ArchWeek - LEEDing Green in India

[leini]

i don't know so much about the barefoot architects, but here's a link that explains their basic philosophy...

http://www.akdn.org/agency/akaa/eighthcycle/page_03txt.htm

i think that living in a developing nation you begin to realise that making eco-friendly architecture accessible to a majority of the population means using cost-effective methods; cheap buildings that can be utilised by people who normally cannot even afford proper housing. this is where LEED cannot help, since they deal with commercial buildings. i'm sure we all agree that no architecture is sustainable unless it is economically viable. to elaborate on this point, look at the work of hassan fathy in egypt; his use of "appropriate technology" and laurie baker in kerala, india.

this is not in any way to undermine the efforts of LEED, which i think are considerable, but just to sort of bring attention to similar efforts being made in different areas of architecture.

[arzan]

Lieni

This is in response to your post. Being an architect from India and practising both in Bombay and now in New York i would like to throw some light on a couple of points raised in this discussion.

Firstly Lieni is correct that the CII building in Hyderabad is a very small building. BUT then i disagree with the statement that it does not work on large scale buildings.

In the office i work in Cook + Fox Architects http://www.cookplusfox.com we are designing by far the largest green building to date.

The name of the project is One Bryant Park and it is going to be the headquarters of Bank of America. It is a 2 million square feet building in the heart of mid town Mahnattan...arguably one of the densest urban real estate in the world.

The building will get a PLATINUM Rating.

The LEED Rating makes it possible for us as architects to convince our clients and more importantly the Bank of America that it makes sense for them to adopt green guidelines in the buildings they build and occupy. BofA is setting a path for other corporations to follow and we are optimistic that it can be done.

You can find a lot more info about the building on our office website or in the media where it has been covered.[url][/url]

[Donald]

WOW....2 million SF of urban platinum leed space in midtown manhattan certainly needs to be recognized as one of the front runners of mammoth green buildings to date...and deserving of being listed as one of the top ten contenders for the 2005 candidates....in the heavy weight division

The AIA invites U.S. licensed architects to submit high performance, sustainable design solutions for the 2005 AIA/COTE Top Ten Green Projects competition, and can register it here for next years review and selection:
http://www.aiatopten.org/

Do you have any links to view the listing of materials being proposed from the recycled and renewable category and your NYC sources of such materials? If not, maybe you can give us a sampling here