Edward Mazria, architect, founder and CEO of Architecture 2030 was awarded this year’s Purpose Prize. His work over the past eight years, after founding Architecture 2030, has set numerous environmental goals for the building industry. It has also brought many issues of sustainable design to the forefront of conversations and policies about buildings and their construction. Watch the video for more information!
More about Edward Mazria and Architecture 2030 after the break.
The foundation for Architecture 2030 began with Mazria’s own interest in passive energy and sustainability, which were the focus of his architecture in his own practice. But in 2002, Mazria noted that according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration data, the building sector consumed about half of all energy production, and in addition, is responsible for 48% of all greenhouse gas emissions. In 2003, Mazria founded Architecture 2030 which sets guides for reducing energy consumption and opts for energy efficient methods from the materials for construction to the actual process of building. The AIA adopted his guidelines and cities were encouraged to take up the challenge to improve the efficiency of their buildings and centers.
Mazria is also well known for his book, The Passive Solar Energy Book: A Complete Guide to Passive Solar Home, Greenhouse and Building Design, published in 1979 and still regarded as the text on passive solar design. The book was published in the midst of the energy crisis, during Buckminster Fuller’s own explorations at energy conservation and passive energy sources. When the dangers of the 70s dissipated and energy prices went down, much of the building community regressed to its over-consumptive ways, but Mazria’s practice built on this foundation and in the succeeding years designed energy efficient buildings with his own guidelines in mind.
Architecture 2030 recognizes the risky behavior that the building industry has up until now been operating under and sets up reachable goals over incremental periods to promote change within the field of architecture. The strength of the guidelines is their effectiveness over a variety of scales, whether it addresses the materials, strategies of construction, the way the building functions on its own and the way it functions within the context of a city.
Source: Encore