For the annual Sustaining Our World Lecture coming up on April 10, the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences is extremely pleased to welcome Michael Green of Michael Green Architecture for his talk, “PLANT CUT BUILD REPEAT: Natural solutions to complex problems.”

Last year, we featured architect Thomas Knittel and his exploration of biomimicry, and how design can take lessons from nature to become more efficient and sustainable. This year, we’re expanding that discussion with Green, who will talk about building tall with wood—including structures up to 30 stories high—and the importance of using local, renewable resources as an integral component of sustainable design.

The talk is open to the public and will be held on Thursday, April 10, from 6 to 7 p.m. in Kane Hall 210. Event registration is free but space is limited, so please RSVP as soon as possible to make sure we have enough available seating in Kane Hall 210!

About the Talk
In a world searching for technical solutions to the complex challenges of climate change, development, shelter shortage and social and environmental degradation, sometimes the answers are found in the gorgeous simplicity of the nature that surrounds us.

Michael Green will talk about a future of building with natural materials in ways that suit the places we increasingly choose to live. Innovative wood design is challenging the conservative building industry to move away from the traditions of the Industrial Revolution into a new era of buildings of the Climate Revolution.

About the Speaker
Green lives in North Vancouver, British Columbia, and founded Michael Green Architecture in 2012. He is a fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and has been recognized for his award-winning buildings, public art, interiors, landscapes and urban environments. He has developed a wide range of projects from international airports and skyscrapers to Vancouver’s Ronald McDonald House, North Vancouver City Hall and modest but unique retail spaces and homes. His work extends around the globe, including current projects for the Aga Khan Trust for Culture designing a sustainable community in the mountains of Central Asia.

Green is dedicated to bringing attention to several of the overwhelming challenges in architecture today. The first is climate change and how the built environment is an enormous contributor to the factors damaging the very environment designers and architects are seeking to improve. The second is the profound reality that during the next 20 years, 3 billion people, or 40 percent of the world, will need a new affordable home. Green believes in championing a shift to new ways of building that will complement the intersection of our greatest building challenges.

Photos © MGA | MICHAEL GREEN ARCHITECTURE