There has been a recent emphasis on design and construction as a solution to Sprawl and Global warming. There were many sites that not covered many of the issues, however their were a few websites that stood out from the rest. The Building Design & Construction website is a free online magazine. This website has a lot of good material ranging from international development, green building, and sustainable design. The website is organized well, however the advertisements clutter the website to some extent and diminish the aesthetics of the website. The Building Technologies Program is a program within the U.S. Department of Energy. The
website is government funded and the content is well organized and very useful, although, for people unfamiliar with the ‘green’ movement this site would probably be a bit complex. BuildingGreen.com is an extremely effective website. The layout is clean and the aesthetics of the website are professional. BuildingGreen.com is geared more towards professionals in the construction and development fields, and it incorporates a variety of articles and journal entries on the topic of green building. The next website I found is probably the most complete website I have seen to date. The Greener Buildings website is the most comprehensive, educational, easy to use, aesthetically pleasing site out there. This website is useful to the ‘light’ and ‘dark’ green consumer as well as real estate developers and green companies. Ecobroker is a website designed for ‘green’ businesses. The aesthetics of the website are simple. The content of the website is excellent and covers many areas/issues in the green field. The Sustainable Urban Design and Climate website is apart of the Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology. This website explains the connection between Urban Design and local and global climates. This site is very simple and to the point.There is a lot of excitement surround the new theories in the planning field: Smart Growth and New Urbanism are currently playing a big role in green development. The Congress for the New Urbanism website is decent, and the formatting could use a little work. It offers resources that are helpful and insightful as well as a comprehensive Image Bank. Smart Growth Online focuses on cultivating the ideas of Smart Growth. This website has many useful resources and has access to information pertinent to the academic and professional fields. The functionality of the website could be upgraded to make the ease of use better. The Natural Resources Defense Council’s Smart Growth website addresses many issues surrounding irresponsible growth practices. This website also delves into the new idea of Smart Growth and offers reliable information for one to enhance their knowledge in regards to Smart Growth. The Smart Communities Network provides its users with information surrounding sustainability in regards to the community. It is currently under construction and the websites aesthetics and format are listed as some of the changes they are making.
Lastly there is a whole niche of very good websites that fall under a general ‘green’ category. Global Green USA is a very appealing website geared towards the masses in order to raise awareness about the ‘green’ movement. Its content is kind of fluffy but they do address many of the issues. Green Maps gives viewers an opportunity to view a ‘green’ map of cities all over the world. The map information is a little confusing but after a few minutes of navigation the website links the user to green cities worldwide. The Healthy Building Network looks at green building through a different lens: health. This different approach produces some interesting findings, many of which deal with the same issues of sprawl and sustainable development. Geared toward more of a professional audience, this site is not your typical ‘green’ website, although very informational on health issues and insightful on problems with building in today’s world. Mother Nature News is a well developed website that brings together many sources of news and ‘how to’ articles to provide a plethora of information on living a green life style. The Green Home section has incorporated blogs, recent articles and question and answer sessions with green home experts. Planetizen brings together information, articles and ideas from a wide range of planning, design and development issues. The website is offers various forms of information from blogs to mainstream media. This website is geared towards more of a professional or educational audience. Sustainable Industries is an online magazine that covers issues from sustainable energies to green building. The format is nice and is not cluttered by too many advertisements. An upgra
de to the aesthetics would benefit this website. The Natural Step is a website geared towards ‘green’ conscious people who want to get involved in helping the environment. Unlike many green websites, the Natural Step has a mainstream aesthetic and offer well articulated solutions to problems we face as a society. Zero Emissions Research Initiative is a network of people interested in finding a solution to many of the worlds problems through new technologies and new ideas. The website is easy to navigate and very insightful to the future technologies that will effect the building world.The compilation of these websites is a wonderful start in order to continue our ongoing education in the field of 'green' development and sustainable living.
2 comments:
Enjoyed your article. Thanks.
Great job on compiling a comprehensive list of resources on an extremely interesting topic. While each addition to your linkroll covers the common theme of green building and development, many vary in terms of subject matter, effectively adding variation to your post. The sources that integrate perspectives from other fields such as business and health (Ecobroker and the Healthy Building Network) held my interest especially late in the post. They seem to be the most interesting. The way you organized your post into categories of similar websites by paragraph particularly helped the flow of the post as well. I was able to compare and contrast websites with a similar topical focus 'on the fly' as they were located near each other. I was hoping that you would compare and contrast a few of the sources more within the context of your entry.
The breakdown of the aesthetics and layout of many of the sites was good. However, I was left with some questions about your feedback and always had to click the link to find out more. Overall, thanks for such an interesting and well-rounded post. The sources supplement each other and the focus of your blog, they will serve as an excellent resource.
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