Sustainable Preservation

Sustainable Preservation takes a nuanced look at the hundreds of choices that adaptive reuse requires architects to make—from ingenious ways to redeploy existing structural elements to time-honored techniques for natural ventilation to creation of wetlands that restore a site's natural biological functions. In addition, Sustainable Preservation presents 50 case studies of projects—schools, houses, offices, stores, museums, and government buildings—that set new standards for holistic approaches to adaptive reuse and sustainability. The author covers design issues, from building location to lighting systems, renewable power options, stormwater handling, and building envelope protection and integrity. The book also reviews operational issues, including materials choices for low lifetime maintenance, green housekeeping, and indoor air quality.

This book brings together ecological-conservation theory and heritage-preservation theory and shows how these two realms have common purpose. Through theoretical discussion and illustrative examples, Sustainable Heritage reframes the history of multiple movements within preservation and sustainable-design strategies into cross-disciplinary themes. Through topics such as Cultural Relationships with Nature, Ecology, Biodiversity, Energy, and Resource Systems; Integrating Biodiversity into the Built Environment Rehabilitation Practice; Fixing the Shortcomings Within Community Design, Planning, and Policy; Strategies for Adapting Buildings and Structures for Rising Sea Levels; and Vehicles as a Microcosm of Approaching Built Environment Rehabilitation, the book explores contemporary ecological and heritage ethics as a strategy for improving the livability of the built environment. The authors provide a holistic critique of the challenges we face in light of climate and cultural changes occurring from the local to the global level. It synthesizes the best practices offered by separate disciplines as one cohesive way forward toward sustainable design. The authors consider strategies for increasing the physical and cultural longevity of the built environment, why these two are so closely paired, and the potential their overlap offers for sustained and meaningful inhabitation. Sustainable Heritage unites students and professionals in a wide range of disciplines with one common language and more closely aligned sets of objectives for preservation and sustainable design.

The construction and operation of buildings is responsible for 41 percent of all primary energy use and 48 percent of all carbon emissions, and the impact of the demolition and removal of an older building can greatly diminish the advantages of adding green technologies to new construction. In Building Reuse, Kathryn Rogers Merlino makes an impassioned case that truly sustainable design requires reusing and reimagining existing buildings. Additionally, Merlino calls for a more expansive view of preservation that goes beyond keeping only the most distinctive structures based on their historical and cultural significance to embrace the creative reuse of even unremarkable buildings for their environmental value. Building Reuse includes a compelling range of case studies—from a private home to an eighteen-story office building—all located in the Pacific Northwest, a region with a long history of sustainable design and urban growth policies that have made reuse projects feasible. Reusing existing buildings can be challenging to accomplish, but changing the way we think about environmentally conscious architecture has the potential to significantly reduce energy consumption, carbon emissions, and waste.

For both the preservation professional and urban planner, this book shows how preservation is a key to the creation of livable cities. The author Eric Allison, the founder and coordinated of the graduate historic preservation program at Pratt Institute in New York City, offers tools and case studies that preservationists and planners can learn from in implementing preservation projects or plans in cities large and small. This book is a must read for anyone working in or interested in these fields and the creation and maintenance of livable cities.

This book traces the policy history of urban conservation and its relationship to the town planning process and both are set in their political context. Part One deals with the origins of conservation and its cultural background. Part Two deals with the post-war legislation and the increasing scope of conservation. Part Three deals with churches and their separate control system, and Part Four brings the story up to the present time. New issues such as sustainable conservation and the latest government policy are addressed in the conclusion. This book will aid current practice and help to inform future directions.

“Be warned! Independence Days will change the way you eat. It is not just a guide for storing food but a manual for living in a changing world.” —Kathy Harrison, author of Prepping 101 Hard times aren’t just coming, they are here already. The recent economic collapse has seen millions of North Americans move from the middle class to being poor, and from poor to hungry. At the same time, the idea of eating locally is shifting from being a fringe activity for those who can afford it to an essential element of getting by. But aside from the locavores and slow foodies, who really knows how to eat outside of the supermarket and out of season? And who knows how to eat a diet based on easily stored and home preserved foods? Independence Days tackles both the nuts and bolts of food preservation, as well as the host of broader issues tied to the creation of local diets. It includes: · How to buy in bulk and store food on the cheap · Techniques, from canning to dehydrating · Tools—what you need and what you don’t In addition, it focuses on how to live on a pantry diet year-round, how to preserve food on a community scale, and how to reduce reliance on industrial agriculture by creating vibrant local economies. Better food, plentiful food, at a lower cost and with less energy expended: Independence Days is for all who want to build a sustainable food system and keep eating—even in hard times. “[Astyk] builds a sturdy path to a full larder, a safe family, and a more secure community.” —Robin Wheeler, author of Food Security for the Faint of Heart

Designing Sustainable Residential and Commercial Interiors: Applying Concepts and Practices is a core text that teaches students and designers how to apply sustainable principles to all stages of the design process for residential and commercial interiors. An overview of the types of design projects emphasizes a three-pronged approach to sustainability: equity, economy, and ecology. Through case studies for a range of project types--including retail, healthcare, hospitality, corporate, adaptive reuse, civic and institutional, and residential--readers will learn how to use a sustainable concept as the foundation for well-designed projects. Features -Includes the latest developments in sustainable design, with a discussion of net zero buildings, design for disassembly, and material reuse in addition to what is now the commonly accepted LEED approach to buildings -Features projects with full color photos by both firms and students highlighting how to solve the design problem for each project type using a variety of sustainability approaches -Discussion questions at the end of each chapter ask students and instructors alike to explore important topics, like ethical issues, biocentrism in healthcare, changing workplace environments, social responsibility, economic issues, and life-cycle costing -An Appendix of checklists and guidelines -- including Design Checklists, Checklists for Materials, Plumbing, Lighting, Furnishings, and Building Codes, and a series of LEED Checklists Instructor's Resources -Instructor's Guide with in-class activities and outside-of-class assignments/projects, Test Bank, and Answer Key