Basic Green Building Design: Reconnecting Sustainability to the Vernacular

Given cultural differences in lifestyles and building usage, Western techniques for measuring sustainability are ill fitted to the Chinese context. Instead of relying on international certification systems like LEED, China needs a homegrown solution to improve its green building credentials. The Integrated Architecture Studio at Nanjing University has established such a methodology, combining sustainable design with spatial and tectonic pursuits to achieve integrated architectural quality. Xiao Fu, the studio's leader, and his colleague and research collaborator Wei You, explain its motivations and illustrate some of its outcomes.