Wines

1.  Are you able to design an ecologically inspired art of building in the Age of Ecology in your present studio?

The ability to design an ecologically inspired building in studio would likely be met with a degree of resistance.  Typically studios are focused on the formal look and feel of the project and much of the criticism we receive is based on these “time worn 20th century idioms”.  For better or worse, studios are focused on the development of our design skills and the formal presentation of our ideas, not necessarily the ecological foundations of our projects.  In some ways I guess I would say that studios are generally “ego-centric”, not “eco-centric”.

In my current studio the ecological or sustainable aspects of our projects has never came into question.  Maybe they’ll surprise us with these types of questions during our final reviews.  Regardless, I don’t necessarily think it’s a negative that studio professors do not heavily push ecological design, but instead spend their time helping us to become better designers.  With the design skills that we are taught, we then have the freedom to integrate ecological aspects into our designs in an artistic way.