Stair Master

I love Staircases. For me, 'staircase' equals 'opportunity for creativity'.

For one of my recent projects, I designed an anticlockwise stainless steel curved staircase with grass treads and open risers! The staircase looked beautiful, sleek and sexy, but for reasons beyond my control had to change to steel and wood at a later stage of design. Sighh!

Would like to share some inspiring excerpts from the homework I did before designing the glass staircase. Click on the pic (a compilation of my references) to get inspired!

THE GREEN BUILDING REVOLUTION

In response to the rising demands, the construction sector has embarked on projects and partnerships in several countries to improve sustainability performance. A number of tools and rating systems have been created in order to assess and compare the environmental performance of buildings.

These initiatives have already had an impact on how buildings are designed, constructed and maintained, the primary focus being improving the long-term performance of buildings by taking into account long-term benefits and costs. Such environmentally responsible buildings came to be called Green Buildings. The following are some of the Green building ratings systems developed worldwide.

o The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™ developed in the US

o Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) developed in England

o High Quality Environmental standard (HQE) developed in France.

Of these LEED has been among the most widely adopted, with State and local governments across United States adopting LEED for their public-owned and public-funded buildings. LEED compliant projects are in progress in 41 different countries, including Canada, Brazil, Mexico and India.

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) TM

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEEDTM) is a third-party certification program and the internationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings developed by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC).

LEED encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green buildings and development of practices through the creation and implementation of universally understood and accepted tools and performance criteria. It also provides building owners and operators the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable impact of their buildings’ performance.

LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health:

o Sustainable site development

o Water savings

o Energy efficiency

o Materials selection

o Indoor Environmental Quality

LEED® Green Building Certification System

LEED for New Construction and Major Renovations is designed to guide and distinguish high-performance commercial and institutional projects.

LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations & Maintenance provides a benchmark for building owners and operators to measure operations, improvements and maintenance.

LEED for Commercial Interiors is a benchmark for the tenant improvement market that gives the power to make sustainable choices to tenants and designers.

LEED for Core & Shell aids designers, builders, developers and new building owners in implementing sustainable design for new core and shell construction.

LEED for Schools recognizes the unique nature of the design and construction of K-12 schools and addresses the specific needs of school spaces.

LEED for Retail recognizes the unique nature of retail design and construction projects and addresses the specific needs of retail spaces.

LEED for Healthcare promotes sustainable planning, design and construction for high-performance healthcare facilities.

LEED for Homes promotes the design and construction of high-performance green homes.

LEED for Neighborhood Development integrates the principles of smart growth, urbanism and green building into the first national program for neighborhood design.

ADOPTION OF LEED CERTIFIED GREEN BUILDINGS

LEED has been a galvanizing force in the industry and has helped accelerate the trend towards Green Buildings. Today there are 16,727 member organizations including corporations, governmental agencies, nonprofits and others from throughout the industry.

Every business day, $464 million worth of construction registers with LEED. By 2009, 80% of corporate America are expected to be engaged in green at least 16% of the time, and 20% will be engaged in green 60% of the time. According to the McGraw Hill Green Building Smart Market Report 2006, approximately 10% of commercial construction starts are expected to be green by 2010, and the overall value of Green Building construction projects is expected to increase to $60 billion by 2010.

In India, the awareness and adoption of Green Building is picking up, aided by the development of the LEED-INDIA Green Building Rating System adopted by the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC). The two specific programs have been currently adopted

o LEED India for New Construction (LEED India NC)

o LEED India for Core and Shell (LEED India CS)

IGBC now has 366 members, and there are 254 registered buildings, with 26 of these buildings already getting LEED certified. Totally in India we now have 151 million square feet of Green Building footprint. Additionally the IGBC Green Homes rating system has 65 registered buildings and 88 million square feet of Green Home footprint.

An Experiment on 'MASSING'

My latest work.

An experiment on 'massing'.

Which one appeals to eyes the most?

Cast your opinion.

I liked the 3 storey one!

WHY BUILD?

United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) declared the Building and Construction sector as a key sector for sustainable development. This sector represents over 111 million people directly employed worldwide and typically provides 5 to 10% of employment at the national level and normally generates 5 to 15% of the GDP.

