March 14, 2008 3:57 PM
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Treehugger.com (now part of Discovery Communications) is a popular green and sustainability blog. This week they released
a list of ten tips for new home buyers looking for a "sustainable home." Along with the usual advice to buy a smaller house, and to live near mass transit, two of the tips speak directly to landscape. From the article:
9. Shade grown?Trees are good for a lot more than hugging, so take a peek outside your potential new digs to check out the foliage the comes with the place. Big deciduous (leafy) trees are great natural climate controllers; in the summer, their leafy branches block the sun and can help keep your home cooler (reducing cooling costs), and, in the winter, the bare branches let more natural light and heat through to your home (reducing heating costs). Big old trees also offer potential homes for our fine feathered friends, who can be helpful in maintaining your organic garden. Your neighborhood's biodiversity will benefit, too. 10. More great outdoors
Ask yourself a couple more questions: Is there is big lawn that requires care (and lots of water) to maintain? (Remember, this isn't always up to you; some neighborhoods have homeowners' association rules that requires a certain level of lawn manicuring.) Is there a good, sunny place for a garden, to grow your own food, or is there a good space for some good container gardening? Will you have room for a compost pile, or just a small compost bin?
Seems like home buyers, even in this challenging market, will want to buy a home with a intelligently-designed landscape.
March 5, 2008 10:05 AM
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Take the time to read
Architectural Record's piece this week about how the sustainability movement is encouraging architecture and landscape architecture firms to work more closely together.
From the article:
As architects attempt ever more ambitious feats with green projects, the collaborative relationship between members of a design team is becoming more important. Landscape architects, in particular, are codifying their role and taking on additional responsibilities. “It is not about just dressing something that the architect gives us,” [John Loomis, ASLA] says. “We would always like to be in there right at the same time the architect starts on the project, if possible.”Hear, hear.
February 26, 2008 11:16 AM
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In a
report released last week, the National Gardening Association has found that nearly 91 million Americans participated in "lawn and garden activities" in 2005. In addition,
Americans spent $44.7 billion to hire professional lawn and landscape services to improve their outdoor spaces. So who are these new gardeners? According to the NGA, they are young people.
"In a world going green, the under-35s have taken it upon themselves to make positive use of their natural surroundings. College courses and easily accessible online resources have turned what was once referred to as a middle-aged pastime into a multibillion-dollar-a-year industry. Before the rise of the Internet, those who may have desired to grow their own tomatoes might have been baffled by the prospect, struggling to find information in their local library. Today, however, prospective gardeners are but a few clicks away from a plethora of knowledge."
The whole piece is worth a read; check it out here.
February 8, 2008 11:04 AM
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Take the time to read "
All Hemmed In" in this week's
LA Times Home and Garden section on the rise and pernicious hegemony of foundation plantings around homes in the US. No less than five ASLA members and Fellows are interviewed, to boot.
Here's Fellow
Mia Lehrer's take on shrubs:
But there is a big difference between strategically placed plants used to moderate the scale of an imposing house or to create a welcoming entrance, and a uniform collar of shrubbery, says Mia Lehrer, a Los Angeles landscape architect. Put simply, one is punctuation, and the other is fortification.The Dirt suggests printing this out and giving it to your next client who can't stand the thought of a "naked" foundation wall.
February 5, 2008 5:05 PM
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"Videophilia" (the love of television and computer screens) seems to be winning out over the love of nature. In a new report published this week in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers found evidence of "a fundamental and pervasive shift away from nature-based recreation." By counting trips to state and local parks, along with the issuance of hunting and fishing licenses over the past 25 years, the Nature Conservancy-sponsored report found 18 percent and 25 percent declines in various types of outdoor recreation.
"The replacement of vigorous outdoor activities by sedentary, indoor videophilia has far-reaching consequences for physical and mental health, especially in children," wrote co-authors Oliver R. W. Pergams and Patricia A. Zaradic a statement. "Videophilia has been shown to be a cause of obesity, lack of socialization, attention disorders and poor academic performance."The abstract can be found
here, and here is the full report [
subscription required; pdf].
January 31, 2008 5:25 PM
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“It’s not about life or death,” says well-known Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf. “It’s about looking good.” What's he talking about? Gardens in winter, of course. The
New York Times recently interviewed Oudolf about his thought-provoking ideas on looks good in a garden year-round. His "New Wave Planting" style has many fans around the world. And how's this for a quote about his work?
"'He’s gotten away from the soft pornography of the flower,' said Charles Waldheim, the director of the landscape architecture program at the University of Toronto." Wow.
Oudolf's work appears in the Millennium Park in Chicago and will also be part of the new High Line in New York City. Jim Corner, ASLA, and others are interviewed about Oudolf's work as well. Give it a read
here.
[Photo courtesy NYT]
January 31, 2008 10:15 AM
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Our friends at
AIArchitect, the news publication of the AIA, have released
their findings of their latest economic survey. The news? In the face of a troubled US economy and with factors like $100 barrels of oil and lowering consumer confidence clouding the horizon, it is difficult to imagine that the growth in construction that firms have enjoyed in the past six years will continue unabated. However, the survey notes that the industry is entering 2008 with "a lot of momentum."
Here's the key, hopeful point:
While most design firms are likely to face a slowdown over the 2008-2009 period, it is unlikely to turn into a full-fledged downturn like the profession faced in the early 1990s, or even like the downturn earlier this decade.Read the whole informative article
here.
January 8, 2008 2:16 PM
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From the "what's on the client's mind?" file: this week a writer for Slate.com answers this question about trees and carbon sequestration:
"
My husband and I intend to plant some trees on our property this spring. We'd like to do our part in the fight against climate change, so we're looking for trees that can sequester exceptionally large amounts of carbon. Can you recommend a specific species, one that's the acknowledged champ at reducing greenhouse gases?"
The whole answer is an interesting read, although the writer is not an expert in the field by any means. Sound off, Dirt readers: have your clients been asking for more sustainable landscapes? What are they looking for these days? Let us know in the comments.
January 3, 2008 3:20 PM
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This rather stunning green wall building in Seoul, South Korea, has been making the rounds of the sustainability blogs today; it houses a Belgian fashion designer's shop along with a restaurant and other smaller shops. Green walls, in the form of replaceable tiles, are covered in
Pachysandra terminalis, a herbaceous perennial evergreen groundcover, and cover both the exterior as well as interior walls. Check out the Mass Studies Architects' site
for 35 images of the building and dream of the day when all buildings can look like this one.
January 2, 2008 3:34 PM
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Mark this up to the popularity of sustainability; the tornado-damaged town of
Greensburg, Kansas, has announced last month that the City Council has adopted a resolution that all city buildings greater than 4,000 square feet must be certified
LEED Platinum. These buildings will also be required to reduce energy use by 42 percent over current building code requirements.
From the press release:
"Following the Council's historic vote, City Administrator Steve Hewitt said, "I am so excited about being the first city in the U.S. to adopt this system for a town. I am ecstatic about this commitment and what it is telling the world about our town's character and where we are headed." Mayor John Janssen said, "This is just another important step in our recovery and our intentions to come back as one of the greenest towns in America.""
Greensburg is the first city in the country to pass such a resolution.
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