Best
Sustainable Architecture – part b
I
just cannot stop talking about Glenn Murcutt once I started. And in fact he is
really an innovator of sustainable architecture. Therefore, just keep talking
about him. Glenn restated that his architecture is nothing about style, it is
site relevant piece of enclosure that provides the best living condition
utilising the existing values on specific location. Sun light, wind, rainwater,
trees are all elements to support his works other and concrete and steel.
In
his houses, the interior temperature is always around 25 degree no matter it is
42 degree outside without a need of air conditioning. And the whole house can
be opened at night time without a fear of dramatic temperature drop as the
thermal capacity of materials has done the heating work for us. This cannot be
done by just combining discrete elements in a building; it is achieved by a
careful study and combination of site condition such as sun orientation and
cool wind direction. This makes the houses from Glenn more of functionality and
less vivid compared to other Pritzker Prize winners. The style is not much
complicated and the value that such architecture conveys is effective. When we,
as a architecture student, studies his building or taught by him, we will know
and understand his way of thinking and convey them to next generations.
When
I was camping with Glenn in last year to the South West Rocks, the thing I learnt
from him is more than what I read from books or from the internet. He
understand the tidal change totally through the colours of oyster shell, read
the prevailing wind through the grass declining direction, the tree types and
the significance of the local ecosystem. This is mainly because his childhood.
Before four, he lived in a natural place that does not have any people within 15km.
This raise his ability to harness and care about the environment. Therefore,
protecting our green space is important to breed another “Glenn Murcutt”.
References:
Glenn
Murcutt
