Sustainability Synopsis:
From the first time I heard and
discovered what sustainability was I was both interested and intrigued. The
concept of this new idea was amazing because I had never thought or heard of it
before. After some research on how this new “sustainability thing” worked, I saw
that it was not a feasible solution to the built environment problem.
The biggest reason I feel that it
is not feasible to be sustainable is because it is extremely expensive. When
you start to price the materials and do research on the ways that certain
buildings should be built, you ask the question who can afford this besides
someone who is well off. After more research on sustainability, the new
question became, why or who would create something that impacts the built
environment in such a positive way so unaffordable and in a sense unattainable? After asking these questions and coming to
some of my own decisions, my mind was made up that this idea, this notion of a
sustainable world was garbage. The phrase that I use with certain things of
this nature is “it sounds good”. If this whole sustainability creation was
meant to do what it says it is meant to do then why not make it available to
the masses and make it for the masses. After
having all of these preconceived ideas on sustainability, I enrolled in Anna’s
sustainability class which saved sustainability in my eyes.
After being in her class I was able
to see sustainability from a different point of view, which was from the
pioneers and advocates of sustainable design. Granite, my complete view point
has and did not change but I was able to be somewhat apathetic to their plight.
I was able to see that it was not just a notion that sounded good but rather a
somewhat premature solution to a problem that has had over 150 – 200 years to
develop. By coming to that realization I was able to see that there would be
flaws and that there is not exact template to creating sustainable design. Hearing their reasoning and seeing their stand
point made me feel that they care about this issue and that it is possible to
accomplish. The only thing that I did not like was that there are so many
different views on how to solve one serious problem. As I said before I know
that there is not a certain template but I do believe that in order to solve
this problem in the built environment with the solution of sustainability all
of the pioneers need to come together and create one or two solutions.
In creating specific solutions to
sustainability, it does bring up an interesting thought which is, sustainability
should not exist. The reason that I say this is because we are treating
sustainability as a separate design principle when it should just be
incorporated in all aspects of design. Once the design world makes that
commitment to just incorporate certain design principals there will be no need
for the design category called sustainable design because it will be a part of design.
This is another reason why I say that sustainable design “sounds good”, because
if they were real about this issue it would be mandatory to design with
sustainable principles in mind.
In closing I have seen that there
are a lot of up sides to sustainability. As I continue to research and gain
further knowledge I do realize the advantages that can and will come from
sustainable design. There are just some
politics and implementation ideals that need to be put into place.
Anna,
Thank you for the class, it opened
my eyes to a lot.
