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 Every academic who knows nothing about sustainability but wants to get promoted in a PBRF environment is now busy writing about the subject. The result is a plethora of new books of widely varying and often doubtful merit. This seemingly inevitable result of sustainability moving from fringe to mainstream has resulted in a minefield of misinformation. Tread carefully.
 In March 2006 we looked at a wide variety of books to explore the boundaries of the topic.
You will find all the theory you need in one book.
The Hannover Principles, Design for Sustainability, William McDonough,
Expo 2000, 1992
Try to buy a copy, preferably the fifth edition
reprinted in 1999, just before the Hannover Expo 2000. The best and
most compact book on the theory of it all, and then you can also see in
other books how the best architects in the world designed in accordance
with the principles.
Some served to expand our horizons a little. There is a great deal of very good building we hear nothing about.
Architecture without architects, Bernard Rudofsky, Museum of Modern
Art, New York, 1965.
This is the book of an exhibition held at MOMA in
1964. It was important because many Western people realised both the
beauty and the environmental relevance of vernacular architecture for
the first time.
The Prodgious Builders, Bernard Rudofsky, Seeker & Warburg, London, 1977
This book simply cashed in on the popularity of Architecture without architects. It adds text and some new material, but no new ideas.
Dwelling, Paul Oliver, Phaidon, London. 2003.
An easy introductory read
with lots of illustrations. Paul has relations in Aotearoa so he visits
us from time to time. If you want to get a little more serious look at
Volume One of Pauls's Encyclopaedia of Vernacular Architecture. If you
want to delve even further look at some of Paul's earlier books.
Architecture for beginners, Louis Hellman, Writers & Readers in
association with Unwin Paperbacks, London 1986
Architects have always
believed that the latest fad is the truth. We will look at a number of
Hellman's books to increase our enjoyment of architecture.
It was then important to find out why Owner-Builders do it better than builders do.
There is a cluster of rather similar "Woodbutcher Art" books from the Hippie
era. Look at one or two to get the general idea.
Renegade Houses, Eric
Hoffman, Running Press, Philadelphia, 1982.
Rescued Buildings, Jacopetti
Vanmeter & McCall, Capra Press, Santa Barbara, 1977.
Home Made
Houses, David Liddle & Ann Taylor, Second Back Row Press, Sydney,
1980.
Handmade Homes, Arthur Boericke & Barry Shapiro, Delacorte
Press, New York, 1981.
Everything changes when you begin realising that creating a building is like writing a poem.
Dwelling, River, Freestone Publishing, Albio CA, 1974.
Find this if you can, and read to meditate. It will teach you to think of a building as poetry.
In a society where the individual is more important than the community it takes a mental leap to recognise that building is a communal activity.
Leave the ego architecture to the ego architects.
Shelter II, Shelter Publications, Bolinas CA, 1978
A typical community book where people shared ideas and experiences.
The technical issues are not as difficult as people think.
The Natural House Book, David Pearson, Angus and Robertson an imprint
of Harper Collins, Sydney, 1989, ISBN 0 207 16999 3.
A good overview
with hundreds of ideas about changing your sick house into a healthy
home.
Green architecture is concerned with relating to the environment
Environment-oriented Architecture, Masamitsu Nozawa, ISBN
4-87460-405-6
One of the seminal works from Japan. Introduces many
examples of the OM solar system which would be totally appropriate for
New Zealand where one of our most wasted resources is the heat
generated by corrugated iron.
We began learning about place at Karaka Bay
Auckland by the sea, David Johnson, David Bateman, Glenfield, 1988.
Living in little boxes is a relatively new idea.
In October 2006 we perused the following additional books.....
Housing by people, John Turner, Marion Boyars, London 1976.
When WUF3 in 2006 looked back 30 years to Habitat I in 1976 it seemed as though so little had changed - except for the worse. Everyone in New Zealand today seems to be struggling with a bureaucracy which does its best to make Green Architecture impossible. Local Government should be a friend not an enemy. It is with sadness that I suggest you look at books as old as this.
The eco-design handbook, Alastair Fuad-Luke, Thames and Hudson, London, 2002
If you want to change your life but cannot face giving up consumerism this is the book for you. It tells you about thousands of eco products, from million dollar wind turbines and electrical cars right through to lampshades or dresses made from discarded inner tubes.
