Sustainability and Tradition

Abstract

Sustainability has come to be associated with cutting-edge technology, and in architecture, with glass, steel, solar panels, and wind turbines. Most images of proposed eco cities feature moody art direction inspired by the film “Blade Runner,” and buildings derived from the “high-tech” modernism of the two British architectural lords Richard Rogers and Norman Foster. In fact, a recent study found that 79 percent of Britons surveyed viewed sustainable housing as being associated with the term “high-tech” and over 90 percent viewed sustainable housing as “modern” rather than “old-fashioned.”