BUILDING FOR LIFE: Greenest Building in the World
| Building for Life |
THE GREENEST COMMERCIAL BUILDING IN THE WORLD CLICK HERE to see the image portfolio This documentary photographic essay explores how human beings can improve buildings – our critical habitat – by seeking guidance from the natural world. There are seven billion people already on the planet. And as most will live in the world’s cities for the first time in human history, we have an urgent environmental need to construct and operate the places where we live and work in ways that are healthier and more sustainable. Nature’s systems and designs offer us inspiration and hope, if we choose to pay attention. To make this visual connection, this project documents what will be the greenest and most energy efficient commercial building in the world, alongside some of the best systems and designs found in nature. Most of us share the need to connect with the natural world, and yet much of what we have built for ourselves seems to separate us from it. Nature, over time, favors designs that are the most functional and that make the most efficient use of scarce resources. The new Bullitt Center building shares these aspirations. This six-story office building in Seattle, Washington will produce enough electricity and water to fulfill all of its own needs. It will heat and cool using highly efficient new systems. It will produce zero waste. Its materials are healthier too - free of the many toxic chemicals that are still commonly used in construction today. The building is designed to be beautiful and to encourage its tenants to develop habits that are more sustainable and ultimately more productive too. The Bullitt Foundation, a philanthropy established in 1952, has planned the building as a living laboratory with environmental goals at the highest level ever set, testing many technologies and philosophies for the first time. Its challenge is to become the first building of its size to be officially designated a “Living Building” and therefore an example for the world. The grand opening is planned for Earth Day, April 22, 2013. FotoDocument, a United Kingdom-based nonprofit dedicated to illuminating cultural, social and environmental issues through photography, is sponsoring this independent project. The work is now on exhibit in Brighton, UK, and will be part of a traveling program of educational workshops for schools, colleges and universities. CLICK HERE to see the image portfolio LINKS: FotoDocument: Exhibit and Film Pacific Northwest Magazine, The Seattle Times: Cover story, Sunday, January 27, 2013 Bullitt Center: Bullitt Foundation Contact: tom@tomreesephoto.com |
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