Egotecture to be branded as Ecotecture

Important Ego-Tecture Conference Announced

AYN RAND would be proud. Screw the environment and the city — what's important is to make the world safe for developers' towers and architects' egos. Yeah, that's the ticket! We'll get some mirror glass. And some Starchitects! Yeah, then we'll have a Platinum LEED tower with sealed windows and no daylight in half the building. Starchitecture LEED, now you're talkin!

The new LEED ND (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Neighborhood Development) will be better than the system we have now, which is far too lenient on the important issue of embedded energy in different construction materials. Regular LEED will give a platinum rating to an all-glass building in the middle of the desert  — like the New York Times example in their special Eco-tecture issue of the Sunday magazine on June 3, which featured a glass house in the middle of the desert by Starchitects Diller & Scofidio. Three of the four examples here seem to be for buildings that require cars for daily commutes.

Of course a building has a lower "carbon footprint" if it's in the middle of a walkable neighborhood or city, with mixed-use and good public transit, than in the middle of nowhere. And a recycled old building, buiilt before air conditioning, electric light  and petroleum, needed low-energy ways of dealing with conserving heat in the summer, natural ventilation in the summer, and adequate light all year.

In the long run, it might be just as important to make buildings we deem worthy of recycling. In other words, buildings and places we love. Twenty-five years from now, when the tower below is wearing out, will we think it's worthy of saving?

More branding info here