During the week we thought of someone to interview that matched the profile we where looking for. That's when we met Jeremy.
He is an exchange student from France and he was the perfect candidate for our interview : He just arrived at UC for the semester and was a 3rd year architecture student. During the interview he was surprisingly honest and some of his answers where quite interesting.
We told him about our assignment and our research, we shared with him what we knew about green architecture and sustainability, and we started the interview :
Q: Jeremy, throughout your 3 years studies so far, are you, as an architecture student, told about sustainability in class, and did you already have to work on a "sustainable" building ?
J: Of course I've been told about sustainability in class. Nowadays, "sustainability" is truly becoming a custom, a lifestyle of some sorts. But I think this word is used too much, for no particular reason. It goes without saying that "sustainable" architecture is better for business, so now, everything is sustainable.
Personally, I didn't get to work on anything related to sustainability. I think we will start that unit at my school next year, or something. Although I know that for every building in France we have standards : A, A-, B, etc... that defines if a building is "green" or not. But when you check out the houses that are for sale, on the "house passivity" section it's always written "in progress", just saying how much non-passive the houses are back home...
Q: So you think sustainabilty is more the latest trend than an actual growing awareness about energy saving?
Well, let's say it's a little easy to talk about sustainability at the first opportunity you get.
For example, the designer Philippe Starck made this design chair that's supposedly sustainable, because it's made from all these recycled materials, but when you think about it, the chair itself will never be recyclable... And think about all the pollution and energy that was used just to create this chair. The process in building it used more energy that it actually will save once it's build. Even wood, that is apparently very sustainable, stills destroys hectares of forests... so I'm just saying the world "sustainable" lost a lost of value to my eyes, so personally, I wouldn't matter about it that much.
Q: So you are saying sustainability is not you priority when you build a design ?
No. I prefer to think about the design itself first. Of course, the sustainable argument is a plus for the marketing aspect of the object, but it would definitely not be the first thing that comes to mind.
I have to say as an architecture student, I don't feel I have any responsibility towards that stuff yet, just because I never had any assignments on the matter, It just doesn't touch me personally, that's it. Nevertheless, I understand that the teachers, or the Dean at my school will have to make an extra effort, because they have more responsibilities towards green architecture than I do, as a student.
Q : Did you know about sustainable campuses and the fact that ANU is one of the more sustainable campuses in ACT ? Is that interesting for you to know ?
Yes I suppose I would check it out for inspiration, why not, and I'm sure other American campuses are all about sustainability and growing their own food in the campus gardens, good for them I guess. But in France it's different, people don't really feel concerned or are even aware about this kind of stuff. And I must as a student walking on campus at UC, I wouldn't give a crap about sustainability because I don't feel concerned, all I need really is my water fountain to fill my bottle and a recycling bin !
Q: Last question, If you where in our shoes and you had to work on a way to make UC more sustainable, what would be the first thing you'd do ?
I would probably start writing the answers on recycled paper ! Because I think that if you don't even think "green" in the basic stuff, and in the little things of your daily life, you can't pretend to work on a "big sustainability project" because right now, you have zero credibility to my mind ! [Giggles]
The mysterious Architect, J.
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