Living green

Young Chang

A building can be environmentally safe and still lovely, arts leaders

say.

In fact, a new exhibit at the Orange County Museum of Art makes the

point that environmental responsibility in architecture is essential not

only to how a structure saves energy, but to its aesthetic exterior.

“In many ways, this is a forward-thinking exhibition,” said museum

curator Sarah Vure. “It’s considering how we use our resources today and

how we adjust for the future.”

Called “Ten Shades of Green,” the exhibit on sustainable architecture

is filled with architect’s tables supporting different photographs and

drawing plans of environmentally-wise buildings around the world.

Cool little iMac stations let visitors learn more about each stop

online.

Nine of the featured works are business buildings in Europe and

Australia. Four are American houses. The exhibit, organized by The

Architectural League of New York and supported by Orange County’s Thomas

Blurock Architects, represents 10 themes when it comes to thinking

environmentally, or thinking “green.”

More than half of the energy in the world is used for constructing and

maintaining buildings, said museum spokesperson Brian Langston. But for

at least the last 20 years, architects and builders have made progress in

making buildings more energy efficient, more livable for tenants and,

consequently, more conductive to the sprouting of communities.

“And that’s exactly what the show is about,” Langston sad. “It’s not

just only about putting solar collectors on the roof. There are all these

other dimensions to greenness.”

Principals that are stressed in the “Ten Shades” include how buildings

need to be built from recycled or recyclable materials.

Wood is preferred over glass or steel, for example, because it

requires less energy to create with from a natural source, Vure said.

Buildings need to be as efficient as possible in using external

energy.

They should be nonpolluting

“It offers the challenge to American architects to consider these

environmental issues,” Vure said. “These concerns really are about

thinking about the future.”

Models of the Gotz Headquarters in Wurzburg, Germany show its glass

box-in-a-box style that lets air flow through its outer cavity and

atrium, bringing in a maximum amount of natural light and saving energy.

The glass design makes it appear to be floating.

The Mont-Cenis Training Center, a government training institution in

Herne-Sodingen, Germany, has a wooden inside structure surrounded by a

glass shell.

The Minnaert Building in Utrecht, The Netherlands features rooflights

that let rainwater run into a tank in the middle of the structure. That

water is then circulated around the building to counteract the heat

radiated from rooms of computers.

Other architectural models include the University of Nottingham

Jubilee Campus in Nottingham, England; the Slateford Green in Edinburgh,

Scotland; Hall 26 in Hanover, Germany; the Beyeler Foundation Museum in

Riehen, Switzerland; Cotton Tree Pilot Housing in Sunshine Coast,

Australia; the Commerzbank Headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany and four

houses from California, Arizona, Texas and Nova Scotia.

When asked how architecture fits into the program and mission of the

museum, Vure said the discipline is an art form that combines aesthetics,

engineering and design.

Langston added that the museum always strives for “creative

commentary” with its visitors.

“It’s not just paintings and sculptures,” he said. “I think, in

general, we are interested in showing architecturally oriented

exhibitions and this one struck us as a particularly relevant show...

especially right now.”

FYI

* What: “Ten Shades of Green”

* When: Through June 30. Museum hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday

through Sunday.

* Where: Orange County Museum of Art, 850 San Clemente Drive, Newport

Beach

* Cost: $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and students, and free for

members and children younger than 16

* Call: (949) 759-1122.