GAB Report library
Buildings
-
Fighting for Our Message: Energy Efficiency and Beyond
The 2017 Beyond Energy Efficiency Conference hosted by Build It Green was an inspirational success, well attended by over 250 attendees including 43 speakers and 13 exhibitors. It took place at the Zero Net Energy Center in San Leandro, California, a training center for electrical apprentices from IBEW Local 595 and NECA, and the first…
-
Building Below Zero: The Net Zero Plus Transformation
Thank you PBS for spreading the word – net zero buildings are front and center now. American public TV station PBS recently aired “Building Below Zero: The Net Zero Plus Transformation,” a documentary written, produced and directed by Jim Jackson. Actor and environmentalist Ted Danson narrates this examination of moving beyond net zero to net…
-
Why Green Building Materials Are Here to Stay
Editor’s Note: Contributing author Megan Ray Nichols created and writes for her own blog Schooled by Science. Green building practices and materials are growing in popularity in the United States as well as throughout the world. Indeed, given the increasing need for sustainability and the finite nature of the world’s resources, almost all buildings will…
-
Hua Nan Bank Goes for the Gold
The Xinyi Central Business District in Taipei, Taiwan is home to a handful of buildings designed by well known architecture firms including C.Y. Lee & Partners of Taipei 101 fame, Paris-based Vincent Callebaut Architectures, U.S.-based Richard Meier and Partners, and Taipei-based KRIS YAO | ARTECH. Recently I had a chance to tour the office headquarters…
-
NZE Library as Students’ Live Learning Lab
Editor’s Note: This article consists of writing from the Editor as well as WRNS Studio. In light of the upcoming Net Positive Energy and Water Conference to be held on February 18-19 in San Diego, California, I reflect upon the outstanding projects that were showcased at the 2014 Net Positive Energy and Water Conference organized…
-
Solar Serpents as Adaptable Global Solution
Editor’s Note: The Solar Serpent in Paradise project was brought to my attention by Mans Tham, a Stockholm-based architect and urban strategist who was educated in Stockholm as well as at U.C. Berkeley. One of his post-graduate classes examined how urban life would change due to peak oil usage in Los Angeles, California, Shanghai, China, and…
-
From Down and Out to Solar Pioneer
The Housing Authority of the County of Santa Clara (HACSC) has successfully transformed a previously foreclosed federal housing complex into a dignified and energy efficient, affordable family housing complex that annually feeds 244,350 kWh of renewable energy to the power grid and enables all the residents to “go solar” and reap the cost benefits of…
-
Triple Green Building Certification Is Achievable
Portland and Seattle-based builder Hammer & Hand was recently awarded the 2015 Housing Innovation Award from the U.S. Department of Energy for its energy consulting on and construction of the Pumpkin Ridge Passive House designed by Scott | Edwards Architecture. Builder and architect worked together closely to meet the homeowners’ spatial and aesthetic goals while also meeting the performance…
-
Winners of 2nd perFORM Building Design Competition
The winners of the perFORM 2015 Building Design Competition were announced by Hammer & Hand at a ceremony held at AIA Portland’s Center for Architecture. Winning Entry: Jon Lund, Narek Mirzaei, and Luis Sabater Musa, University of Cincinnati. Runner-Up: Sang-Oh Jo, JungA Hong, and Do Yoon Kim, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Runner-Up: Eduardo Gandara, California State…
-
Historic Rutgers University Welcomes New Green Campus
Rutgers University is the eighth-oldest college in the United States, and one of only nine to be founded before the American Revolution. Located on the banks of the Raritan River in New Brunswick, NJ, it famously hosted the first intercollegiate football game ever played in 1869. Since its establishment, the Old Queen’s campus (as it’s…