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www.thedesignermagazine.com
Stacey Sheppard finds out how one man inspired a
whole community to rethink the social, environmental
and economic benefits of sustainable design
SuStainability
is about much
more than just
‘green’ building and this is something that so many people either
seem to forget or are simply unaware of. indeed a large part of
sustainability does involve concerns for the environment, but true
sustainability also takes economic and social aspects into account.
the planet, the people and the profit are the three key aspects of any
sustainable build and trying to get the balance right is the hardest
part.
american architect James Meyer approached one of his latest
projects in such a way that he was successfully able to focus on all
three elements of sustainability in order to achieve a project that was
seen to be ground-breaking in his home town of Manhatten beach,
California.
Meyer is the founder of leanarch inc, a boutique design/build
firm located in downtown los angeles. leanarch was set up in
2001 and offers clients the option of both architectural design and
construction services and focuses on green building and sustainable
design concepts.
Having grown up on the West Coast, Meyer ventured across
country to new york for his last year of schooling and ended
up working there for a few years before moving to the City of
Manhatten beach. He bought a small 1923 beach bungalow and
noticed that there was quite a bit of building work taking place.
“When i started the practice i wanted to be involved as there were a
lot of single family residential projects taking place. but one thing
i noticed was that Manhatten beach wasn’t really known for its
cutting-edge design like Santa Monica or Venice. it was still in its
infancy in terms of the level of design and people’s understanding of
architecture.”
Meyer was getting increasingly frustrated with the rapid
development that was occurring in his hometown. “there seemed
to me to be a lot of homes being built by speculative building
contractors who didn’t really care about the things i felt were
important such as sustainable building concepts and passive building
techniques,” says Meyer.
“People were also shoehorning incredibly large homes onto these
small lots with total disregard for the properties around them and
open space in general.”
this is how the Kuhlhaus Development Company (KDC) came
into existence. Meyer had envisioned the idea of a development
company that would focus on creating a new prototype of housing
for the area by promoting sustainable and eco-friendly strategies. “i
was also speaking out at the time at a couple of local community
groups where i was expressing my frustration regarding a few public
projects. i felt that the City of Manhatten beach wasn’t doing
enough to promote green building in the public realm,” explains
Meyer.
in order to lead by example Meyer decided to set up KDC. He
could bring his design and construction expertise to the table, but
Kuhlhaus pdm.indd 26 3/7/09 11:49:46
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