Author(s)

T. Spiegelhalter, R. A. Architect & T. Planner

Abstract

\“Eco-architecture, eco-society…this is the gentle hell of the Roman Empire in its decline” Jean Baudrillard, America, Verso, 1988. Human life has always depended on variables such as population, resources, and environment. Today, however, we are perhaps the first generation to face the simultaneous worldwide impact of expanding populations, depletion of resources, massive military builtups for resource wars and homeland security, environmental degradation, and climate change. The causes and consequences are global and collective action is critical in driving an effective and equitable response on the scale required. All of this is common knowledge, endlessly discussed, widely published, and yet industrial and urban expansion carries on regardless. Eco-Architecture in its infrastructural context of a city’s resource use only survives because of human, material, and communication networks with their hinterlands or bioregions, by placing them into a broader geographic context. The author examines how Eco- Architecture should be measured with resource foot printing on a common metric scale, which can only be realistically applied and globally benchmarked when interrelated life cycles of systems (GEMIS, Life-Cycle-Software: Global Emission Model for Integrated Systems Version 4.5, Oeko Institute Freiburg, Germany, http://www.oeko.de/service/gemis/en/), materials, and land-use planning in this wider geophysical perspective are considered. The author investigates the differences in measuring and certifying Sustainable Architecture (or Eco-Architecture) between the U.S. and Europe against international benchmarking. Keywords: eco-architecture, sustainability, eco-systems, life-cycle-systems, benchmarking, energy performance measuring, climate change.

Keywords

eco-architecture, sustainability, eco-systems, life-cycle-systems, benchmarking, energy performance measuring, climate change