Live | Build | Sustain

A new green building program aims to push the design and construction industry well beyond current best practices.
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Nancy B. Solomon, AIA

The framework

To fully meet the Challenge in its current version, a man-made environment must address seven performance areas: site, water, energy, health, materials, equity, and beauty. These categories are called "petals" to emphasize the overarching goal: A building, like a flower, should be in ecologic balance with its environment, rooted to its place, and an ongoing source of inspiration.

Each performance area has one or more requirements, or "imperatives." There are 20 imperatives in all, with names like "limits to growth" and "inspiration + education." All imperatives within a performance area must be met to earn that particular petal of the Challenge.

Projects are categorized as belonging to one of four typologies, or construction types: landscape and infrastructure, renovation, building, and neighborhood. The projects are also grouped into one of six living transects according to the density of their context - a concept based on Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company's New Urban Transect. The transects range from natural habitat preserve (L1) to urban core zone (L6).

 

The conceptual nature of the imperatives allows them to be overlaid with these various typologies and transects to create a holistic matrix that can be effectively applied to any kind of man-made environment, from park gazebo to office tower.

The matrix adds flexibility to an otherwise extremely demanding program. Some typologies, for example, do not have to meet all 20 imperatives because the requirement does not apply to that form or scale of construction. A renovation, for instance, does not have to address the biophilia imperative.

And certain criteria within some imperatives are adjusted according to the project's transect. For example, according to the urban agriculture imperative, a project with a floor area ratio (FAR) of less than .05 located in a rural agricultural zone (L2) must use 80 percent of its project area for food production, while one located in the urban center zone (L5) with an FAR of 2.5 need only allot 5 percent for such use.

 

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Originally published in Architectural Record
Originally published in October 2010

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