tHE SHAPE OF GREEN
Does going green change the face of design or only its content? The Shape of Green: Aesthetics, Ecology, and Design (Island Press, 2012), the first book to study the connections between sustainability and beauty, outlines a clear set of principles to bridge the gap between standards of "good design" and "green design." There is a relationship between form and performance, image and impact, at every scale of design, from products to buildings to cities. Aesthetic attraction isn’t a superficial concern — it’s an environmental imperative.
Three principles for an aesthetics of ecology:
Conservation: shape for efficiency
Attraction: shape for pleasure
Connection: shape for place
Widely cited in other publications.
Subsequent writing on the topic:
"Why We Love Beautiful Things," New York Times, February 15, 2013
"Why Green Design Must Be Beautiful," Fast Company, May 3, 2013
"Redesigning Innovation," Huffington Post, October 3, 2014
"Toward A Science of Design," Huffington Post, November 23, 2015
“Can Architecture Come Alive?” Huffington Post, April 9, 2015
AWARDS: New York Book Show Award, Urban Design Awards Book of the Year (finalist), Amazon’s #1 bestseller for sustainable design, listed among the three dozen books "all designers should read" (BuildingGreen)
PRESS: Fast Company, Publishers Weekly, Courier-Journal, Architectural Record, Metropolis, Interior Design, Green Building & Design, Environmental Building News, Builder, Planning, AIArchitect, TreeHugger, Conservation, Choice, Believer, Foreword, Archidose, ecofabulous, others.
PRAISE:
"Lance Hosey explores the critically important but too rarely discussed dimensions of [sustainable design]—elegance, joy, and beauty." —William McDonough
"It's time someone revealed that the opposition of sustainability vs. style, ethics vs. aesthetics, is a false start." —Susan Szenasy
"A refreshing take on an old debate that fans of Malcolm Gladwell and other big thinkers will find informative and illuminating." —Publishers Weekly
"Inspirational." —Metropolis
“A sophisticated rallying cry.” —Architectural Record
"Important. Significant." —TreeHugger
"Essential." —Environmental Building News
"An inspiring, forward-thinking guide." —Yale
"A pleasure for both the mind and the eyes." —Foreword
“A valuable book with a clear yet strong argument at its core: How something looks is as important to sustainability as how it performs." —Archidose
"A beautiful book that designers will turn to time and again." —ecofabulous