Rising to the Challenge

 
Source: living-future.org

Source: living-future.org

 
Rising to the Challenge

by SweisKloss
November 12, 2020
“What if a single act of design and construction made the world a better place?” This is the first sentence you read when you go to the International Living Future Institute’s (ILFI) site page about the Living Building Challenge (LBC). How could a line like that not resonate with us or with others in the field of design, architecture, and construction?

The ILFI is a nonprofit organization striving to build a restorative world and runs the Living Building Challenge, the most rigorous certification and standard for green buildings—the goal being regenerative architecture. Or simply put, creating buildings that give more than they take. Living buildings adapts to the environment, uses fewer resources, reverses damage, and has no negative impact on those who live or work in them.

The LBC’s theory is that the building and construction industries are the gateway to how people interpret their surroundings and built environments. Therefore, architects, designers, engineers, planners, and builders should reconfigure towns and cities to become more harmonious with the environment. The challenge is placed on them to be ecologically minded on a large scale and to follow through with building in way that is net positive, yielding a better world for all of us.

The LBC is organized into seven performance areas, or what they call “petals.” They are as follows:
  1. Place – Restoring a healthy interrelationship with nature.
  2. Water – Creating developments that operate within the water balance of a given place and climate.
  3. Energy – Relying only on current solar income.
  4. Health and Happiness – Creating environments that optimize physical and psychological health and well being.
  5. Materials – Endorsing products that are safe for all species through time.
  6. Equity – Supporting a just and equitable world.
  7. Beauty – Celebrating design that uplifts the human spirit.

There are over a 100 projects that have been certified through the Living Building Challenge and more on track in the coming years. It is incredible to see what these offices, residences, schools, nature centers, and other organizations did to be certified. The certifications are a stunning feat in determination, and many of the projects—some in California—are architectural gems worthy of your perusal.

To learn more about the Living Building Challenge as well as ILFI’s other certifications, go to www.living-future.org
 
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