News Flash! Click here for news about California's new green building code.
It's only in the last 100 years, since the onset of the industrial revolution, that economic growth and development has been driven primarily by the extraction and development of nonrenewable resources. When the U.S. Department of Energy commissioned a group of architects to design
buildings that could function on reduced energy loads during the energy crisis of the late 1970s, the
energy-efficient proposals demonstrated potential for a 50-80 percent reduction. But valuable inroads, including
those earth-sheltered and energy-efficient designs of Malcolm Wells and passive-solar designs of David Wright,
among others, fell into shadow with the lifting of the oil embargo, and as government incentives came to an end
in the mid-1980s. |
