Chris van Uffelen

-Chris van Uffelen builds his case for the interaction between artistic expression and environmentally friendly technology. Do you find his historical examples and attention to materials and use convincing?

I find his examples and attention to materials and use convincing because he uses examples from Roman times, where columns are being transported all the way to Tunisia because of their significance, to more modern examples as recent as the 1990s. It makes sense that he would begin his argument by siting examples of antiquity and then relating those references to more current examples.

-Chris van Uffelen writes, since global warming has been recognized and accepted, “a change in paradigm took place in architecture, setting sustainability as a priority above style or structural function.” Do you think this has happened in the United States?

I believe this paradigm shift has been executed more in Europe because of the fact they have more limited space and limited resources. This gives them more incentive to advocate sustainability above style or structural function, yet they seem to be doing both. Here in the U.S. we have been so focused on sustainability recently that I think we have prioritized it above style and function. James Wines wishes to bring that style back to architecture by embracing sustainability through design and not just applying sustainable features to a building.

– B. Kilgore