The built environment has a profound impact on our natural environment, economy, health, and productivity. The construction industry is one of the largest energy consuming sectors, with the built environment contributing to 20% of water use, 25-40% of energy use, 30-40% of solid waste generation, and 30-40% of global greenhouse gas emission in each country.

Ministry of Power estimate indicates that about 20 to 25 percent of the total electricity consumed in government buildings in India is wasted because of inefficient design parameters of buildings, which results in an annual energy related financial loss of about 150 crore rupees.

The building and construction sector is increasingly under pressure from authorities and the public to address environmental and social issues. It is high time that the definition of architecture and the role of architects underwent a significant change where the keyword should be ‘responsibility’. And as trained architects, we need to realize the importance to un-build and unlearn.

The role of architect should no longer be primarily ‘builder’, it has to be ‘pioneer’ or ‘guide’, who would lead the key players of construction sector into creating a sustainable built environment. Architect should be an ‘activist’ who would be the first to react when the planet shows signs of decay and the icebergs start melting. We are to a great extend responsible for the ‘inconvenient truth’, better that we own it and start un-building the follies that were done and are currently happening.

As architects, most of us ask ourselves the fundamental questions ‘why do we build?’ and ‘how to build?’ from time to time. But now we should start asking ourselves and each other a more fundamental question of great relevance to changing times, “Why Build?” Maybe the answer will be the beacon towards a sustainable world.

GREAT WOMEN ARCHITECTS

Architecture has also been a man’s domain for a long time and role of women is still overlooked in the profession. In my 5 years of student architect life, the ratio of boy to girl students has been 1:3 which has in the last 10 years changed to 1:1. Maybe it is time that we looked at the women who have overcome obstacles, designed landmark buildings and established successful architecture careers.

In the first post of Architalks, get introduced to 9 such wonderful ladies who made remarkable contributions to the world of architecture by their outstanding works.

1. Anna Keichline

First registered architect woman of Pennsylvania. She invented the fire proof hollow block and named it the "K Brick," a precursor to the present day concrete block.

2. Denise Scott Brown

She had made significant contributions to the field of urban design before she met her future husband, Robert Venturi. She made remarkable contributions in the form of her research and teachings in Architecture, aimed at the modern understanding of the relationship between architecture and community.

3. Eileen Gray

Eileen Gray's contributions were overlooked for many years, but she is now considered one of the most influential designers of modern times. Many Art Deco and Bauhaus architects and designers found inspiration in Eileen Gray's furniture and house designs.

4. Julia Morgan

Julia Morgan was the first woman to study architecture at the prestigious Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the first woman to work as a professional architect in California. During her 45-year career, Julia Morgan designed more than 700 homes, churches, office buildings, hospitals, stores, and educational buildings, including the famous Hearst Castle.

5. Marion Mahony Griffin

Frank Lloyd Wright's first employee was a woman, and she became the world's first woman to be officially licensed as an architect. Like many other women who design buildings, Wright's employee was lost in the shadow of her male associates. Nevertheless, Marion Mahony Griffin contributed greatly to Wright's career and also to the career of her husband, Walter Burley Griffin.

6. Maya Lin

Trained as an artist and an architect, Maya Lin is best known for her large, minimalist sculptures and monuments. When she was only 21 and still a student, Lin created the winning design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC.

7. Norma Merrick Sklarek

Norma Merrick Sklarek was the first black woman to become licensed architect in the United States. She was also the first black woman honored by Fellowship in AIA. Her many projects include a new terminal, serving 10 million annual passengers, for Los Angeles International Airport.

8. Susana Torre

Susana Torre describes herself as a feminist. Through her teaching, writing, and architectural practice, she works to improve the status of women in architecture.

9. Zaha Hadid

Born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1950, Zaha Hadid is the first woman to win a Pritzker Architecture Prize. Her work experiments with new spatial concepts and encompasses all fields of design, ranging from urban spaces to products and furniture.
http://oxy-i-gen.blogspot.com/2009/08/zaha-hadid-career-graph.html