my classroom...

27 computers and 20 drafting tables...a little congested no?

urban green project

clients of john joyce architects (by whom my dh has been employed by outside of SAIC) set up this site to document the progress on their "green" home project. i especially like that they've included a blog component to more personally illustrate the day to day experience for people considering building a green home either from scratch or adapting an older building as such.

ready, set, go...

school starts next week for me...prep anyway...with students coming after labor day. as i'm trying to get my mind and materials right for the year, i am pleased that the first year of the architecture curriculum i'll be teaching is based on a case study of the F10 house, an exemplary green/environmentally sustainable residential building on the north west-side of chicago. i'm sooooo excited! also looking through how thoughtful the curriculum is...i am grateful to the architects and educators that put so much work into it. i am excited to supplement with other examples like the ehouse 2000 etc.

massive post

Sketchbook entries from the massive change teacher institute:

the massive change teacher institute at the MCA.... the show doesn't open until september but 24 teachers got together to learn about sustainability and social action in order to start after school clubs at schoool funded by the chicago conservation corps first got an overview from a person who was in the Institute without Boundaries

the economies:

i was really inspired by their manifesto in terms of design economies...

urban: we will create urban shelter for the entire world population
movement: we will enable sustainable mobility
energy: we will bring energy to the entire world
image: we will make visible the as yet invisible
information: we will build a global mind
market: we will seamlessly integrate supply and demand around the world
material: we will build intelligence into materials and liberate form from matter
military: will we shift from the service of war to the service of life? (peace?)
manufacturing: we will eliminate the need for raw material and banish all waste.
living: we will design evolution
wealth and politics: we will eradicate poverty


however they lost me with the design evolution one, the one illustrated by a featherless chicken, man! it was about using our technology totally efficiently. for instance if chicken feathers are a problem in factory farms because of disease and air conditioning needs, maybe we should just breed the feathers out. wtf? seems like an odd priority. over eliminating factory farming or promoting not eating them period since you can feed more people on a vegetarian diet than not.







some highlights from the institute were...
harvesting out lunch atCity farm and shopping for recycled materials at the creative re-use warehouse of the Resource Center
Organic Food
silk screening posters mike bancroft of coop image
a tour of the 11 landfills on the far south east side of the city...South Eastern Environmental Task Force
I had a great conversation with Josh MacPhee of radical poster art/history/documentatio organizationjust seeds about my thesis. i'm going to take his suggestion and make a little artist book of my typology and try to distribute it to quimby's or something if they'll have it.

with my C3 (Chicago Conservation Club or Conservation Changemaker Club) I hope to work with my students to design and build a rain catchment system for the school thats a little more interesting than your average plastic rain barrels. we'll see what happens =).


oh and on an unrelated note, i see that association for community design has a new website!

Civic Footprint

if you need to know your political geography and you live in cook county, check out: Civic Footprint

a 'massive' post is on its way from the massive change teacher institute i've been participating in over the past 2 weeks. sketchbook inquiries, reflection on chicago conservation corps training, revelations on sustainability, useful links etc.

Green the Ghetto!

Mad Architect just hipped me to this org in NY. i'm definitely going to support by buying a green the ghetto t-shirt!