Our United States of America, and the Los Angeles region in particular, is subject to some of the most sophisticated marketing the world has ever seen, whether it comes in the form of targeted banner ads on the Web, electronic billboards on Pico Boulevard or public-relations campaigns to drum up coverage for political candidates and up-and-coming actors. Green architecture has not been immune from these forces. A little more than five years ago, when I sat down with a colleague, Alanna Stang, to begin work on a book on sustainable residential architecture around the world, green design needed all the attention it could get. It was a movement beginning to gain serious momentum, but at the same time we found that it was necessary, every time we mentioned the field in a magazine piece or an interview about the book, to define what green architecture was and what it might hope to accomplish. The public, generally, was just getting to know and understand the term.
Nature might love a vacuum, but marketeers love one even more. Within a couple of years, the green-architecture movement had been -- well, if not hijacked, exactly, then at least dramatically overtaken by the forces of slickness and promotion. All of a sudden real-estate developers were labeling utterly conventional projects "eco-friendly" and peppering their brochures and Web sites with soothing pictures of redwood forests and clear, rushing streams. Even more dismaying, special eco-friendly model houses, designed as showcases for the latest in sustainable architecture, were going on the market in places like Venice, Santa Monica and Brentwood for prices in the $5 million range.
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