New Book: People Planet Design
Now available from Island Press, use the code PPD, which is good for a 20% discount.
You can also order it from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and your local independent bookseller.
North Americans spend more than 90% of their lives inside. Yet the way our buildings are designed and constructed is not serving people’s best interests. Too often, architecture practice aims too low, misdirects attention, and falls short of its potential, resulting in a modern architectural landscape where buildings contribute 40% of carbon emissions, users are separated from the natural world, and interior environments are laced with environmental toxins. While green building rating systems or new technologies can help architects to reduce a project’s ecological footprint, the promise of good design will not be realized by checking boxes on a list. Architects need a clear vision of what architecture can and should achieve, and a deeper, more holistic understanding of how each decision impacts the health of people and the planet.
In People, Planet, Design: A Practical Guide to Realizing Architecture’s Potential, architect and sustainable design consultant Corey Squire delivers a vital guide to how good design can help mitigate climate change, support ecological functioning, and heal communities. A practitioner with years of experience leading sustainability initiatives at top design firms, Squire provides the data and practical tools needed to create transformative human-centered architecture, from creating a shared firm vision, to optimizing window layouts, to helping clients maximize the potential of their investments. Squire advocates for an approach that integrates beauty and delight in architecture with an awareness of how every design choice impacts the planet, the community, and the people who will use the building. People, Planet, Design features original drawings, by architect and illustrator Helena Zambrano, that bring key concepts to life.
Squire takes readers through the history of sustainable design before proposing new ways of thinking about architecture’s purpose and promise. He addresses how architecture practices can create a positive work culture and effective design processes, resulting in high-performing buildings and a healthy, supportive environment for employees. Squire shares specific design strategies and showcases ten building systems that will result in healthy, beautiful, sustainable buildings for people and the planet.
Essential reading for architects, students, owners, and allied professionals who want to transform what the profession means, People, Planet, Design pioneers a new vision for sustainable architecture and sets clear guidance on implementing it. High-performance, beautiful, and equitable architecture is not a trend, it’s the future, one that the world badly needs.
Support for High Performance Design
Dept. of Sustainability is a standalone ‘building performance unit’ that can partner with architecture firms to support sustainability and high-performance design for a single project or for the firm as a whole. The focus is in integrating the technical aspects building performance into any project or workflow and on supporting teams to achieve excellence on every project. Rooted in architecture and drawing from diverse fields such as building science, ecology, and environmental psychology, we seek solutions that promote happy and healthy occupants, communities, and natural environments.
Philosophy of Design Excellence
A holistic interpretation of “design excellence” looks at all aspects of design, from form to function to impacts within our wall and beyond our site lines. While beauty and strength of concept continue to be fundamental to great architecture, a broadening of the definition of design excellence assigns equal importance to aesthetic beauty, human health and comfort, vibrant communities, and ecological resilience. This concept is not new, it’s been around for thousands of years, memorialized by the three Vitruvian virtues of firmitas, utilitas, and venustas. Our goal as architects is to create buildings that perform as well as they look. By embracing this philosophy, the architecture profession has a nearly endless opportunity to deepen the meaning of our work and to expand our reach.