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australia
- edf
foundation - an australian non-profit environmental group
with an interest in the built environment -newsletters and articles
on site.
-
Final Draft of the State of Knowledge Report on Air Toxics and
Indoor Air Quality in Australia - an abstract describes the
report which is available to download as a PDF file.
- Greenhouse
- This is good. The Oz government website is a trove of
all the things that are so easy to forget during early design
(passive design that is). Fact sheets on sun angles in the different
cities, embodied energies and a hell of a lot more. Worth bookmarking.
[11/05]
- LCAid
- a lifecycle assessment tool that can import drawing files, specifically
developed for Australian climate zones.[11/05]
- light
pollution in melbourne - astrological society of victoria
- brief description of the problem - their report is available
at the site.
- urban
ecology australia - projects and articles and a few links
to other urban green sites - this one is based in Adelaide. [02/04]
- wers - the
australian window energy rating website, an initiative of window
manufacturers. Information for three different climatic situations.
[02/04]
new zealand
elsewhere
- advanced
building technology - 90 articles describing in some detail
ways to build better. Many relevant links.
- BEER
- a nonalcoholic HongKong Uni stash of lectures related to energy
efficient design. The "courses" subsection contains
very basic powerpoint styles presentations so check out the "lectures"
instead. [01/02]
- ecocity
magazine links to articles on green initiatives for the city,
mainly in New Zealand and the United States.
- environmental
building news - the web edition of an american newsletter
- some good articles and links available.[09/05]
- Green Roofs for Healthy Cities - a website by and for the gree roofing industry in the U.S. Its "mission is to increase the awareness of the
economic, social, and environmental benefits of green roof
infrastructure". [12/05]
- Green
Spec - This is a goodlooking and info-laden English
site that will let you know how building products rate against
one another, and gives many tips on how to improve your specs.[09/05]
- living
room - a wealth of articles concerning sustainability, suburbs,
and transport - getting a little dated content-wise.[09/05]
- O2 - a green
network run by the Netherlands Design Council.
- the
NEXT industrial revolution - an architect writing in the Atlantic
goes to the nub of the matter - what was wrong with the industrial
revolution and what can be done about it, namely eco-efficiency.
(Atlantic 1998). [08/03] The edf
foundation, an australian non-profit environmental group have
released a response to this paper. [08/03]
- u.s. green
building council - some good articles in the resources section
but fewer than there were, LEED download. Many resources at this
site will now cost you money. [01/02]
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| RECENT
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21.11.07 Hired Gunn - If you were really excited when Gunns won their pulp mill last month, you could always go and work for them. There's a 16 page downloadable environmental, economic, and social fact sheet if you start to get cold feet. No word on whether you get danger money or not. PULPMILLDESIGNTEAM.COM
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22.05.07 Eco Archi - The New York Times Magazine's glossy Sunday Supplement is devoted to "Ecotecture". Amidst articles on Shigeru Ban, and Diller Scofidio & Renfro and the mayor of Curitiba, the magazine has one billed "In near isolation in Australia, Glenn Murcutt is designing houses that reimagine the woolshed." You could think there was no one else designing here from that sentence. In the four page interview, Glenn says, "On sustainable architecture: “Most of it is bloody awful. Much of it isn’t architecture, and some of it isn’t sustainable.” [tip: NK] NY TIMES MAG 20.05.07 MURCUTT INTERVIEW 20.05.07 (some articles require free registration) 
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24.04.07 Shanghai Green - Arup's Alejandro Gutierrez is interviewed at length about their design for Dongtan, a from-scratch city in the heavily polluted outskirts of Shanghai. quote:
Arup believes good design can do something about this mess. Dongtan's master plan — hundreds of pages of maps, schematics, and data — has almost nothing to say about architectural style. Instead, it outlines the world's first green city, every block engineered in response to China's environmental crisis. It's like the source code for an urban operating system.
WIRED 24.04.07 
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04.02.07 Green by the sea - NZ has apparently been a bit slow getting its first energy efficient office building built. A model building is now in construction on Wellington's watrerfront, designed by Studio of Pacific Architecture. The low energy Meridian building is to house an energy company, oddly enough. Objectives include a) not to spend any more than they would have on a conventional building, and b) an "office environment that results in user satisfaction of + 5% Wowness factor." Don't know how well they went on the first point - a spokesperson says, "the main [extra]cost was in architects' fees to redesign conventional plans to incorporate green building elements, not in the elements themselves." GOVT3 DOMINION 11.01.07 S.P.A.
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26.08.06 The best plans... -  A model green village has proven to be more a shade of white elephant. It seems to have been designed from far away - for people who are happy living on their farm plots and show no enthusiasm for moving into a subdivision. A local: "Why would I want to pay 50,000 to 60,000 yuan, which I don't have, for this new house? The new village has no relationship to us." THE AGE 26.08.06 Mc DONOUGH PARTNERS CHINA-US CENTER FOR SUSTAINABLE DVLPT
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02.08.06 Quake Proof - Just received: "Tonight at 8pm on New Inventors (ABC TV) is a guy who invented earthquake proofing for mud brick houses in central and south america from string, wire and bamboo. He has not patented it as he wants it to be available to all." Maybe worth a look. NEW INVENTORS
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24.07.06 Daylight is good for you - "A 2005 medical study from University of Pittsburgh found that patients in sunny rooms perceived far less pain than patients in dim rooms, translating into an average 21 percent reduction in analgesic medication." One of many tidbits being used to entice commercial tenants into demanding greener office space. SF CHRONICLE 23.07.06
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14.05.06 CH2 - Melbourne City Counil's 'showcase' sustainable building is due to open in August, though they are having trouble finding a green enough cafe to go on the ground floor. And the bickering continues on whther it looks any good. THE AGE 06.05.06 CH2 website
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02.05.06 green freeze - NSW's Minister for Planning, Frank Sartor, looks set to halt the measures to increase energy efficiency in homes, citing 'serious concerns' about housing affordability. The increase would have bought new NSW homes up to around the 5 star standards of Victorian homes. SMH 02.05.06 BASIX
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07.03.03 So what's your ecological
footprint? ECOFOOT
[checked 09/05]
New
colossus at Rhodes
Re: Sydney. Large new housing development in Concord on a
site contaminated with agent orange.
(SMH 04.06.02)
[checked 09/05]
27.07.02 Dr Robert Vale and Michael Pritchard of the
Auckland School of Architecture look at the environmental
costs of fuelling people, and at the relationships between
food, housing, cities and C02. SDRC
(PDF document, take the first link on the page you arrive
at). [checked 09/05]
Urban
village builds on past and present
Re: Manchester, Terry Farrell designs green residential tower.
(Guardian UK 20.02.02)
[checked 09/05]
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