Green with Desire

Greenest Home in Chicago

Green with Desire: Can We Live Sustainably in Our Homes explored if and how it might be possible for people to live sustainably. It’s a challenging question, since the U.S. has based society and economy on maximizing consumption and waste. Today, we are being asked to turn it all upside down. By examining the emotional and physical components of the home, Green with Desire inspired people to think about their expectations about living green.

Furnishings within a house-like framework at the center of the exhibition highlighted key ideas about sustainability. The structure provided a vantage point for exploring eight home ‘desires,’ including affordability, comfort, privacy, and convenience. Each was explored in installations that presented case studies ranging from high-rise public housing to a single-family suburban home. The exhibition featured building components, advertising materials, publications, artwork, photographs, drawings, and video.

Green with Desire was the first exhibition project to focus on the fundamental issues behind sustainable construction. At that point, exhibitions on green home design typically celebrated and marketed new products and services. Because most people will not have the opportunity to build new homes and many cannot afford to replace their windows, the goal was to encourage understanding of the relationships between expectations of home and how we live. With this understanding, and with knowledge of how home construction shapes daily life, we can begin to consider how sustainable our homes and lives might become.

Presented at Chicago Architecture Foundation, 2008.