Elemental

These are my links for December 21st through December 27th:

• Waking Up from the ‘Nightmare on Tech Street’ – O’Reilly Radar – "maybe we've reached the pinnacle of waste in our consumer culture. I do wonder if we will look back at the past few decades as a kind of sick aberration rather than a golden age, with good times we want to get back to. Like Saul, I'm hopeful that we can get rid of the waste, and get back to creating things of lasting value."
• Government to cap cost of zero carbon to housebuilders – Building – "Paul King, chief executive of the UKGBC, said: “Simply offsetting emissions in nearby existing homes through energy efficiency improvements is not a solution – we need radical action in both new homes and existing homes; it's not an either/or. We urge government to stick to its guns. A 'zero-carbon home' built using this mechanism would not be doing what it said on the tin.”"
• NYT: No Furnaces but Heat Aplenty – Passivhaus gets a write-up in the New York Times. Good, balanced piece, with drawbacks as well as benefits listed (not suitable for large or north facing, internal environment feels a bit spaceship like). Also mentions Europe heading to Passivhaus by 2011.
• Cognitive Edge – liberty is the recognition of want – "…the human response to the commons historically has been enclosure and feudalism. I see no reason to change that judgement; in a world of increasing resource restriction it is the most likely model that will emerge. I would also argue that you already see its early modern form in multi-nationals. CEOs have the absolute power of medieval monarchs, Vice Presidents mange their estates and occasional unite to overthrow the King. Serfs (contractors) and Freemen (tenured employees) all have their role and there even incidents of droit du seigneur. Countries and international bodies have a similar role to that the Papacy."
• Sustainable Development in Government Assessment – This is the seventh annual Sustainable Development in Government (SDiG) assessment, examining central government's performance against the operations and procurement targets and commitments of the Framework for Sustainable Operations on the Government Estate (SOGE). It is based on data provided by departments for the period 2007/08, and is undertaken by the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) – Government's independent advisor and watchdog for sustainable development.
• Paul Miller » Blog Archive » “Representative democracy was based on the idea that people are thick” – "The infrastructure of representative democracy, which in the UK is really political parties, is struggling far more than people recognise. I don’t think it would take much for any of the political parties to collapse very quickly because alternative ways of organising and financing are very close to having the same efficiency as parties."
• BD+C White Paper Takes a Hard Look at Green Building, Climate Change – Green Building Blog – Jetson Green – Good review of the paper which is sitting in my in-tray for reading right now…
• ‘Green’ consultations costing industry millions – "She said that research by consultant Grace Bennett from JDS Associates indicated that a total of 12 consultations had been undertaken by various government departments on zero carbon homes and the Code for Sustainable Homes since 2005. She pointed out this was equivalent to one consultation per zero carbon home built so far."
• What’s old is green | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist – "Before the thermostat age, he likes to say, which lets us command internal temperature and climate with a press of a button, "the things we built had to be green, otherwise you simply couldn't live there." In hot climates, homes had to naturally cool themselves. In cold climates, they had to trap the heat. And this happened by design, with architectural elements that these days may seem like decoration, but once had form that came from function."…"One other ingredient that makes a house green, an often overlooked ingredient in sustainability: lovability. It can be solar as all get-out, but if you don't love it, you might be tempted to tear it down and start over. "If a building can't be loved," Mouzon says, "it can never be completely green.""
• Estidama – Launched in May 2008, Estidama, which means 'sustainability' in Arabic is Abu Dhabi's sustainable buildings and communities program and aims to ensure sustainable design, operation and maintenance of all types of buildings and communities in the Emirate.
• Riba Practice – Riba Journal – Jon Goodbun shakes up the political agenda over at RIBA Journal with a review of be2camp: "Technology is not in itself inherently progressive, of course. It is entirely possible that these ‘trendy web tools’ could end up supporting more unsustainable capitalist development. However, new technology is always in some sense ‘up for grabs’ – it is always a site of political and social struggle – and it was clear that for many of the delegates at be2camp 2008, these tools were part of a broader intellectual shift towards a ‘networked ecological human-planetary systems’ paradigm, which, it was argued, must form the essential infrastructure of any modern future post-capitalist sustainable society." awaiting outraged letters of complaint…
• ArchNewsNow – Best Architecture Books of 2008 – Review of Irena's book: "Bauman Lyons Architects, How to be a Happy Architect (Black Dog Publishing, $40). The jive title is simply an obvious bait to get you to buy a book that is really about how to be an architect happily profiting from an integrated practice. The case for integrated design here is a bit intellectually lightweight, but this combo advertisement for the UK’s boldest firm of recent years attached to a manifesto for integrated design is an entertaining read. The bile directed against design competitions will make you smile – even if you beg to differ. "
• The Stupidity of Government Intervention – You Decide « Keeping Ahead of the Oil Curve – "Intervention kidnaps money that would otherwise be available to businesspeople and entrepreneurs… and it invests it in places that businesspeople and entrepreneurs would never put their money… like uncompetitive car companies or failed banks. Then it creates unintended consequences that make everyone poorer."
• Sustainability and the role legislation has to play « – Enjoying XCO2's new blog, including: "A lot of legislation can lead to alienation of designers and the whole sustainability design process can become a “box-ticking” exercise for architects and engineers. This can result in repetitive solutions and the stifling of innovation, for example, the proliferation of biomass boilers in the London area to meet the aforementioned renewable targets. The increase in wood-burning biomass boilers has also led to another weakness of legislation, unforeseen circumstances. Biomass boilers typically have NOx emissions five to ten times greater than condensing gas boilers, a negligeable issue in low density areas, but a concern in inner-city areas, which may start seeing an increase in NOx levels due to the propagation of biomass."
• OGC – The Public Sector Construction Database and the Econometric Model – The Public Sector Construction Database (PSCD) was developed to collect data on future public sector construction programmes and projects for analysis and reporting, in a web-based and real-time format. The database aims to provide visibility of public sector demand and spending patterns in order for the demand side to take cognisance of the effect of public sector construction demands on their projects and programmes and the supply side with intelligence to inform their investment decisions.
• Cadalyst Online PlanRoom :: Log In – The Cadalyst Online PlanRoom is a secure, Web-based project management system, offering 1GB of free, easy-to-use, time-saving tools to help you collaborate and streamline projects by centralizing plans, large-format drawings and associated small files in one place.

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