Global House Prices

Interesting chart for those of us in the building industry. Do consider the fact of how much innovation there has been in the German high-performance building industry in a falling market over the last 10 years. The question that needs to be asked - Does a booming housing market (read bubble) support or hinder innovation?
Chart Source: IMF

GSA Pushes For Reforms to Green Bulding Certification

Finally! And I really like the quote from the GSA official, "One of the things that I tease the USGBC about is that they really need to re-brand from ‘Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design’ to ‘Leadership in Energy and Environmental Performance,’ and they are picking up on that,"

Jack Dangermond of ESRI on the future of GIS data

A great video interview by the CEO of ESRI showing the incredible potential of the web as a platform for geospatial data and democratized urban planning and design. If I could just convince more gamers to watch this and work towards applying gaming technologies to integrating geospatial and CAD data in a great user interface.

Is Modular Construction a greener way to build?

Yale and the University of Virginia released some preliminary findings and expect to release a full report later this year. Although I look forward to reading the full report I still have difficulty understanding why this hasn't been studied before? In the era of total-cost-of-ownership and environmental footprint why hasn't the environmental impact of different construction methods received more R&D dollars?

Minergie and Swiss high-performance building

The Swiss embassy in Washington DC will be hosting another green building event on September 8th focused on high-performance building and the Swiss Minergie performance standard. A quick video of last year's event is available here. Switzerland is increasingly recognized for the leadership demonstrated by making high-performance building almost standard practice. A great report from MIT can be found here comparing high-performance building in the U.S., Switzerland, and Germany. Information on ongoing research is available here. Switzerland recently become the most expensive country for construction. A new linkedin group for Minergie and high-performance building just formed - do join us!

"What's our exuse?" Seattle and Green Building

A serious discussion on green building codes and the local building community in Seattle is taking place on publicola. More good writing by Dan Bertolet of the architecture firm GGLO.

What is it with architects and prefabricated housing?

Colin Davies, author of a The Prefabricated Home and a professor or architecture at London Metropolitan University, revisits the topic of prefab and makes some very strong points about how architects continue to fail to work with builders to exploit the potential. His column is part of a series on "The Prefab Front" in the current issue of "The Magazine of the Royal Institute of British Architects" and definitely worth reviewing.