Greenbuild 09.  I was having a good time volunteering and attending at this year’s GreenBuild, held at Downtown Phoenix’s Convention Center. Until, that is, I sat in on a panel of Berkeley affiliates talking on the importance of Culture in Sustainable design for Native American communities. The panel was compelling and gripping and  expressed their views in an honest and truly Berkeley-like fashion… holistically, interdisciplinary, and os-so comprehensively. Attending the panel was like attending Ananya Roy’s City Planning (“Global Poverty”) course all over again–that is, the panel focused on practical local issues, rather than grossly overestimated and impractical ideas of the future. The panel was real, wholesome, and most of all pointed out the flaws of an organization like Greenbuild. Though I am thankful for the conference’s good intentions and positive forward-thinking; the organization also largely highlights the commercial side of Greenbuilding. 10 low flow toilet companies; 15 greenroofing consultants/engineers; 5 different wastewater storage facilities; 8 separate recycled wood floor companies. Anything and everything green under the sun was showcased, exploiting the economically green side of the convention. Sustainability is how sustainability is measured. The conference catered to every type of self-appointed green aficionado.

Back to the Panel. While there is no one definition of sustainability, this seminar focused mainly on the binary of culture and sustainable design. Roughly translated and summarized, co-design is a robust integration between cultural values and a design plan that will endure for ages. Many times, planners seperate cultural values from facts; however, human-design is a true binary of what is important to the culture and the structure that can support those said values. For example, the Pinoleville Pimo Nation believes that evil spirits resides in the corners of structures. In using sustainable co-design, Berkeley has incorporated a structure with more rounded surfaces making the house long and curved. Also, the tribe, being rich in the arts and culture of their tribal history, necesitates room for seasonal pieces, therefore the floorplan of the proposed housing structure had circular storage units intertwined into the flooring plan. A simple plan made from a simple concept: create a definition of sustainability that factors in all considered parties.

Ryan Shelby of UC Berkeley was the major contributor to the discussion. At 25, Shelby possess the ebullience of a young scholar, and though at the age of 25 he is considered as such, he has the breadth and composure of someone 30 years his senior. The passion and conviction behind his words was enough to place my confidence back into Greenbuild for exposing minds like Shelby. Thank you. I have never been so proud of Berkeley since graduation.