‘This is a wonderful book that should be on the desk of every architect and planner. It shows how

Data-driven indicators to implementing change
: Overvaluing factors that we have data for
can come at the expense of mapping systems dynamics to find better means of meeting needs
or new ‘leverage points’ for positive ripple effects throughout the system.
• 
An individual project to a contextual perspective
: The focus on the efficiency of individual
buildings and their components can be at the expense of rethinking buildings in relation to 
their context to improve social, structural and ecological deficiencies of the urban area.
• 
Fossil fuel reduction to a shift to solar resources
: The emphasis on energy reduction
(through efficient use of fossil fuels) distracts attention from means to convert to healthier
sources
of energy and tends to lead to ‘under-design’ of passive solar systems.
• 
Reducing space to value adding space
: Pseudo-efficiency and cost reduction through zoning
and minimizing spaces in buildings can come at the expense of optimizing spatial resources
by simultaneously accommodating human activity and viable ecosystems.
• 
Reductionist accounting to design reporting
: Reductionist analysis can lead to tradeoffs
between positive and negative factors at the expense of holistic design processes that explore
wider options with the aim of increasing social, natural and economic capital.
Analytical processes to help front-load design are further developed in subsequent chapters. We will 
next look at design methods that would assist in visualizing total environmental flows, as opposed 
to just quantifying inputs and outputs. 

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6 
Design 
Methods 
 
From eco-effi
cient 
to eco-productive 
buildings
We have discussed how greening the built environmental can provide many opportunities for triple 
bottom line and sustainability gains at no additional cost. Nonetheless, the construction industry is 
widely recognized as trailing behind most other sectors in green initiatives and outcomes.
1
Over the 
years, studies by government, academic, community and industry groups have identified technical and 
institutional barriers to the uptake of eco-logical design principles and practices in both renovations 
and new buildings [Box 7]. A host of new institutional arrangements and incentives have been put 
forward to address some of these impediments, such as performance contracting, green procurement, 
partnering, building rating tools, reduced mortgages for green buildings, and so on. However, 
greening the built environment will require more than attention to production and consumption 
drivers in the building supply chain. And a new architecture will require new design methods.
There have been many green demonstration projects that show how improvements can be made 
within the ambit of traditional, tried and tested, passive solar design. Many of these, however, just 
graft passive solar design techniques onto the basic house template. The rationale is that people 
supposedly prefer what is already on the market. In a few cases, some have tried to go further 
and integrate sustainable principles into the fabric of the development.
2
For example, the Village 
Homes development in Davis, California, has received much attention over the past 40 years as a 
demonstration of integrated passive solar housing, water sensitive landscaping and environmental 
amenity. Yet the example was not followed in the suburbs that sprung up around it. Today, the 
property values in Village Homes are significantly higher than the ‘houses on steroids’ in the adjacent 
suburbs. Such passive solar homes do not cost more to build. They are in high demand because they 
provide a high quality of life and status.
3
Given the available technical and institutional solutions, a major barrier to sustainable design would 
appear to be the lack of design capacity. Although passive solar design concepts and improved design 
processes have been around for a long time, they have not been adopted by the majority of designers 
or developers. Of course, most buildings are not designed by architects – it is generally accepted 

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98
Positive Development
that only around 5 per cent are designed by architects. ‘Green’ designers cannot be expected to drive 
change through the design fields and construction industry on their own. They still have only a niche 
market at present and it is hard enough for them to get ‘light green’ designs appreciated. Further, there 
is a countervailing force to more capacity building in environmentally sensitive design: the growing 
number of mass-produced project homes and factory-produced prefabricated structures.
4
The over-
riding objective in the design of these has not been sustainability; rather, it is the minimization of 
price and installation time. Nonetheless, whether one-off custom design, robotically constructed 
buildings, ‘Dot Com’ and modular homes, or even urban villages, examples of even light green design 
are still rare.