the Original Green

   This 3-minute clip with Chuck Marohn of StrongTowns University highlights the dangers of framing everything within a Gimo Green view. Gizmo Green is the proposition that we can achieve sustainability with better equipment and better materials. Gizmo Green is a part of the solution, but only a small part.

   ~Steve Mouzon

   Sustainable architecture is possible only when we're allowed to share wisdom broadly. Unfortunately, as I discuss with Chuck Marohn of StrongTowns University, we have burdened the profession of architecture with the necessity of uniqueness. Your work is expected to be your own unique creation if you expect to get published in the architectural magazines. But if you're not allowed to use other people's good ideas, then truly sustainable practices cannot spread broadly. This is one of the most important dilemmas in architecture today.

   ~Steve Mouzon

   Chuck Marohn of StrongTowns University and I talk about the problem with experts and specialists in this sub-3-minute clip. Actually, it's not a problem that we have specialists, but when everybody becomes one, it leaves a tremendous common sense vacuum because specialists focus on narrower and narrower bands of practice, leaving the wider view unconsidered.

   ~Steve Mouzon

   Sustainability targets are nothing more than wishes if someone else sets them up for you, as Chuck Marohn of StrongTowns University and I discuss in this sub-2-minute clip. Targets only have meaning when they are my targets for me, not my targets for you.

   ~Steve Mouzon

   City growth since World War II has been almost exclusively outward, leapfrogging at breakneck speed into the countryside. But while nature limits physical growth in every creature, many other types of growth can occur… things can grow smarter, better, etc., not just bigger. Thanks to Chuck Marohn of StrongTowns University for filming these episodes!

   ~Steve Mouzon

   I tell Chuck Marohn of StrongTowns Network the story of nourishable places in this 2¼-minute clip. In a nutshell, if people can't eat there, they can't live there. Today, we can ship food in from all around the world, but that may not always be true as energy costs rise. And today, more people are celebrating the virtues of local food. 

   ~Steve Mouzon

   If you want to be a significant architect today, your work must be largely unique. Isn't that a good thing? Doesn't it spur inventiveness and creativity? Yes, but there are huge sustainability problems which I discuss here with Chuck Marohn of StrongTowns University.

   ~Steve Mouzon