OWNER-BUILT SUSTAINABLE SHELTER

Buying a tract house so insensitively placed on the land that extensively remodeled terrain results and using foreign materials that require large amounts of nonsustainable fuels for their manufacture and transport are signs of a people without guiding principles in their relationship to the environment.

That we have become such people and willingly pay for this disconnected life suggests the depth of our alienation and distance from a secure relationship with sustainability and environmental sensitivity.

LIVING IN THE CITY

Large cities are facing a new era of evolution. Telecommuting and new living and working concepts, coupled with spatial shrinkage, compel us to rethink how "megacity" buildings and blocks function spatially.

Urban densities of 8 to 27 million people and the trend toward live-work spaces in the center of the city necessitate seeking new approaches to public and private space.

SLEEK MODERN PAPAL CENTER

The recently dedicated Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington, D.C. is a crisp, sleek structure that restates some of the basic language of modern architecture in a fresh, new way.

Designed by the Washington office of Leo A Daly, the 100,000-square-foot (9300-square-meter) center houses artifacts from the Vatican, interactive exhibits exploring faith and culture, and an "interfaith think tank."

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