Architectural Record

Architectural Record has a green tab on their web page that has several great resources for designers as well as news about current projects, technologies, and events.

Future of passive design

Although 'green-washing' seems to be accelerating like wildfire there are also many designers who are taking sustainable design to new levels. Getting Aggressive About Passive Design shared a few examples that showcase how designers are approaching passive design in new ways. It is critical to rethink design and build in ways that truly confront the energy needs of the twenty first century. Passive design forces designers and scientists to understand how the built environment interacts with the surrounding environment and it also reconnects the built environment to systems of nature and science. It will be interesting, however, to see how these aggressively passive buildings preform over time. The systems presented in the article seem to be very functional but I'm not sure how those systems will weather overtime. As the buildings age will the passive aspects of the building continue to preform the way they were intended? Only time will tell but design is a process, and designers will be able to learn and advance from these cutting-edge designs.