As inhabitants of this planet, we believe that we have a responsibility to take care of our environment - not only for ourselves, but for future generations of people and the totality of the eco-system.
As a team, we advocate the principle of Green Design. We should design in accordance with site conditions - to acknowledge and apply the natural conditions of the location to aid us in our living. Indigenous people built according to their site's natural elements (e.g., climate, soil, local resources). Today, the majority of our traditional building practices dismiss the analysis of a site, its nuances, beauty, and beneficial properties. For example, instead of using the sun's rays to warm a space, we use mechanical systems that require the combustion of fossil fuels - a limited resource that pollutes the air and destroys our atmosphere. Just because we can accomplish a task does not necessarily justify the process for doing it.
We have become accustomed to dominating nature, destroying forests, polluting waters, burying our garbage in landfills, and depleting our finite resources. It is in every living thing's best interest to live peacefully with our land.
Here are our proposals:
- Take something that might be waste and re-use it for something productive. We took a byproduct of farming wheat (the remnants of an agricultural process) and we used it for insulation. No chemical adhesives were used in this process - the wheat straw releases a natural adhesive when it is heated and compressed. Now our house is a biodegradable mass that can be ground up and returned to the earth safely if we ever desired to do so.
- Design with nature as a model. A flower's petals open to the sun during the day to expose itself to light and promote photosynthesis. A design for a window might be modeled after that process. The window opens in the daytime to let in natural light but closes to become a wall at night when unwelcome cold air outdoors might penetrate through glass.
- Design with nature as an influence.
- Use local resources to support the regional economy, land, and culture.
- Design for people, animals, and plants so that they can live in good health together. Humans cannot survive without all the other species of the world. We must realize this interrelationship with all living things and not be destructive. We are part of a cycle of nourishment and nurture between plants and animals, and also natural elements such as soil and water.
