Green
Architecture:
Design for an
Energy-Conscious
Future by Brenda
and Robert Vale
(Bullfinch
Press/Little, Brown
& Co., 1991;
800/759-0190).
Hardcover, 81/2x11,
192 pages. $40.
Brenda and Robert Vale, the
British architects who designed
the largest superinsulated structure
in the United Kingdom, have
turned their expertise to the
emerging practice of "sustainable"
architecture. In Green Architecture,
the Vales peer into the future and
show us what designers and
builders must do to help the planet
and its inhabitants survive the
increasing stresses on the environment.
Drawings and photos are
plentiful, including brilliant color
shots of buildings that illustrate
points made in the text.
To help describe sustainable
architecture, the Vales use the elemental
symbolism of earth, air,
fire, and water. Buildings, they
declare, are poised among these
elements and interact with them.
The first chapter