Quality crafstsmanship vs “green” gimmickry
OK… I am thoroughly convinced that humanity has lost their minds…
So its the year 2008. The world is warming up, the planet is in extreme peril, and everybody wants to do their part.
So the kitchen and bath industry is coming up with ‘green’ designs like… a shower head with LED lights in it?? How is that supposed to be considered green? Why does a shower head need lights in the first place?
We as a culture have become so used to the disposability of objects that even a potentially positive idea like “green design” comes to mean gimmicks and cheap gadgets, rather than quality worksmanship and permanence. I remember my grandmother’s stove (note I said “stove”, not “stoves”). She had the same one for my entire life. It was a gas range, enamelled off-white, and she used it like most people use their cars: everyday, for hours on end. She baked, broiled, seared, and in general supplied lots of home-cooked southern food to a fairly large family. It never needed repair; it never needed replacement… Why? Because it was designed well, built well and treated with the respect one automatically gives to something they know was created by craftsmen…
Just recently we went to install a range hood for a special client in South Carolina. I loved the look on the faces of the carpenters and masons on the jobsite when they saw the range hood, all were amazed. And i was as well… the stone work was great, the moldings in this house were gorgeous, just about everything there was done right. It is strange the kudos one receives from other people that actually do quality craftsmenship. I guess it comes down to actually knowing what it takes to do something and do it well, and I like that.
So back to “green”, if we as a culture can stop demanding that things be cheap, or easily affordable, and actually ask and demand that some thing be made well, designed well, I don’t think I would have to wait in line at the local landfill.
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July 28th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Wow, beautiful hood. And the house looks gorgeous. Whose idea was the octagon tray ceiling?
August 8th, 2008 at 8:49 am
The design came from Panageries, a design firm in Greenville, SC. The ceiling was pressed, painted, and installed by our sister company, Valley Tin Works.
The house was well executed all around. Neal Prince Architects deserves a lot of credit. The only regret we had is that we didn’t have a chance to work on the copper domes; we could have done something really exciting with those concepts.