In the News: Green Architecture Has a Ways to Go

CasaSugar — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 06:15:17 -0700

Interested in getting the lowdown about green architecture? Then I suggest you read the Newsweek article, "The Bad News About Green Architecture." For a good while now, the reporting of green architecture practices has been nothing less than greenwashed, and I've been waiting for a mainstream publication to address our country's problem with its perception and definition of "green" architecture. In "The Bad News About Green Architecture," writer Cathleen McGuigan points out that "LEED rating" is an over-trumpeted catch phrase these days ("more than 16,000 projects are now registered with the U.S. Green Building Council as intending to go for a LEED certification"), and LEED isn't stringent enough with its awards - a long-held truth.
But more importantly, she stresses that building green if you're building big (i.e. McMansions), or unnecessarily, isn't green at all. There are various plans to build green resorts in Las Vegas, including the 8.3-million-square-foot Palazzo Resort Hotel and Casino, likely motivated by the tax rebates that come with passing LEED certification. While that makes a great talking point in local papers, it still takes "tons of jet fuel that will be used to deliver millions more tourists to Vegas each year," and countless un-green materials to keep the place up and running once it's built. To hear more of my thoughts, read more.

Truly green architecture, she says, is "designed to suit their specific environments," such as New Orleans Shotgun houses, which are "built high off the ground to resist flood damage; they are made of local wood that dries out; they have high ceilings and cross ventilation to deal with the stifling summer heat." My favorite point is that "sustainability is about the practical systems of building, not the beauty of great design." Architects need to put aside the current trendiness of green architecture and just build so that ecological solutions aren't a calling card or a feature, but rather, invisible. I whole-heartedly agree with McGuigan, as she writes:

I look forward to a future when green architecture won't be discretionary but required of every architect and builder. Then we could all shut up about it. Sustainable features would become as exciting as the plumbing systems and as essential as a roof that keeps out the rain.

Now, I'll shut up about it.
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Photographer to Watch: Brent Stirton

CasaSugar — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 11:00:27 -0700

Remember this cover? Well, it turns out the photographer who (off-the-record) shot Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's twins, resulting in one of People's highest-selling issues ever, and who also shot the first images of Shiloh Jolie-Pitt, captures more than celebrity babies. Brent Stirton is an accomplished photojournalist and a senior staff photographer for the assignment division of stock photography company Getty Images, New York. Just last week, Stirton won a highly coveted award, the 2008 Visa d'Or Award for Feature Photography, for his series on the slaughter of gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which pales in comparison to the wealth of other awards he has received. His photojournalism work is heartwrenchingly beautiful, sometimes haunting, horrifying, and perhaps NSFW. At the same time, the images are quite important to see, as he brings to light crucial topics like sustainability, the environment, HIV, and an array of devastating political issues. To hear more about Stirton, see some of his photos, and see a video where he talks about his work and his thoughts surrounding celebrity photography, read more.

Stirton's work has been published by National Geographic Magazine, National Geographic Adventure, The Discovery Channel, Newsweek, The New York Times Magazine, The London Sunday Times Magazine, Le Express, Le Monde 2, GQ, Geo, Stern, CNN. Stirton travels an average of 10 months of the year on assignment, and actually also writes a blog for the Discovery Channel which regularly features pictures and stories from his travels.

Stirton's celebrity shoots are actually done anonymously and credited only to Getty Images, and Getty Images has only credited him on the record for the 2006 Jolie-Pitt baby shoot, not the 2008 shoot. In an interview with Photo District News, when asked whether he shot the 2008 photos, Stirton dodged the bullet with a "no comment." But he alluded that the answer was yes, and went on to say that he knows Angelina from his work in Sierra Leone, and that she gave him an award for his AIDS work.

Here's a teaser, but be sure to check out Stirton's website for his extensive portfolio.

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