Sim Van der Ryn

Sim Van der Ryn, pioneer of eco-design and sustainable architecture, founder of the Farallones Institute and the Inverness-based Ecological Design Institute, may be the dean of green -- but he's hard-pressed to say exactly when the term itself came into vogue.

Still, looking back, the Netherlands-born architect suggests that one key signpost was the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system, developed by the nonprofit U.S. Green Building Council.

Now a decade old, the LEED rating system remains a primary benchmark for sustainable building practices, used by architects, contractors, and municipal-planning departments to gauge elements such as energy efficiency.

BIG ISN'T BETTER

Van der Ryn has spent a lifetime creating his own green measurements, as California State Architect under the Jerry Brown administration and professor of architecture at the University of California at Berkeley for 30 years -- not to mention his decades of designing acclaimed homes, commercial buildings, and spiritual and religious centers. His designs in Marin range from a showcase straw-bale home in Nicasio to the guesthouse at the Green Gulch Zen Center to the Point Reyes Youth Hostel.

What he has found, drawing from his rich architectural past, is that today's green focus embraces "a lot of common-sense things people have done for a long time, such as the orientation of the house, the use of passive solar, and working the dwelling into the lifestyle and customs of the user."

Van der Ryn also notes that, while it may sometimes be difficult to ascertain if building materials in a home are truly sustainable, there are certain aspects of sustainable building that are easily understood. "For one," he says, "the primary rule is don't build big. Build smaller homes, not trophy homes. That way fewer resources are used. In Marin, consumption correlates with income."

GOOD AND GREEN

As Van der Ryn writes in his book Design for Life (Gibbs Smith, 2005), truly green design is about people. "The heart of ecological design is not efficiency or sustainability. It is the embodiment of animating spirit, the soul of the living world as embodied in each of us waiting to be reborn and expressed in what we design."

It is a philosophy that today defines Van der Ryn's passion for "restorative design," an integration of energy, food, waste, and water, and he remains focused on understanding how the people using the structure are affected by it.

Van der Ryn is attempting to put us in our rightful place. "We are hard-wired to be connected with nature, and in an industrial era that has been forgotten," he says of design that shuts out the former, adding, "I'd prefer to not call good building green or sustainable. I just call it good."

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Ecological Design Institute > www.ecodesign.org