The UN identifies chemical usage as a particular global concern, destructive to land, water and air, negatively affecting both human health and environmental wellbeing. Carbon pollution from production of building materials contributes to an estimated 11% of all global emissions. The challenges of growing populations and demands for extensive new ......
A Practical Guide to Realizing Architecture's Potential
If you were asked to close your eyes and envision where you are happiest, would you picture somewhere inside a building? North Americans are inside buildings for more than 90% of the day. Meanwhile, the indoors are stifling us, sometimes even killing us. Buildings, and the materials that make them up, expose us to materials linked to negative ......
In Portland's Good Life, R. Bruce Stephenson discusses how Portland's investment in sustainability helped stave off climate change and COVID-19. Stephenson tells the timeless story of the city's private citizens who, devoted to the public good and grounded in the good life, built a city that honors their humanity.
There is almost nothing new left to say about the urgent need to reduce our devastating impact on the biosphere that supports us. In architectural terms, we have been told since the 1960s that mainstream architecture is not engaged enough with the environmental consequences of what it produces and how it produces it. The usual approach is to ......
Our relationship with our homes changed in 2020 when the pandemic known as Covid-19 led to enforced periods of self-isolation, called 'lockdown'. We got to know our living spaces intimately and learned the greatest risk of infection was indoors through the breath we shared in poorly ventilated spaces, where microbial atmospheres could work their ......
The Japanese Garden at Tatton Park is considered 'one of the finest examples of a Japanese garden in Europe'. In her book The Japanese Garden at Tatton, the author has captured the many seasonal aspects of the garden through her intimate knowledge and passion for this special place.
This book explores the wealth of wooden architecture that is to be found in Northern Europe, in particular, the Fennoscandian Peninsula. This distinct region, which includes Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Russian Republic of Karelia, was dominated by coniferous forest and remained until well into the 20th century a largely rural society. Wood was ......
This useful guide sets out clearly the urban-design process in practice, from initial site analysis through consultation, design development, and design delivery across a range of scales within the built environment. It provides the reader with a clear overview of the role which urban design and urban designers play in shaping and creating ......