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Is BREEAM good good?

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Quick thought struck me, probably not that original, during a shortlisting session for the upcoming Building Sustainability Awards that will be handed out later this year. Is BREEAM good rating really that good? The one I saw was rated 48%. To my simple brain that equates to a pass in an academic exam so would be a C. Would you then call that average? To introduce another analogy it's similar to when London Underground proudly declares that its tube lines are experiencing 'good' levels of service, when it really means normal. It may be a minor point but I wonder whether such a language shift would change attitudes and demands amongst the industry for better performance and delivery.

BREEAM - bashing and beyond

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More rotten vegetables have been thrown at the BREEAM rating this week. First off in a reader's rant on the BSJ website Keith Calder from Meinhart has a pop at the measurement tool as part of a wider point on the misuse of the word sustainable. And in today's Property Week the debate about how much the rating is concerned with carbon and energy is again raised. The latter article quotes Faber Maunsell director Ant Wilson: "There are a lot of developments that do remarkably well because they are in city centres on a brownfield site, but the energy consumption is atrocious."

McCloud fluffs his lines

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Should we be rethinking the inclusion of Kevin McCloud's in the Top 10 green gurus list? BD's splash on the Grand Designs frontman today leaves a rather bad taste in the mouth. While you can't deny his passion and communication skills in front of camera when it comes to housing design his attempts to transfer this into practice have so far proved less successful. McCloud's company, Happiness Architecture Beauty (Hab) has fallen out with architect Wright & Wright, delaying a planned scheme for Swindon.

Germa(i)ne eco-housing

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In her rather shrill fashion Germaine Greer puts her finger on the dilemma facing architects when it comes to the design of eco-houses in today's Guardian. Can they be brave enough to break from the shackles of new house vernacular, which she labels as "universally horrible". We Brits are "timid animals" and are "neophobic - irrationally terrified of the new" according to Greer. Architects should be braver when it comes to designing low carbon dwellings, so that the new houses "are proud to be different".

Bonkers in Battersea

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I've been a long time admirer of the glorious wreck of a building that is the Battersea Power Station. I also became fascinated by the ill-fated attempts to bring it back to some semblance of life, writing about it in Building back in 2003. Such tantalising prospects of renewable that that have been held out for the past two decades left me in two minds. The schemes would have ensured its future preservation but could threaten to soil its character - never was the latter more at risk than with the woefully misjudged plan offered late last week by Rafael Vinoly.

Sustainable education

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Should sustainability become a central plank of education? It's a question that has sparked a lively debate in the pages of Building Design in the past couple of weeks. The magazine has been running plenty of coverage in the run up to next month's Oxford Conference, which has a bold vision to reset the agenda for architectural education. A central plank of this is around the environment and four leading figures hurled some rotten tomatoes at the education establishment by claiming their courses were out of touch with the needs of practitioners - ie. designing low carbon buildings, understanding how they actually work and how the construction industry operates.

Urban oases

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I took full advantage of the onset of summer in the capital yesterday by taking part in the Open Garden Squares Weekend, one of the hundreds of festivals that now runs in the capital these days. This event works on the Open House weekend (the September event) principle of letting plebs wander around private spaces, although this turned out not to be quite the case in my experience. My wife and I decided to stay in our home patch, the East, beginning with the Cable Street Communities Gardens.

Pitt put in his place

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I see Brad Pitt's self importance knows no bounds. Not content with boring us with self importance about his acting craft he now has taken it upon himself to explore his "passion" for architecture. Announcing his desire to design a "sustainable" resort in Dubai he adds: "It will underpin not only my values for environmentally-friendly architecture, but also embrace my career in entertainment." Thankfully some Building readers, including a D Vinnels, give it to him with both barrels. Please leave our industry alone Brad.

Hemp at the Olympics?

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New images of the Olympic stadium were revealed by Building Design yesterday, which hinted at the use of hemp to cover the facility. It sparked some pretty grumpy responses from readers, berating the ODA for tokenism in putting forward a sustainable material as a feint to environmental credentials rather than a truly sustainable design in the first place. A G Pearce states - "How about this as an idea - to make it green, just don't clad it. All the hemp is doing it hiding untidy engineering and architectural engineering. If you designed the stadium well in the first place you could dispense with the cladding which will no doubt be shipped from mars using even more co2 thingy's." And a cheap, but still funny, gag from Theo Chalmers: "There goes our last hope for a drug free Olympics!"

The Green Way

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Back in 2003 when I was full-time at Building - yes those bygone print days - I got to know Mark Way pretty well. A thoroughly nice bloke he was at architect and engineer RMJM at the time as head of research. He'd dreamt up a simple yet great concept called Soft Landings, which I wrote an article on it back in 2003. As a typical hack I moved on to the next subject and have given the idea little thought in the intervening years. Until a piece I spotted in BSRIA's website came to my attention which promises to give Way's vision renewed momentum.