Articles by Joann Gonchar, FAIA

Efforts to make life-cycle assessment (LCA) an integral part of sustainable design practices are beginning to bear fruit. Since late 2004, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has been working to incorporate the methodology into its widely used building-rating system, LEED, and has committed to producing a detailed plan for integration by November 2007. The two-year-old not-for-profit organization, Green Building Initiative (GBI), has already created a climate change calculator primarily intended for use with its own rating system, Green Globes. But the organization also plans to release a stand-alone version of the software, without charge, to other green-building organizations, trade

Image courtesy Planon Systems Cliché or not, you’ve probably doodled the solution to a design problem on a cocktail napkin. And you’ve likely wanted to take the idea back to the office, but not necessarily the napkin. The Docupen RC800, a handheld scanner, will let you do just that the next time inspiration strikes in a bar or airplane. Because users roll the 2-ounce, 9-inch-long, cordless device over the documents they wish to scan, rather than feed individual sheets through a slot, architects may find the Docupen helpful in situations in which pass-through-type portable scanners would be impractical. For example,

Last month’s declaration by a United Nations panel that global warming is “unequivocal,” and that fossil fuel use is “very likely” to blame, should intensify discussion of the already hot topic. Of course, many “green” architects and their consultants were already focused on the issue, not only in relationship to the buildings they design, but also in regard to their own business practices. Image © Atelier Ten For its New York City operations, Atelier Ten, an environmental design firm, recently completed an inventory of office activities associated with carbon emissions that spanned a 12-month period. Last month’s declaration by a