FRIDAY5 – March 1, 2019

Jason F. McLennan, CEO of McLennan Design and Founder of the Living Building Challenge shared his thoughts on the green building movement in Metal Architecture’s State of the Industry Report.  According to McLennan, 2018 was a challenging year due to wavering federal support for green building and renewable energy initiatives.  While our industry has responded by producing more efficient buildings with lower environmental footprints, McLennan says more is needed to face the enormity of the task at hand. 

He urges the industry to look beyond the need to prove unproven technologies, materials, or systems, and become better at what we do.  His program, the Living Building Challenge, is the world’s most stringent green building protocol, and it’s reaching a critical mass of projects, demonstrating what is possible in nearly every climate zone and building type.  Read more here. 

MillerClapperton is honored to have recently completed work on the United Therapeutics Unisphere, which is the largest Net Zero commercial building in the US, and we are currently working on a Living Building Challenge project, The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design (The Kendeda Building).  Upon completion, The Kendeda Building is expected to become the most environmentally advanced education and research facility in the Southeast.  Learn more about this project and our work here.
 

In the expanding field of cognitive science, there is an intense interest in what is called ‘neuroaesthetics’.  Neuroscientists are looking at our brain’s capacity to understand the world through the senses, such as the impact of art, architecture, and music on our thought process.  Some believe that aesthetic appreciation of beauty is hardwired into our brains, and not “in the eye of the beholder,” as we have long been taught.  Read about this concept and other fascinating discoveries here.