Architect William McDonough practices green architecture on a massive scale. In a 20-year project, he is redesigning Ford's city-sized River Rouge truck plant and turning it into the Rust Belt's eco-poster child, with the world's largest "living roof" for reclaiming storm runoff. He has created buildings that produce more energy and clean water than they use. He is building the future of design on the site of the future of exploration: the NASA Sustainability Base. Oh, and he's designing seven entirely new and entirely green cities in China.
Bottom-line economic benefits are another specialty of McDonough's practice. A tireless proponent of the idea that absolute sustainability and economic success can go hand-in-hand, he's designed buildings for the Gap, Nike, Frito-Lay and Ford that have lowered corporate utility bills by capturing daylight for lighting, using natural ventilation instead of AC, and heating with solar or geothermal energy. They're also simply nicer places to work, surrounded by natural landscaping that gives back to the biosphere, showcasing their innovative culture.
In 2002, McDonough co-wrote Cradle to Cradle, which proposes that designers think as much about what happens at the end of a product's life cycle as they do about its beginning. (The book itself is printed on recyclable plastic.) From this, he is developing the Cradle to Cradle community, where like-minded designers and businesspeople can grow the idea. In 2012, McDonough began collaborating with Stanford University Libraries on a “living archive” of his work and communications. He has been awarded three times by the US government, and in 2014, McDonough was appointed as Chair of the Meta-Council on the Circular Economy by the World Economic Forum.
“His utopianism is grounded in a unified philosophy that -- in demonstrable and practical ways -- is changing the design of the world.” — Time
To help those of us making resolutions this week, here is a sampling of web tools for making a difference, inspired by TEDTalks speakers: + Share Ron Eglash‘s cool math tools, for studying math via breakdancing, Latin beats and cornrow braids + Dive into Richard Baraniuk‘s Connexions, a massive repository of open-source class materials + […]
Continue readingGreen-minded architect and designer William McDonough asks what our buildings and products would look like if designers took into account “all children, all species, for all time.”
Continue readingAt TED2005, William McDonough dropped jaws with imagery from the world's largest "living roof," which he designed for the Ford Motor Company. This week, World Changing assesses the state-of-the-art in green roof technology.
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