Deep (Green) Thoughts

Price, who teaches architecture at Catholic University, is an activist for sustainable design in the modern aesthetic. “Green design is not simply the ‘eco look’ of wood, stone (and so forth), but the more highly effective use of steel, glass, metal skins, and modern building materials that require less destruction of non-renewable resources,” he told ArchitectureDC, the magazine of the American Institute of Architects’ Washington chapter.

But as he was musing in e-mails to us this week, he called for the need to go further than just the materials:

“Where is the soul, the story telling, the charm, etc. in the new modernism, not just added décor?” he asks. “More than how many hydrocarbons might sit on the head of a pin, we ought to look at the loss of metaphor and authenticity in our industrially homogenized designs. My contention is that a dialogue around putting cultural storytelling back into modernism will by nature turn our heads to a regional sense of place. Thus, we sill clearly see climate and authentic culture as inseparable from makers in design. This will in turn open our eyes to tangible ecological responses. More so, it will stir our hearts and minds in a detached fossil fuel world back to the touch of the worldly.”

He writes on:
“Don’t confuse my query with neo traditional nostalgia; that is the kiss of death. I speak about a new modernism driven by cultural metaphor, hand in hand with local ecology … Without this course correction I fear, we are doomed to become automatons in formulaic neo-traditional buildings consuming more fuel than ever, not unlike the delusion that SUVs are a desired idea in a city.”

You can get even more of the prolific professor in his book, The Archaeology of Tomorrow. Have a great weekend.