Green Architecture: A Guide to Sustainable Design

A Portfolio of Green Architecture in America

by Michael J. Crosbie. The American Institute of Architects Press, Washington, D.C., 1994. Hardcover, 192 pages, $39.95.

Contrary to its subtitle,

Green Architecture is more a gallery of environmentally sensitive design than a guide. This elegant, large-format book contains photos and drawings of 43 projects by fourteen architects and firms specializing in sustainable design. While most of the projects displayed have been published previously elsewhere, this collection offers a unique opportunity to view the diversity and complexity of the green design field.

A brief personal statement of design philosophy precedes the portfolio of each featured architect. While these contain many recurring themes, the diversity of background, priorities, and interests in these essays is, as Crosbie points out in his introduction, a testament to the health of sustainable design as a paradigm. A few short paragraphs of text accompany the 2 to 6 pages on each project, letting the high-quality photographs speak for themselves.

While the photos represent most of these projects well, we found ourselves wishing for more details about many of the buildings. Aside from the visual impressions, there is little information that would allow a designer to really learn from the experience embodied in these projects. There is no post-occupancy information about how well the various systems work, no evaluation of the workability or durability of the various innovative materials, not even dates that would help the reader see the progression in one firm’s work or the cross-fertilization of ideas among the architects.

Green Architecture is useful as a collection of innovative, environmentally informed projects, and it makes a beautiful coffee-table book. It offers a wealth of ideas to consider in terms of material choices and systems for conserving energy, water, and resources. If it had more nuts-and-bolts feedback on how these buildings are actually working, however, it would have been an invaluable reference, allowing readers to avoid repeating the inevitable mistakes of these inspired pioneers.