Article: "Stewards of the earth" by Margaret Maile Petty in Architectural lighting; Jun 2007,21;4, ABI/INFORM Trade & Industry pg. 28.
This is a war, not ‘a’, this is ‘the’ war. The war is to keep loving, the war is to keep laughing, the war is to keep dreaming, the war to keep helping, the war is to keep living, the war is to keep surviving, the war is to keep existing on earth.
Our past sins, our past thoughts, our past hates, our past greed, our past deeds, our past crimes, our past luxury, our past unjust development has put our ‘home’, our earth into this dying state. Our home is burning, its lung is suffocating, it is going into hyperthermia, then into hypothermia and then into death.
No more time can be wasted, no more doubt can be made, no more logic-game can be put, and no more blame-game can be played. It is time. It is time to work, it is time to fight, it is time to win the war, it is time to save the earth and it is time to think and do things sustainably.
‘The devastating Repercussions of the Global warming Crisis’ are inevitable and so we are rethinking our every approach to life from every possible angle to reverse the wheel and bring back the healthy Earth. As an architect, what can we do? The renovated and expanded Sidwell Friends Middle School in Washington, D.C. the first LEED Platinum-rated K-12 school in the world can definitely guide us.
Sidwell Friends School is a Quaker co-educational institute and their principle of stewardship to Earth has brought the opportunity for KTA not only to design a sustainable building to the max but also to create a living educational building by revealing its green systems. The building teaches the student by its presence. Photovoltaic panels, Green roof, Ventilation (Solar chimney), reclaimed materials, Natural light and the wetland to recycle waste water are the sustainable green systems that helped the Sidwell Friends Middle school achieve its status as the guiding star for the Sustainable building.
All our little efforts and little effects together, can and will bring back our beloved earth from its death bed.