Recycling Architecture: Biennale Exhibit Argues for Fewer New Buildings

[sysop]

What does an environmentally friendly home look like? The German entry at the Venice Architecture Biennale challenges the common notion that the perfectly insulated passive house is the best approach to reducing energy use. Architect Muck Petzet offers a more radical idea: He argues that we should simply recycle more and build less.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...853204,00.html

[BTraven]

Owners of half-timbered houses are affected very much by a legislation which demands that all houses must meet the emission figures so insulating plates have fixed to the façade. The house looks horrible after the work. Only houses in old city centres can keep their original front. The architect is right. Too many houses are bulldozed in order to set up new buildings without character.