Link to the copy of the book: https://vernonpress.com/book/1111
Title of Project:
Sustainable Architecture – Between Measurement and Meaning: Co-Edited Book Edit
Funding:
CURC
Responsible:
Carmela Cucuzzella
Sherif Goubran
Research Assistants:
Ian Taylor
Description:
Frequently, sustainability is perceived as the result of the balanced intersection between the society, the economy and environment. In the last decades, sustainability is increasingly becoming a main focus when addressing the major challenges that we face in today’s world. The consideration of sustainability in many fields such as the design, development, food production, technology, energy, social well-being, the economy and even education is required to ensure the continuation of the human survival and progress.
This critical approach stems from rethinking the place of sustainability (and its technologies) in the design process – a task that cannot be only institutionalized by policy tools. Instead, this book takes a much-needed step backwards to be able to have a more distanced perspective of current practices in sustainable architecture, to critique the current approaches, and to uncover their underlying drivers (whether they are political, economic or cultural in nature). To do this, the contributions study contemporary practices to demonstrate some of their counter-productive effects. It is a very timely book since it distinguishes itself from the increasing amount of publications and books that address the technical (and measurement) dimensions of sustainable architecture.
We see the risk of a progressive dehumanization of architecture as mere technicality as very concrete. This book is a reminder that the architectural concept extends well beyond the act of physical and eco-efficient construction.
