Category Archives: News

Greenwashing in Architecture

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I’ve been watching the much-talked-about Antilia building on Altamount Road come up these last few months and other than the architects, nobody seems to know what exactly is so green about it (apart from vegetation hanging over the side). Like many others, I’m convinced this is a major case of green-washing but, what I like is very much, is the debate being generated by this monstrosity.

LEED ratings and even our own home-grown GRIHA system which I wrote about earlier are always going to be open to manipulation and I would prefer to see them being used as check-lists to help architects design sustainable structures rather than as “certificates” of sustainable design. The article linked below gives, I think, a very balanced view of this issue.

Full article: Slate Magazine via: Arzan’s blog
Edit: The Slate article no longer exists — but greenwashing continues unabated!

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Download GDL Cookbook 3 [PDF]

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I could have sworn this page didn’t exist when I searched for such a download some months ago. I’d found some sites selling the book for a few bucks but now the author himself is giving it away.

“The GDL Cookbook 3 is out of print and I am unable to get Cookbook 4 out, so I am providing a free download for the PDF (no print, no edit) copy.”

It’s over 7 years old but still useful today and, hopefully, David Nicholson-Cole will be able to bring out the version 4 soon. I’m waiting to buy it.

Go to :: GDL Cookbook 3

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Hill House Font

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I’ve been looking for something like this for ages – in fact I even tried creating this font once many years ago. It wasn’t a very professional job but I used it for a while anyway.

Based on Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s typeface for the Hill House in Helensburgh, Scotland, this font has been created by the same brilliant designers who made the logos for Mozilla’s Thunderbird and Firefox. The font also has special characters for the words ‘to’, ‘at’ and ‘of’, and comes in Mac, PC and Opentype formats.

Go to :: hicksdesign

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Two Ways to Treat Urban Sewage

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Just a few days ago, a friend of mine emailed an article from the NY Times talking about Orange County in California treating their sewage and then piping it back into people’s taps. Conceptually, it’s the correct thing to do but the cost attached is much too high. Of course, this is not the first place in the world trying to do something like this:

“Namibia’s capital, Windhoek, among the most arid places in Africa, is believed to be the only place in the world that practices ‘direct potable reuse’ on a large-scale, with recycled water going directly into the tap water distribution system”

Ironically, just a couple of days later, I came across an article about a county near Atlanta, Georgia, which has enough water in their system even though the surrounding areas are facing the spectre of drought. Instead of thinking along the lines of a sewage treatment plant, they created wetlands and planted forests so that the water got treated more naturally. It cost a lot less and it sounds a far more sustainable idea.

More: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (page no longer available)
Via  : TreeHugger

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GRIHA

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After being a while in the pipeline, The Energy Research Institute – TERI – released GRIHA, (Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment) which has been developed keeping the Indian scenario in mind. GRIHA evaluates a building’s environmental performance over its life cycle and rates it based on a number of criteria. Now, the Ministry for Renewable Energy has said that they are thinking of giving incentives to green buildings in the form of tax breaks.

The Green Building Council, meanwhile, already has their own version of LEED here: LEED-India which is, apparently, more restrictive than its US counterpart. LEED has got the backing of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), which is not surprising given that their centre in Hyderabad received a Platinum award from the GBC.

Whether both rating systems survive or one will become the standard is unknown at this point and I had, so far, thought that GRIHA would be pushed aside by LEED’s marketing muscle. However, with the government stepping in with the promise of tax-breaks for GRIHA, it might just emerge the winner. If, on the other hand, the government is seen as interfering and the awarding of points is thought to be biased, it will serve nobody.

In the meanwhile, there are many who feel that neither system is holistic enough. See the article in Down To Earth magazine

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GDL Toolbox only in Hungarian

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This is was a plugin that worked as a 3D object editor within ArchiCAD 9 but was never updated for v.10 – or so we thought. In fact, the original link referred to in an older post – [[gdl toolbox – freeware]] doesn’t work any more. Just when I’ve started to learn GDL, one of the finest tools made for it is no longer usable. Unless you know Hungarian.

Go to :: http://www.eptar.hu/eptar_letoltes_toolbox.php

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Marvin Doors and Windows

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If only all manufacturers were as concerned about having their products accurately and easily inserted into CAD drawings. Marvin sets the standard by giving architects not just basic 2D drawings (dwg and dxf) but 3D symbols for ARCHICAD, Revit, SoftPlan, Chief Architect, and SketchUp!

Go to :: https://marvin.com/tools-and-documents

EDIT 2020.02.05
ARCHICAD files are now only available under the “SIGNATURE MODERN” collection. Other software seem to have a more complete set of drawings, details, and parametric parts.

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