Nga Tohu a Tainui, Landmarks of Tainui, Tohu Publishers, Otorohanga. 1995. (or your equivalent)
Ideally hire a Cessna and fly over your site, a few hours after dawn or a few hours before sunset, when the shadows are long. This book indicates just how much is visible from the air. Then you need the stories to flesh out the marks on the land. Your "empty" site has probably been occupied for at least a thousand years.
Agenda 21, Outcomes of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro, 1992 (Chapter 7 on Human Settlements)
It has taken twenty years for the term sustainability to gain traction. Ignorant academics say that it all began in Rio. Not true but an interesting myth. Chapter 7 began in New Zealand. Wellington architects did the political work and the draft text was written in Auckland. Maurice Strong, Secretary General flew to New Zealand and we took him yachting. Sadly the Chapter has been ignored by New Zealand bureaucrats. Read it to see where they went wrong.
Enviroschools Scrapbook 2005
More than two hundred New Zealand schools are now actively involved in the Enviroschools programme and the number is growing every year. The annual Scrapbook gives a glimpse of the widely different projects through which children are greening their schools. When you look at a "friendship bus stop", for example, you wonder why all bus stops are not designed to make it easy for people to meet each other. The children seem to be doing better than our politicians.
101 Un Useless Japanese Inventions, Ed Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Translated by Dan Papia, Harper Collins, London, 1995
We began looking at this to see how an umbrella (or a house) could collect water instead of shelterig us from it. Then it became a useful tool to see how we could change our wy of thinking about many things.
Good news for a change, David Suzuki & Holly Dressel, Allen & Unwin, Australis, 2002
We know the natural environment is in trouble. We do not need any more academics telling us that. We have many books which focus on how bad everything is, only to stop short of suggesting what we might do about it. This book brings some of the success stories into focus.
Built by Hand, Vernacular buildings around the world, Bill & Athena Steen and Eiko & Yoshio Komatsu, Gibbs Smith, Salt Lake City, 2003
Building traditions around the world were once as unique and localised as flora, fauna and landscape. Then industrialisation, globalisation, and the disempowering of those who once did the building have led to mediocre, dull uniformity. The challenge now, as Jaime Lerner said, is to globalise the local.
Passive and Low Energy Architecture, PLEA, Process Architecture 98, Process Architecture Publishing Company Limited, Tokyo, 1991
Each issue of Process focuses on a different topic. This PLEA issue illustrate how building all over the world have responded in unique ways to unique climatic conditions. It indicates that there is more to solar design than the usual cliches.
(this will probably be difficult to find.)
Architecture for a sustainable future, IBEC, Institute for Building Environment and Energy Conservation, Japan, 2003
This book is all in English and makes available to New Zealanders much of the recent Japanese reseach and thinking. A useful book to have beside you when looking at Japanese texts to help with translation.
The Japan Architect Yearbook 2004, JA 56, Winter 2005,
In New Zealand we would never dare to put a quirky tree house on the cover of a publication of this type. Compare this with Urbis. Green Architecture above all else ought to be fun. Note also the Cell Brick house constructed of a stack of 900mm wide x 450mm high x 300mm deep steel boxes. (Two people can carry one.) Also the house constructed entirely of 1,800 pre-cast concrete planks 50mm x 180mm x 3.6M maximum. Finish your three storey fireproof house in a couple of days.
Urbis 33, AGM Publishing Limited, 2006
Being Green has become fashionable. It can even sell product. It can go much further and give you an eco-holiday to convince you that saving the planet is so indulgent you might wonder if you can justify it. (You will find this copy still on your bookshelves.)
Sustainable Architecture, A report from the forefront, Glocal Document 2000
Not for beginners who will find the limited translations of the Japanese text a little difficult to follow. However once you know your way around the last twenty years or so you will find a wealth of information on some of your favourite projects.
(Probably I have the only copy of this in NZ, but you may find it elsewhere.)
Sustainable Design Guide, JIA, Tokyo, 1995
In New Zealand we began producing information sheets on sustainability for the NZIA. Akio Hayashi was impressed and took the idea back to Japan. Of course they did it all much better. The result was this book. A second volume was produced later. All in Japanese, but you do not need a translation to understand the idea, for example, of having a summer house and a winter house.
(Probably I have the only copy of this in NZ, but you may find it elsewhere.)
You may find some of these books a little difficult to find. For some
titles I suspect I have the only copy in New Zealand but at least you
will be able to enjoy them down at Karaka Bay.
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