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Sustainability is central to all of the activities of 450 architects.
We care passionately about all spheres of environmental impact, such as
site, energy, water, materials, and health. We constantly strive to use
our knowledge about the environmental impacts of buildings to create
positive contributions to the natural world through design. We use site
design to incorporate passive solar heating, natural ventilation, and
year-round outdoor spaces in tune with local climate. We choose building
products that are recycled, re-purposed, non-toxic or low-VOC, and
have rapidly renewable content.
We know that green building is the right thing to do for the earth and
its inhabitants, and we increasingly
argue that sustainable design increases productivity and saves money.
We also aim to reduce and mitigate buildings' negative environmental
effects through our advocacy and educational outreach, helping to
create a more informed public that will share our enthusiasm for
green building.
- We're working on preliminary architectural design for
Filigreen Farm in Northern California's Anderson Valley.
Intended to become a biodynamic farm
and research facility, this long-term project has the potential to
set an exciting precedent for sustainability in mixed-use agricultural
developments.
- San Mateo County (California) hired 450 architects to support the
growth of sustainable design countywide by writing a comprehensive
Sustainable Building Guidelines and Checklist that covers all
types of construction and projects of all sizes.
The county uses the material to promote a greener mindset
and more sustainable building throughout its 21 communities.
Data gathered by the county from project checklists helps track
green building efforts countywide.
- We support the U.S. Green Building Council and its
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED™) standards.
This voluntary national standards program recognizes the
development of high-performance, sustainable buildings,
and we have a LEED-accredited designer, Raphael Sperry, on
staff who assists on projects that seek LEED certification.
- The Green Schoolyards Alliance recently toured the Argonne
Child Development Center. We support the alliance's goals to
replace schoolyard asphalt with a schoolyard greenbelt—not
yards of grass in the literal sense, but inviting, attractive
landscaping that illustrates pride of place and an awareness of
the tie between environment and health.
- We participate in the American Solar Energy Society's
annual national tour of solar homes. Twice in years past, the tour
began at our award-winning Argonne Child Development Center with an
examination of its solar installation and other green building
components.
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The 450 studio is involved in organizations that research, support,
and advocate for a wide range of earth- and family-friendly activities:
VOC stands for "volatile organic compounds," which includes
many known and suspected sources of environmental health problems such
as formaldehyde, nitrogen oxides, and more complex chemicals frequently
released by paints and adhesives.
"Biodynamics is a science of life-forces, a recognition of the
basic principles at work in nature, and an approach to agriculture which
takes these principles into account to bring about balance and
healing." - Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association
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