Things that make me go hmmmmm. #Architecture #Sustainability #Design

I think you might be onto something here Jessica…

“…dualistic, conceptual assumptions can mask important material attributes that have physical consequences for environmental, economic, and social health. 

As a result of discounting material options without proper investigation, designers may implement solutions that are less beneficial for a given context than other available alternatives. In the field of sustainable design, many professionals ideologically favor either “high-performance” or “low-impact” approaches. As high-performance designers gravitate toward materials deemed highly technological, globally renowned, and symbolically modern, they may overlook selections that do not meet their common criteria.

Likewise, low-impact designers favor materials they consider to be lower technology, locally cultivated, and historically embedded, and they can alienate innovations that arise beyond their area of focus. While designers’ patterns of thinking are based on experience, which is applied to ease decision making, sustainability is a complex challenge that requires decision makers to rethink their conventions through more thorough inquiries.”

From

ECOLOGICALDUALISMS UNDONE:  EXPLORING THE ROLES OF IDEOLOGIES,ZERO WASTE, AND QUALITATIVE LIFE-CYCLE ANALYSIS IN PUNTA CANA’S BUILDINGMATERIAL CULTURE

Thesis By 
Jessica Anne Ekblaw

Graduate School of Cornell University

January 2012