Buildings are more than concrete, steel, and brick. They reflect our values. And so it is with a new graduate-student residence hall at Yale University’s Divinity School, seeking full certification under the Living Building Challenge (LBC), a green building-rating system widely regarded as the world’s most rigorous. Gregory Sterling, Divinity School dean, decided the project should be designed to the “Living” standard more than a decade ago, after learning about the Challenge from a trustee. Reading the introductory text of the rating system, it is easy to understand how the program would resonate with a client such as a divinity school. It asks us to imagine the creation of “homes, workplaces, neighborhoods, villages, towns and cities [that are] socially just, culturally rich and ecologically restorative.” It poses such existential questions as “What if every single act of design and construction made the world a better place?” It is no surprise, then, that in the LBC program, Sterling found remarkable alignment with a philosophy known as eco-theology. It is the conviction “that we as humans are part of God’s creation and are responsible and answerable to God in how we treat it,” he explains. “Rather than masters of creation, we are stewards of it.”
Read the full article at Architectural Record (requires free log-in).
You must be logged in to post a comment.