Looking Ahead: The Next 10 Years of Green Building
(Page 8 of 10)
May/June 2009
By Eric Corey Freed
SARAH SUSANKA: It will just become as much a part of how we think about building as we select the materials we use to build it. It will be part and parcel with making a good house, and absolutely integral.
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Being "not so big" should be the first step in sustainability. And I'm not just talking about size, I'm talking about the whole sensibility of recognizing: what are our true needs and how do we accommodate those effectively, without being ostentatious and without going over the top? That mentality is at the root of true sustainability.
SERGIO PALLERONI: The house of the future will be an extension of both human intelligence and the environment outside: an adaptable membrane between two living systems. It will engage with the local conditions in a way we will become part of. That's the science fiction vision! But the truth of what we are trying to do right now is to arrive at a home that allows us to understand better the environment we live in. It doesn't just function better, but helps us to understand and operate as an integral part of the environment. In the end, it is a philosophical approach that we must undertake. How do we get buildings to be part of that transparency to appreciate where we live? Wow, I sound like a Californian!
GIL FRIEND: Sustainability is at the core of the future of housing. These patterns naturally show up in housing of all types as it starts to move down market from where it started. It can have profound effects on the economics and the affordability of housing. Over the next few years is it going to be the competitive differentiator that going to draw capital and draw permitting and draw customers, much more effectively than housing that doesn't deal with this issue. It's a gradual, imperfect and fitful process, but it's going to happen. Look at the health of the green building market right now in the middle of the housing meltdown. We see how quickly highly rated residential properties have sold compared to others over the past several years.
NH: Are you hopeful for the future? Why?
MICHELLE KAUFMANN: I am absolutely hopeful for the future, especially with the goals of this administration. Five years from now, I do not believe we will be talking about "green." That will just be how we build and how we live.
SARAH SUSANKA: Very hopeful! Over and over again in the course of my life, I've wondered how something is going to happen, and then I've seen it happen. At the time, things seemed impossible, because of the prevalent mindset. Things shift very rapidly. Just witness at what has happened with the Obama presidency. Things don't happen the way we think they do; they're not nearly as linear as we imagine. When there's a will to change, change happens. And I think there is that will right now. You can feel it.
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