in glass fiber concrete technology. Keynote presentations by Elemental Architecture, New York and Foster and Partners, London.

Details on the Congress can be found here.

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Elemental Architecture’s award winning process for restoring City College’s Shepard Hall, discussed in an in-depth interview with Carl Stein on PROSOCO’s blog, “Green Journey” – Shepard Hall Restoration.

Robert Bryce’s June 7, 2011 Op-ed in the New York Times “The Gas is Greener” zeros in on a fundamental fault in the logic of depending on solar, wind and other renewables as primary sources of energy.  As Bryce correctly points out, generating large quantities of electricity from renewable sources requires vast amounts of natural resources — most notably, land, not to mention the energy and resources expended to collect and distribute that power that could be generated.

These realizations aren’t new. Interestingly, in 1993 Carl Stein notes in “Energy Conscious Architecture” for the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) that a report from the Energy Policy Project determined:

“From 1965 to 1973, U.S. energy consumption grew at the annual rate of 4.5 percent. This is doubling roughly every 15 years. If we could, miraculously, switch to total solar power in 1995, and if this switch created a return to the “cheap energy” attitudes of the 1960s with the associated exponential growth, by 2010, we would have to devote one percent of our land area to solar collection; by 2025, 2 percent; by 2070…10 percent of the United States would be taken up by collection systems; and before 2110…solar collectors would completely cover the United States.”

Clearly, there is no “silver bullet” to meet our demand for energy consumption and when considering the environmental impact of creating such systems the attitude that renewable energy is the answer is, in fact, directly contradictory to an environmentally responsible point of view. As Carl further points out, “…we must never fall in the trap of thinking of [renewable energy] as easy, cheap or environmentally neutral.” Simply put, there is no free lunch.

The best and most immediate solutions to address the demand for energy are by decreasing the rate of consumption through conservation, resourceful planning and energy conscious design.

In a recent posting on BuildingGreen.com, “Does Saving Historic Buildings Really Save Energy?” Tristan Roberts pointed out a number of benefits that may be realized by the adaptive reuse of older buildings; however, he dismissed the notion that there is value in the energy embodied in these structures.  While he is correct in his assertions about the cultural and urban value of historic buildings, he misses the point, or at least part of the point of the value of the energy embodied in those buildings.  Despite the fact that there is no way to “recover” the embodied energy in old buildings, if their reuse offsets the need to build replacements, the energy that would have been embodied in those new buildings is saved – avoided cost.

Of course, there will almost certainly be some construction, and therefore some energy commitment, required to extend the useful life of older buildings including implementation of measures to significantly improve performance.  The net avoided energy cost will be less than the total energy cost on the new building.  Nonetheless, the new energy that must be “embodied” into the existing building will typically be 1/3 to 2/3 that of starting from scratch.  Additionally, there is that much less debris sent to landfill and that much more “embodied” culture carried forward.

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Residential Architect Magazine editor, S. Claire Conroy, writes in the November/December 2010 issue on architects and social media.  We offer a response:

Ms. Conroy;

Your observations in your piece “Publish or Perish” are well taken and I believe true, however, I would offer that rather than cast online forums such as Facebook and LinkedIn as tools for self-promotion, architects should be using them to assert thought leadership.

Our responsibility, as architects, extends not only to the places we create but also to communicating & educating on issues that we observe and are engaged in. Social media, be it through Facebook, Twitter, blogging or other forms, allows architects to do so for both the general public, as well as internally to the industry, in ways never before seen. Whereas  previously in order to have an audience for publishing original content or critique one was forced to survive editorial review, now anyone is given the opportunity to express thought. Within the formats of each online medium, the profession is offered opportunities to share content and by doing so, has the ability to educate and promote change.

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A Brief Recap of Last Night’s Inaugural AIANY Oculus Book Talk Series with Carl Stein at New York City’s Center for Architecture

As reported by Maxinne Rhea Leighton, Assoc. AIA:

Carl Stein, FAIA’s Greening Modernism: Preservation, Sustainability and the Modern Movement (W.W. Norton & Company, 11.29.10) offers a compelling and insightful argument for a creative and enthusiastic reexamination of the interconnection between modern architecture, sustainability, historic preservation, and green strategies. One of the many things that sets this book apart from others on architecture and sustainability is the way in which Stein unfolds the theoretical, instructional, and pioneering tenets between design and technology from the pre-petroleum to late-petroleum eras, suggesting opportunities for architecture in a post-petroleum world.

Sightings 01.10.11: Carl Stein, FAIA, kicked off the 2011 Oculus Book Talk series with a lecture on his new work, Greening Modernism: Preservation, Sustainability, and the Modern Movement (W.W. Norton, 2010).

AIANY President Margaret Castillo, AIA, LEED AP, author Carl Stein, FAIA, and AIANY Oculus Committee Chair Kirsten Sibilia, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP.

 
“A sustainable future,” writes Stein, “one in which humankind will have a place in the ecosystem of the Earth, depends on a fundamental reconsideration of how we utilize all of the resources that support the qualities of our lives.” The second greatest end-use energy consumer is infrastructure construction, and there is a dire need to upgrade this part of American society. As you read Greening Modernism, you, too, will be reminded that as much as the truth sounds good on paper, the hardest part is to convert these ideas to the politics of choice and economics. While architects have their challenges set out before them, Greening Modernism will be a hearty and generous companion for those who are willing to challenge what they value in themselves and consider to be the nexus of design, quality of life, and a sustainable global future.

Note: This was the first of a monthly series of book talks hosted by the AIANY Oculus Committee.

Maxinne Rhea Leighton, Assoc. AIA, is a member of the AIANY Oculus Committee. She is a business development, public relations, and marketing professional in NYC and Washington, D.C. Her expanded project base includes cause-related marketing, and the integration of social media with traditional-based forms of communication for non-profit and cultural institutions.

Carl Stein, FAIA, principal of Elemental Architecture, has been selected to deliver the inaugural lecture for the AIA Oculus Book Talk Series on his recent publication ‘Greening Modernism’ at New York City’s Center for Architecture on Monday, January 10th, 2011 at 6:00pm.

“Greening Modernism explains the relationship between design and technology in the pre-petroleum, early-petroleum, and late-petroleum eras, and goes on to support opportunities for architecture in a post-petroleum world.”

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When: Monday,
January 10, 6:00 PM

Where:view map
The Center for Architecture
536 LaGuardia Place
NY, NY 10012
(212) 683-0023
RSVP/Register Here

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About Oculus Book Talks:

On the 2nd Monday of each month the AIANY Oculus Committee sponsors a book talk at the Center for Architecture. Each Oculus Book Talk highlights a recent publication on architecture, design, or the built environment –presented by the author. Copies of the publications will be available for sale and signing.