Sustainable Design

The idea of sustainable design is one that has become increasingly important in recent years as the world is becoming more energy conscious and environmentally aware.
1)Architectural Record magazine (http://archrecord.construction.com/) recently featured an article explaining that architects must tackle the air conditioning units in order to be able to produce low-energy, zero-carbon designs. According to Dwell, sustainable design must be able to combat heat without adding making earth hotter. Currently any innovations to solve this problem have lead to problems of their own, so for know, this is one definite thing to put on the sustainable building checklist.
-must have low-energy, zero-carbon cooling systems.
2) Green Source magazine (http://greensource.construction.com/) recently featured an article where apartments are being built in Chicago. The researchers there believe that high income housing is a step away from sustainability. They believe that "If we can reduce the operating cost on these buildings through green technology or any other tool, we will explore it and take it to its logical conclusion."
-must have inexpensive sustainable technology
3) Dwell magazine (http://www.dwell.com/) featured an article about people houses in Houston that were able to incorporate green design into their everyday lives. These houses are sustainable because they use radiant barrier house wrap in the roofs of their houses to repel heat and save them from running the air conditioning. They also use Cool Tone shingles which also repel heat and light. These houses are relatively small, but seem to be keeping the tenants and the environment happy.
-must repel heat, not trap it.
4)Interior Design (ID) (http://www.id-mag.com/) featured an article where chairs were made out of PET felt, which is made of recycled bottles and doesn't need to use resins or glues but conforms to any shape. Because it needs no frame, this chair is 100% recyclable.
-must use recycled material
5)Interior Sources magazine (http://www.isdesignet.com/) has a list that states where you can buy green paints and other materials, making it that much easier to find sustainable alternatives. This lists who certifies it, who sells it, etc.
-must be easily accessible for greater use.
6) Metropolis magazine (http://www.metropolismag.com/) featured a discussion on how to promote green design and how to prevent urban sprawl. This was an mp3 discussing how to incorporate sustainability into design and how to change the skyline of our cities.
-must be incorporated into education.
7) Contract magazine (http://www.contractmagazine.com/contract/index.jsp) also featured a in depth discussion about sustainability. They defined sustainability as " meeting the needs of the present without inhibiting future generations from meeting their own needs." The article basically discusses how to be future minded designers and how to explain green design to clients in a way that will steer them toward wanting to incorporate this into their projects.
-must be geared toward the future in that it will last.
8) the Architects Journal (http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/index.html) had one article in their journal that basically talked at length about why sustainable design is not the most practical at this point in time. One particularly insightful comment was,"architects must go beyond simply listing a building's green features, and must provide a quantitative guide to how environmentally friendly a project is." I thought that this a really intelligent criticism of the field. In my limited experience I have found that this is true.
-must actually be helping the environment, not just using green items.
9) The link to this article was in Canadian Architect (http://www.cdnarchitect.com/). it addressed the issue of the confusion regarding the many green articles now being produced. Apparently this is an issue of frustration for manufacturers, because people want to be able to use green articles the same as they would use environmentally damaging things without taking into account that they are different have different instructions regarding them.
-must be willing to go do extra work for the environment.
10)EcoIQ magazine (http://www.ecoiq.com/) features many people and articles on sustainable design and buildings. I browsed through this online journal for some time. It was really very interesting to read about all of the many groundbreaking new ideas and technologies that are going to make designing green buildings that much more an actualized possibility.
-must be on the forefront of technological advances.