I came across and article on the Telegraph. At first I was bothered that some snooty Englishman that lives in a castle far removed from the likes of me would make a comment about architects making buildings green. To put some perspective on this, about 20 years ago, he vehemently opposed the Sainsbury Wing extension at the National Gallery in London and described it as a “monstrous carbuncle”. Now I don’t know what a “carbuncle” is being on this side of the Atlantic, but I would say that it doesn’t sound positive.

As I said, one of the reasons to disregard him as just blowing a bunch of carbon monoxide in my face is that his lifestyle seems so contradictory to what he “preaches”. We think we have mcmansions here in the States? He and his family were the progenitors of the idea of royal opulent living as we know it today. It could be argued that the Royal family is one of the most non-green, inefficient, and wasteful on the planet. And looking at the neighborhood he built in Poundbury in what is called a traditional new urbanist neighborhood, its almost as if he wants to go back to the middle ages with all of us serfs looking up to his castle.

However, as I continued to read and look at his life’s work, he is an environmentalist. He does care about the history of his city and country. We in the United States don’t really have that. The oldest buildings here are 100 maybe 150 years old. There are building there that have been standing for over 500 years, and in my visit to England and more specifically London, that is part of the beauty of the city.

“Why, I must ask, does being ‘green’ mean building with glass and steel and concrete and then adding wind turbines, solar panels, water heaters, glass atria – all the paraphernalia of a new “green building industry” – to offset buildings that are inefficient in the first place?

He is right…to a certain degree. There is a need to build upwards. There would be an enormous cost to buy 30 blocks in the city to build a building that would hold as much workspace as a scyscraper. However, the skyscraper might not need to be built out of glass.

Perhaps the true solution is somewhere in the middle, although admittedly I don’t exactly know where that is.

via telegraph, treehugger

Tags: Prince Charles

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