My Green Brick

Here is a screen shot of the "Green Brick House" I made in SketchUp. It's really basic and took about 15 minutes for me to create.

Free Green Response

FreeGreen.com is something I am mostly encouraged by. It appeals to me because I like to play games like The Sims, wherein I create homes and inevitably plan the spaces according to livability. If the game also offered energy efficient items or buildings, I am sure I would use them. In fact, in Sim City Societies, you can create a green city. The empowerment of individuals' creativity in city and home building has been aided by the digital age. Given this, I will venture to say that Free Green is just an extension of this growing area.

So, how does Free Green work? And, most importantly, how is it free? They are lucid on this point: "FreeGreen would not exist without paid placement from product manufacturers." This is a sensible solution, and I have heard about bloggers getting paid for having advertisements on their page. We are in the information age*, characterized by low-cost, rapid and free information. Free Green is unquestionably a product of our time.

*I am more skeptical about this age, but I will reserve that topic for my Haptic Arts blog.

FreeGreen?

I don't want to judge this too quickly, for fear that my review will be harsh, but the existance of FreeGreen.com is hard to believe. I am formulating a response. I welcome your comments in the meantime.

"letting the green in"

I want to recommend Michelle Kaufmann's blog. Actually I think I just want to recommend her. She is a member of the AIA and is LEED® Certified. Her blog is what this one might aspire to be. . . so check her out!

Also see Michelle Kaufmann Designs, her professional website. Her site is awesome to browse--it's stylish eye candy for the sustainably minded, though that doesn't mean it has no substance. She writes intelligently and with valuable technical knowledge about the field. She presents a "going green" mantra with the phrase "let the green in." The advice she gives is practical but never approaches an inhospitable tone. Her bio boasts that "in 2002" she "began a crusade to make thoughtful, sustainable design available to all" (Bio).

Also check out her videos via her YouTube Channel.

Labels: An Architecture Groupie?

I finally realized that I am just an architecture groupie. I decided to amuse myself and searching with the google query: "define: groupie".

Definitions of groupie on the Web:

-an enthusiastic young fan (especially a young woman who follows rock groups around)

wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

-A person who seeks intimacy (most often physical, sometimes emotional) with a famous person, usually a rock band member

en.wiktionary.org/wiki/groupie

If I am either, I hope to be classified as the former. The latter is a bit creepy--especially in the present discussion.

So maybe I didn't have the experience of being a high school band groupie (though going to 3 The Dog & Everything concerts was close ample exposure for me). I suppose that the making of a groupie for a profession cannot be without its own defining factors. One of the requisites is likely to be the consideration of pursuing the field. Another may be seeking media/information about it (books, blogs, podcasts, newspaper articles, classes, etc). Being a groupie is also more active, so I would vote to include some contacting/networking to architects.

Given these criteria, I am an architecture groupie.

The original idea for this classification is from one of my uncles. He has helped me on my 'job/career search' as of late, and one day he said: "Sweetie, you don't want to wind up just being an architecture groupie." To this I quickly responded "No, of course not." Then I thought about it some more; if I was a groupie for now, and it didn't interfere with my pursuit of other paths in addition, what harm would come? I have since embraced the label and have made some architects laugh (one sly way of being a funny/entertaining groupie).

Being a groupie can occur on multiple levels. A cute quiz posted on The Muse's Muse sheds some light onto this:

6) Finally, you get to meet your [favorite singer]. During your very first conversation, you:
a) Are overcome by nerves and babble like an idiot.
b) Chat somewhat normally and ask a few polite questions.
c) Tell him you want to marry him.

Lucky for me, the closest option would have to be "b." Thank goodness. I don't know what kind of terrified responses "c" would get with architects, but that might be a nice social experiment; maybe next time.

*This post is identical to one on my other blog: Haptic Arts

Green Architect: Rob Vagniernes, Jr.

This post is similar to one on my other blog, Haptic Arts, where I include information from interviews with Chicago artists, architects and people in the 'museum world'. The broad and lofty aim of it is to make the art world more transparent/approachable.

Also on Haptic Arts, I posted a portrait of Rob V.

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Now, on to the post.

Present tense: Robert Vagnieres, Jr. sits with a large white legal pad in front of him. My legal pad is small and yellow. Perhaps the juxtaposition of these two items is trivial—but perhaps not. They are, to me, indicative of our relative positions for the conversation.

Now past tense: Let’s back up for perspective: we are sitting in Rob’s home on the south side of Chicago. Rob is an established Architect and has been practicing or on his own for 23 years. He worked with Solomon, Cordwell and Buenz for 5 years total, but set out on his own quite early. His full-service architectural firm was founded in 1985.

The “office politics” of the mega-firm were not for him. He found the small practice far more appealing. In the smaller firm, (a working definition: from 2 to 20), you are able to see the project through from start to finish and have multiple levels of involvement. Architects have been called late bloomers, but Vagnieres would chalk that up to the lack of experience that larger firms give the individual.

Valuing this individualistic, multifaceted approach is perhaps from Vagnieres’ experience in Paris. He studied there for a year during his fourth year of undergrad. He and I found common ground first on the topic of studying abroad. I studied in Florence and London, and I would recommend living/studying abroad to anyone who has the desire to do so.


After a couple hours of conversation, we reached a point of discussion which ran more deep for us both. This, I could not have imagined. We are both so passionate about green architecture that we hold the policies by the USGBC and others to very high standards. Vagnieres and I spoke about Design Tex, The Academy of Global Citizenship, Green Festival, and about being a co-chair on COTE (Committee on the Environment) for the AIA. My meeting with Vagnieres was a powerful reminder about the importance of dialog for renewing my passion for sustainability. Conversations beget more conversations.

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Philosophy (from Vagnieres' site): We strive to form an alliance between People, Architecture, and the Environment. We are a full service architectural firm founded in 1985, currently concentrating on projects that coincide with our own personal philosophies and beliefs of creating environmentally and ecologically responsible projects. Over the last 20 years we have been responsible for over 80 million dollars worth of hospitality, commercial, and renovation projects in Chicago and the U.S. The firm’s principal, Robert C. Vagnieres, Jr., A.I.A., NCARB, has experience since 1976 in all phases of design, construction, project management and consultation. We dedicate ourselves to our basic business philosophy of developing long term client relationships through prompt and efficient professional service with personal involvement in the specific challenges of each project.

Water Conservation

Since my last post, I have been doing some research about water conservation. Here are some tips on conserving water at home. The best site for this information compiled: Sahra

-Get your house checked for leaky pipes
-For your toilet, twice a year add a few drops of food coloring to the tank. If the colored water enters the bowl on its own, then you know you need to have it repaired. (Thanks to this link.)
-Run the dishwasher only when it is full.
-Take shorter showers (sorry)
-Water your lawn in the morning, since moisture is mostly evaporated by the sun.
-Install low-flow faucets



Also, I like the line by designer Linda Loudermilk called Water is a Human Right. Her necklace (pictured above) is gorgeous and would be a fantastic conversation piece. Afterall, conversations make all the difference as we try to move toward sustainability.